Tag: thebloggess

A new (or different) take on Friend Fridays #FF on Twitter…

So here’s my take of FriendFridays.

I don’t like the notion of referring people to follow/friend without saying why exactly I am referring them. I’m sorry but it just makes sense.

Who you follow on twitter should be based on interest, not on building reciprocal followers. That said, I am going to start pointing out people that are generally awesome, interest me, and/or I think you might benefit from following. I have a LOT of people on this list, so i am going to keep it low-key and just do a few people a week that have been pretty fun to stalk follow and read up on.

@avitablehttp://www.avitable.com/ I don’t always agree with him, but I do most of the time, which says quite a bit in itself. He has a nasty habit of writing about things you’re too timid or embarrassed to admit you feel the same way about. He makes the list because among so many online peeps that knew what a mutual friend was going through (hell). He was the only other person I know of that actually got up and did something to help.

@TheBloggesshttp://thebloggess.com Jenny has a style about her, when she posts, it’s like someone just magically showed up to kiss you square in the face with a cream pie. She. Will. Make. You. Smile. On the off chance she doesn’t make you laugh, you probably need more meds.

@GenesisMerandahttp://genesismeranda.wordpress.com I started reading her blog before I saw her in the twitterverse. She’s done a pretty decent job of documenting her own journey of self-discovery, and it’s been really interesting to follow her blog.

There. Now you all have references and can follow these people and blame me for it be confident that you made the right choice. πŸ˜‰

Have a great weekend people!

-Tony

If you’re looking to follow me, please feel free to do so, you can catch me on twitter here @tony_hunt




Tony’s Big Chili Yum Yum

So I’ve been talking up a big game regarding my chili recipe, and figured I ‘d finally getting around to sharing the Yum Yum from Tony’s Kitchen.

The first part I’ll just go over is this chili is incredibly kick ass with or without the meat, and is vegan friendly to boot (sans the meat). So no crying about your diet. The spices can be moderated easily to suit your palate and easily accommodate the whole household. As usual, this isn’t portioned for a few servings, this is portioned to feed the family and have loads for leftovers.

We’re going to go over the list of Yum-Yums (in-greed-ee-unts) now. Remember you’ll want to read the whole recipe before jumping in on this…;)

Ingredients

BIG FAT RED KIDNEY BEANS FOR CHILI!#1 BEANS
1lb Red Kidney Beans
I’ve tried black beans, and even black eyed peas, they still don’t work anywhere near as well as good ol’ Red Kidney Beans.

#2 SPICES
I tried about 20 different combinations and this one got the most kudos from my guinea pigs friends.
1.5 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp garlic
3 tbsp sea salt
3 tbsp ground multicolor pepper
3 tbsp red pepper
3 tbsp chili pepper (sometimes more)

Veggies for Chili!#3 VEGGIES!
This is where the chili really stands out. This really adds to the flavor of the chili and kills the competition.
.5 bell pepper (red)
.5 bell pepper (green)
.5 bell pepper (yellow)
4 celery sticks
3 tomatoes
3x Giant Hot jalapenos
3x large seranos
1-2x habanero (optional, will make things very hot for people not used to peppers)
1-2 cups of corn

Veggies for Chili!#4. MEAT
2lbs pork loin or ribeye (I am going to try it with Bison next!)

Prep

#1 Prep the beans by themselves first, they take the longest to get ready by far. I bring half a pot of water to a boil. Pour them in. Let the boil continue for 3 minutes. Take them off hot, let them soak warm for however many hours they decide to take πŸ˜‰

#2 & #3 About an hour before you want everything to be ready, boil water in a spare pot, for #2 & #3, chop up everything in #3, mix them all together, add boiling water to desired consistency. Let that mixture stew up…remember we want all that stuff to cook & soak hot for at least an hour.

Chopped Ribeye for Chili!#4 Pork loin really does way better for this stuff, the meat stay moist and more mean than beef, so much that ribeye is the only competition. No prep necessary except maybe dicing it all up ahead of time. I usually just dice it all up and throw it into the #2 and #3 mix about 20-30 minutes before serving.

Drain the beans and mix with the rest.

Variables

* If you are vegetarian/vegan, you have only to omit #4 and you’re golden.
* Adding a can of tomato sauce does a ton of good.
* You can skip the jalapeno and serrano by adding a can of RoTel hot, but to be honest, the pepper taste isn’t quite the same.
* Do not use canned beans!!!! (They’re Nasty!)
* 2 bell peppers are just as good as three halves mentioned above…I just love the taste they bring to the chili.

Specific People Notes:
@Jessazombie, I have not tested this with Tofu. Use at your own risk…but it does have cumin!
@andriastanley, I couldn’t get croutons to work…BUT garlic bread is surprisingly good with this!
@thebloggess, do not cook this in a red dress, but you should certainly act like it πŸ˜‰
@laurenacarlton, this is that chili your hubbie and talked about at that place that time




A couple quick lessons for new bloggers…

At first I was going to render this as some sort of fairy tale is teach a lesson about spending so much time on irrelevant things that the main character ended up missing opportunity.

But then I realized some things…

First, I am not all the great at fairy tales.
Second, I don’t think my point would come across quite clear enough…

If you start a blog to express your Love for Dolphins. Where does learning SEO come into play? Bottom line…it doesn’t. Blogging is about writing…not about WordPress…and SEO shouldn’t be your #1 concern.

As much as I love WordPress and promote it, the important part of blogging is doing just that. Bloggers by definition express themselves online – writing is all. People pushing SEO and content management and CRM down your throat are just trying to make a buck. Don’t get me wrong…once your writing is developed and you have a good 30-100 posts done and you’ve found your Mojo, maybe looking into self-promotion is opportune, but if you aren’t technically savvy, all you’re doing is wasting valuable writing time trying to do it yourself and to be honest, on the web…everything you get free is worth just that…nothing.

Even more importantly, get yourself stable on the blog you are using. I don’t mean to imply learn it from a developers standpoint, I mean learn how to use it properly. I’ll be using WordPress as an example (mainly because almost every other platform is either under-developed or over-priced).

Lesson #1 – Know where you’re going before you go there!
There are a lot of different places to land some free blog space. Blogger.com/Blogspot.com are both very popular blog areas, but they are almost secular with regard to the rest of the net, and can really be a minefield if your intent for the blog is professional in nature. Tumbler.comis sooo not a blog…its more like Twitter on crack than it is a blogging venue, although many many bloggers use it to advertise their posts.
WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two incredibly different animals. WordPress.com is a service that offers free WordPress blogs to people on the net. This version of WordPress this service uses is incredibly crippled and offers the user virtually no control or room to modify. Then there is WordPress.org, this is the actual WordPress website that offers the platform the big players use. Whats the difference? Simply put, if you become serious about your writing and/or blogging, there is a huge likelihood you will end up having to move away from WordPress.com at some point as they can get incredibly pricy for modifications to their service. That’s right, the blog only stays free as long as you don’t need any additional functionality, past that it’s a fee based service.

Lesson #2 – Find Your Red Dress! (quoting Jenny!)
Some time ago this awesome person did an incredibly inspiring article on..well…a red dress. In finding and digging on that red dress, she just gave everyone the impression she’d just finished living happily ever after in some Disney flick. It was that kind of happy! Now it’s not like I’m implying that’s my goal…as much as everyone would enjoy seeing it…busting out in a red dress isn’t my gig…but the symbolism in this was all too clear. Find your own groove. Do what makes you happy, and for Jesus-on-a-pogo stick write like you’re finding that voice every second. I have some reading suggestions I’ll put at the bottom of the article as well.

Lesson #3 – Mingle!
Check out some other people’s sites and start to reading, start looking at their site, are they a good read? Make sure and comment where you feel the urge, many bloggers consider comment activity a measure of how successful they are at reaching larger groups of people. Also by commenting on their blog, others might be drawn to read your blog (which is usually linked in said comment). Now you’re doing more than just checking out other sites…you’ve become social, and inso doing…you’ve started networking (even if it’s only a few people).

Important books you can read that will make you a WordPress Power User:
WordPress All-in-One For Dummies
This is pretty much everything you need to know. If you need something that this book doesn’t cover, chances are you need a professional to help you.

Using WordPress
This is a good starter book as well. Highly recommended.

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
This book is a must have for anyone looking to write blogs professionally. If you want to make money from your blog…read this book.

Now…there you have it. Enough quick advice and a few books to make sure you don’t completely drop the ball in creating your first blog or website.

Now for my last bit…some all-encompassing advice. There are a lot of people out there that own businesses and are real do-it-yourself types. A business website should be handled professionally, anyone can learn how to put together a rudimentary website with a few Google searches and a few more brain cells. Putting together websites that are designed to promote a business or product are a whole new animal, and while there is literature out there to help you, nothing beats experience and professional development when it comes to websites and making them successful. Advertisement and promotion can often break a bank, but only if you don’t shop around.

I offer hosted blogs for $50 a year as long as you don’t break 5gb bandwidth a month (which is a LOT…if you’re breaking that you’re already making $ from the site). Most of my competitors charge more than double that. These aren’t crippled blogs and you pretty much have your run of the site. I am just listing this as an example, because there are some really incredible deals out there.

Happy Blogging!

-Tony