Cupcakes and Cauliflower

What the . . .?

My very good friend asked me today when I was going to start posting cupcake recipes on my blog.  I love a good cupcake, but I have never actually made a cupcake myself.  I mentioned my complete inexperience with cupcake baking to my friend, and she came back quickly with "or post the recipe for the cauliflower and bacon thing."  The "cauliflower and bacon thing" is completely and utterly delicious!  But, I've never actually made that either.  I asked her if posting recipes on my blog would make her want to read it.  She told me that she reads it because she loves me.  Aaaaw!  Thank you.  How can I not appreciate that?

But the exchange got me wondering about this blog jim-jammy.  What is it all about?  Why am I doing it?  What do I want it to be? 

Clearly, the blog is about fiber -- spinning, knitting, a bit of crochet, maybe someday some dying.  But is that it?  Do I just want to blog about what yarn or knitted object I'm planning to make, working on, or completed?  Should there be posts about my family?  Work?  Yoga class?  My new favorite boots?  How cute I think my little car is?  Politics?  Current events?  My cats?  Is any of this really blog-worthy? 

This of course raises another question:  What is blog-worthy?  The answer to this question is clearly subjective. 

I love knitting blogs.  There are a bunch of them out there, so I'm probably not the only one.  But my (pretty certain) guess is that many people's response to a reference to a knitting blog would be "WTF?!  Why would anyone want to read about someone knitting stuff?"  Of course, to me that's a crazy position.  I want to know what other people are knitting.  What techniques they're using.  Where their yarns and stuff come from.  And I really want to see the pictures.  I want to "ooh" and "aah" over someone else's craft.  Truth be told, I think knitting and knitted stuff are cool.  So, is knitting stuff blog-worthy?  Yes.  Absolutely.  No question.  And fer shure.

But what about food blogs?  My friend wanted to know about my plans for Cupcakes and Cauliflower.  Because I'm a visual person, I don't think my C & C posts would be complete without some photos: flour spilled across the counter, melting baker's chocolate, cupcake tree, rendered bacon, sliced shallots, cauliflower (head, florets, raw, cooked).  There would, of course, be a recipe.  And some chatter about my personal experience making the recipe (cupcakes didn't rise, bacon had too much fat, cauliflower burned to a crisp, grated my fingers while preparing the nutmeg).  A personal review extolling the delicious-ness of my own creation (I love my own food, even when I know it's not quite 'right") would be de rigeur. 

Now, we all eat.  But we don't all cook.  For those people, the recipe would be useless.  Among those of us who do cook, there is a population that does it only out of necessity, not because they enjoy it.  I'm pretty sure they would wonder what all the hoopla was about.  Some people don't want to just read about or look at food -- It's about taste, right?  Then there are the people who eat just to keep the brain, heart, and lungs working.  I don't understand this type of person, but okay.  This eat-to-live alien might even get indignant at the mention of a food blog: "Don't you think your time would be better spent raising money to make sure starving children in Africa are getting enough rice?!"  Food-hating, guilt-loading crazies aside, food and cooking are blog-worthy.

But what about a blog about one woman's experience with plural marriage?  For some reason I find this fascinating.  Blogworthy?  Check.  I haven't skiied in quite a while, but I can understand a blog about cross-country skiing in michigan.  I'm not a shoe girl, really, but a blog about a shoes probably has a comfortable place in the interwebs world.  Now, I love, love love Scrabble.  But I would probably not spend much time at a blog devoted to Scrabble play.  I have two cats who I love very, very much.  But, Isaac and Zora don't have their own blog.  And if they did, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't read it.  But there are blogs out there about barefoot running, Legos. amd using 3D stickers on your fingernails.  There's even a blog dedicated to cupcakes! (for the record: totally blog-worthy)

Do people really read this stuff?  You betcha'.  Does that mean it's blog-worthy? 

Who knows?  And who's to say?