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Jam Hands is focused pretty tightly on recipes but occasionally I like to move beyond my comfort zone and share a bit with you guys. I thought I would take that opportunity to do a little year in review to discuss the blog, my family, a few of my favorite things and my plans for 2015.

Happenings on the Blog:

This September marked my 10th year blogging anniversary. I also just hit 10 million views this December. Crazy! I am proud of my little blog and how far I have come.

There is a struggle that is very real when it comes to blogging. Is the time and money you put into your blog worth it? As a single mom, it is extremely important that this blog be a money generator and not a money sink. In that past, it was more of a money sink, but finally this year that has changed.

I am so grateful for that. It allows me to homeschool my kids and pay for anything they might need. That is a giant relief to me. Let me say thanks so much to everyone who visits this site! I still get really embarrassed when my family members introduce me to people and tell them I blog for a living. I'm not entirely sure why, I suppose I just feel silly and inadequate. I'm trying to be at peace with myself that even though I am a blogger, that doesn't mean that I don't work hard and put in a lot of hours for my "job."

On a fun note, my recipe for Amish Casserole made it into the top 100 recipes for the RecipeLion website for 2014. I get a ton of traffic whenever I am featured at RecipeLion and all their sister sites, so I greatly appreciate their recognition.

On a bummer of a note, I have stepped back from doing any more recipe posts at Mom Spark, which I had been a contributor to for a few years I think. I appreciate the experience that Amy gave me by having me on board with her team. As far as how this might affect you folks, it simply means that going forward all the posts on my site will have recipes attached and you wont have to visit another blog to view them, which is a good thing I think.

As far as posting frequency went, I was disappointed in myself that I didn't post many recipes during the holiday season this year. I have been in a blogging funk the past few months, or just too plain busy or stressed to pick up the camera and take pictures. I am going to try to refocus myself for 2015 to bring you more affordable, family friendly, comforting recipes.

Happenings with the Fam:

My daughter Violet, the quiet, emotional, good natured, sweet, always mindful and helpful, turned 7 this year. Her reading skills have skyrocketed this year. She lacks the confidence but she has the skill. Officially she wants to be an artist when she grows up so I've been investing in some really cool art sets to try to get her to try out different styles. I'm hoping to get her started on an instrument this year as well to see if we can find one she really takes to. She learned how to swim this fall and her instructor said she was the most improved of the class. If I had to describe her in three words they would be: thoughtful, obedient and perfectionist.

The birthday party: She chose a combination of Rainbow Dash and tea parties for her 7th birthday. It was a smaller, less stressful party so I was able to get pictures of everything.


My Son Jack, the hyper emotional, sweet, loud and affectionate boy, turned 5 this summer. J is a very different child than his sister. There are many more tantrums, meltdowns, crying fits and stubbornness. He is a much more affectionate child, but also much more frustrating in the way he challenges me. He has said a lot of funny things this year. One that he has been saying to try to get me to let him do what he wants is to threaten me that he will go to space without a helmet on. Another funny random moment was when he said to his sister, "Look, this will blow your mind!" Then followed that up with, "Look again! This will blow your second mind!" If I had to describe him in three words they would be: loud, affectionate and sensitive.

The birthday party: He chose Jake & the Neverland Pirates for his theme. This was a large party with a lot more guests, food and outside activities going on. This is one of my moments of the year where I am so mad at myself for forgetting to grab the camera as I was super stressed out trying to manage a bunch of guests, prepare the food, frost and decorate the cake at the last minute, etc.

It was after this large party that I said enough is enough to large parties for kids. We will be doing smaller celebrations from here on out. For the record, I decorated with a giant inflatable alligator, big balloons, pirate treasure chests filled with gems and gold coins. I made a brownie bottom ice cream cake that was decorated to look like ocean waves with a sandy beach (nilla wafers blitzed up in a food processor), then cute decorations on top of the cake. Then we had picnic tables outside, music, and water activities since it was so hot.

At the zoo this year where most of the animal exhibits ended up being closed. Bummer!

As my children grow I learn more about myself and more about their personalities. It isn't always a picnic raising children. There are times when they make you feel totally exasperated and upset. That is the small part. The large part is that they force you to grow and hopefully become a better, more patient person.

Favorite Books:



I challenged myself to read 24 books in 2014 and ended up over my goal, reading 32! I branched out and tried audiobooks this year. A few were duds, a few were great though. By the way I am not linking this stuff to get money from Amazon. Just sharing what I enjoyed. A few of my favorite books this year were:

Suspense:
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (I read the whole series this year.)
Cress by Marissa Meyer

Love & Relationships:
Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

Dark & Depressing:
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn 
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Awesome Audiobooks:
The Duff by Kody Keplinger
Ready Player One Ernest Cline

Favorite Shows & Music:

I don't watch a ton of television but there are a few shows I absolutely love. Here are my recommendations based on what I watched in 2014:

TV/Music:  Nashville - soap opera drama mixed with tons of incredible soundtracks. The soundtracks ,which you can pick up on Amazon, are fantastic. Just the right mix of country and pop.

TV - Hart of Dixie. I love all the outfits and I am not a woman who is obsessed with fashion. The show is syrupy sweet Southern with a good bit of silly drama mixed in.

TV - Comedy: The Goldbergs. If I need a show that actually makes me laugh out loud the entire episode, The Goldbergs are it.

TV - Drama: Game of Thrones. Oh the dragons! The drama! The gore (yuck)!


My plans for 2015:

One of my goals for 2015 for the blog is to post more frequently. I often feel like simple recipes aren't
blog worthy so I don't bother taking pictures and writing them up. This is pretty silly since as a blog reader myself I am drawn to the blogs that post easy to make, family friendly foods.

Another goal is to get more practice with my new camera and new editing program. As I write this I am waiting on my order for a new digital camera and a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I have no idea how to use this software which stresses me out a bit. I want to give my readers the best looking, true to real life photos that I can, so I will be getting a lot of practise in with the camera and the software.

For financial goals, my plan for 2015 is to save, save, save. I got a bunch of major expense items in 2014 that the family needed. Now it is time to start making a safety net for emergencies.

My personal goals for the new year are to take better care of myself, have more patience, and push myself to put more hard work into the blog.

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there! This was a long post, especially for someone like me that only does this once or twice a year. It is a lot to pack into one post. I hope you have enjoyed the recipes I've put up over the past year and I hope you continue to read into 2015 and foward.

Happy New Years! -Ali

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a reader, commenting, testing recipes and giving feedback. This blog helps allow me to stay at home with my children which is incredibly important to me.

I hope to have another great 10 years to learn more about blogging and myself. My blogging anniversary happens to fall on my daughter's birthday, so we are off having a My Little Pony tea party today. Have a wonderful weekend!  -Ali

P.S. For those that are wondering where the recipe is. The scones pictured are a Tart Cherry Scone mix by Sticky Fingers Bakery. I glazed them twice. The first glaze was a powdered sugar and milk glaze with a tiny bit of Fiori di Sicilia. Then a bit of coarse sugar sprinkled on top. Finally a pink glaze made with maraschino cherry juice, powdered sugar and milk. Turned out incredible!

Would it be surprising to hear that pretty much on a daily basis I get emails from my readers letting me know that they have found my photographs, (and whatever recipe accompanies the photo), stolen and posted somewhere else online? It is sad, but true.

I have touched on slightly similar topics on my blog when I asked if it is okay to post other food bloggers recipes at your site when the recipe had turned out bad. Be sure to check that post out and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Today, though, I am addressing a bigger issue of people stealing copyrighted photographs and posting them as if they were their own work. A lot of work goes into maintaining a food blog. Picking out the recipes, shopping, prepping, cooking, photographing and finally editing photographs and writing up a post. It is so discouraging when someone simply copy and pastes your work and posts it online, not even bothering to link back to you or to ask for permission before taking your photographs.

Do these people really have no clue that what they are doing is just down right gross? It sickens me, it really does. I have worked with some very nice people in the past who took a moment to email me and ask for permission to post my work on their websites, websites where they earn money from each hit they get, and I have been happy to work with them. People who steal, who crop out your watermark, who take your photograph and recipes and repost it to earn money off of my hard work -- that is disgusting.

There is one particular person doing this to many food bloggers as of late, and when I asked her to take my photograph down, she told me it was my own fault that she took my content. I was and still am a bit flabbergasted. Get a clue and get the hell off my blog, lady. *grin*  That is as polite as I can be to rude and nasty people. In the past I have had more patience with this sort of thing, but as of late it is just getting to be too much.

Do the right thing. Stop stealing things online and passing them off as your own, providing no courtesy link back to where you took it from. Be a good human being and stop trying to profit from other peoples hard work, work that they put their heart and sweat into. What say you blog readers?

Let's sit and chit chat for a few, shall we? I've felt the need to address the fact that over the past year to year and a half, I've been pretty antisocial and not very 'present' on my own blog.

I don't talk about personal stuff very often because it is just a little uncomfortable for me to do. I'm giving it a shot though.

Starting over is pretty stressful. Moving is stressful. So is divorce, even the best of divorces where you don't fight about things, it still takes a toll. All of those things I have been going through and dealing with the past year. My way of coping when I am upset is to shut down. I don't talk much and I kinda go into hiding. That led to my little blog feeling quite abandoned for some time.

The bright side to all of this is I finally feel like I am ready to be back. Time has passed, you move on, you adjust to your new way of life, and I am ready to move forward with mine. This has led me to think about a few things regarding this website.

• I want visitors to know that I appreciate their time and comments. I am committed to responding to as many as I possibly can. 
• I want to update more regularly.
• I want my blog to feel like a community. I want everyone to feel welcome and like they can talk to me or other visitors.
• I want to share with my readers other blogs that I think they will really love. 
• I need this blog to become a reliable source of income for me and my two children. I have two ads that I have had on my blog for a long time that don't get in the way (I hope).  I might try some new methods to earn revenue and see how it goes but I will never compromise the integrity of my blog just to get free stuff. This blog will never become overrun with 'sponsored posts.'

Pinterest! It is the wonderful time suck that many of us love to use. I was thinking this morning of how often I use their website. Let's just say, I use it a lot. Lot lot lot. Which led me to think about some ways that you can utilize their website to improve your own. Are you ready? Let's jump in.

1. Create a visual recipe index.

One way to (somewhat) quickly create a visual recipe index without having to mess with creating one hosted at your own site is to create a board on Pinterest.

How to do it: 

After you have added the Pin It code to your posts, simply click and add them all to the boards of your choice. You can do one board and pile them all in there, or create categories if you would like.

Alternatively, you can put the Pin It code into your internet browser of choice and go through your archives and pin each of your old recipes.

It takes a bit of time but it really isn't too bad compared to creating a recipe index from scratch and having to upload all the photos, set up links, and hope and pray that you don't mess up somewhere along the way and lose your work.

2. Allow your readers to easily pin your posts by filling in the info for them!

When a reader clicks your Pin It button the box will pop up with all the information already in it.

The end result! With a clickable link to your website.

How to add the Pin It Button for Web Sites:

The main page we are working with. The top half is the info we need to fill in. The bottom half is the generated code that we need to add to our website.

Taking a closer look at the important stuff. There are three boxes to fill out.

URL of the page the pin is on: Be sure to use the direct link to your post. Not to a category, or a comment section, or anything silly like that.

URL of the image to be pinned: Go to the published post and right click the image and select Copy image URL.

Once you have all the fields filled in, copy the code generated and insert it into the HTML of your post. Update and you are done!

3. Gain exposure like woah. 

Did I ever imagine that 120,000 people would pin a very basic recipe for Cheesy Garlic Sticks? Nope, but they did!

Or 59,000 pins for my trashy Mexican Dorito Casserole? No way!

4. Analyze what is popular on your site.

At a quick glance I can see what has recently been pinned. People really like my trashy casserole, what can I say.

How to do it:

Type the following URL into your browser, replacing your URL with mine. Notice that when I typed in my personal URL at the end, I left out the 'www.' part. Just put in the address without that.

5. Organize your inspiration for future posts.

How to do it:

Oh, and before I forget, be sure to follow me!  

Today I'm touching on a variety of topics dealing with food blogging, but the theme between them all is negativity.

First up, Bad recipes. They happen to the best of us. We make a recipe with the best intentions and it turns out to be a total flop. What is your next step?

• Do you redo the recipe, hoping it will be better? 


• Do you post the recipe on your blog with a negative review? Is it constructive criticism or an out right attack to the blogger?


• Does it make any difference if the recipe came from a food blogger as opposed to a food celebrity, like Paula Deen or Bobby Flay? 


• Is your first instinct to blame yourself or the recipe? 

Secondly, negative opinions. You don't like the quality or type of ingredients used in a recipe. What do you do?

• Do you take inspiration from their recipe and tweak it to fit your dietary standards?


• Do you immediately dismiss it and move on?


• Do you leave a comment informing the food blogger that they are using the wrong ingredients and as a whole their recipes stink?


• Do you get on your blog and write a long rant about how anyone who ever cooks with ------ ingredients is a terrible cook and should be ashamed of themselves?

I used a cake mix. I must be a horrible person

These are all questions I wonder about frequently while I am browsing other blogs.  I try to keep my blog as uplifting and positive as possible. Even when I tell you all the things I hate about your blog, I try to do so in a hopefully light hearted way that is meant to be helpful and not snotty.

I don't come across very many hostile and mean spirited food bloggers, but they are for sure out there. Just like hostile and mean spirited comments, I don't get a ton but I know they are out there. The most frequent style of hostility that I personally come across is people who are food elitists.

Let me clarify one thing real quick. If you are not a fan of cake mixes or canned soups, that is just fine. There are from scratch alternatives for almost everything out there that is a convenience product. I am totally A-OK with the fact that you don't like them. What I am not A-OK with is when people rant on their blogs about how lazy, stupid and horrible people are who do use them. 

The food bloggers who say (I'm paraphrasing but this is what I read) that anyone who EVER uses a cake mix is a lazy, fat, horrible cook. That using a can of cream of chicken soup is literally poisoning their children and they should have their kids taken away.  I'm not exaggerating these remarks, I have run across quite a few of them the past few years. Does this kind of hostility and negativity bother anyone else?

Run for your life! Ahhh, the horror!

I recently had a young woman who pinned one of my casserole recipes onto a Pinterest board that she had titled, "This is why you are fat." I was stunned, although I probably shouldn't have been. What is stunning to me is that someone has so much free time to be so negative and spiteful. (On Pinterest of all places, which is normally so fun and inspiring. She had literally created a board of all the things she hated. Hah!)

You and I don't eat the same? Hey, that is fine by me. I'll leave you alone, how about you leave me alone too? Keep on blog browsing and don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.  What I don't get is pinning a bunch of random food blogs on Pinterest and leaving comments of, "GROSS!" "THIS IS DISGUSTING!" and the like. How awful and mean spirited is that?

All I can think is that this is a girl who has a lot of hate in her heart and she feels the need to lash out at people on the internet. It is kind of sad, but frankly it riled me up because how snotty and judgmental her comments were. We are all young bloggers at one point, and to see something like this when you are new can be a real buzz kill.

Back to the recipes, do you take the time to write up a post, take pictures, and type up the recipe when it was a dud? Do you name names, calling out the blogger who provided the recipe? Or do you just skip posting it and move on?

I am absolutely a skip posting it and move on kind of person. I don't think most food bloggers would ever intentionally post a bad recipe. I tend to question if I really followed the recipes closely, if I misread an ingredient amount, and scrutinize if it was my mistake that a recipe turned out bad. What about you?

For some reason I will admit that I am far more lenient and forgiving to food bloggers and their recipes than I am of the celebrity cooks out there. I am more likely to post a negative review on a Food Network recipe than I am to visit a blog and leave a comment. I am not saying that is right, but it is just the way I feel. I connect with fellow food bloggers and I feel a sense of solidarity between us all. I want to uplift others, not tear them down.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topics above. Do you get negative comments on your blog from food elitists? Or do you get blamed for a dud recipe even when it is clear the cook didn't follow your recipe closely? Please share in the comments.

Also - Inspired by eRecipecards did a thoughtful review of one of my recipes and my blog as a whole today. He poked a bit of fun at me and the things I hate about blogs. Check it out. See, I can take a joke when it is a good natured jab. :)