Go watch the video »

Today, Joy shares 10 Real-Talk Blog Tips on her blog, which should be required reading for every food blogger, beginner or pro. It includes gems such as:

I think sharing is important. You know that weird thing you do with your sock drawer? Share that! Find you voice and be vulnerable. You’ll be surprised by how many people connect to your weirdness.

Go read the rest of the post at 10 Real-Talk Blog Tips

*Update*: Meatball Joe is now available on the App Store! Check it out!

Meatball Joe for the iPad is coming this March from indie game developer Nesesita. Meatball Joe is a new take on a classic pinball game, with fast-paced gameplay that allow players to test their skills while traveling to eight gastronomically-themed world locations.

Meatball Joe must stop the evil Dr. Bruce L. Sprout, who plans to destroy all the meatballs in Spaghetti Land and replace them with his laboratory-grown minionions.To do this, Joe must collect enough points in each city to unlock more cities- until he comes face to face with Dr. Sprout and his minionions!

Features:

• Fun, pinball-style gameplay that’s easy to learn, not so easy to master!
• 8 world locations: Sourdough City, Pretzel Central, Sushi Sea, Place de la Croissant, Adobo Islands, Young Chow Main, Plaza Paella and Marinara Mountain!
• Super Secret Bonus Zones help you rack up those points!
• Beautiful HD graphics built for the iPad!
• Food-themes and signature dishes to make your mouth water!
• Original Jazzy soundtrack that will make you want to dance!

To learn more and watch the game trailer, visit Meatball Joe

Disclosure: The team behind FoodBloggers.net (that’s us) created this iPad game. Yes, we’re foodies through and through!

In the meantime, have you checked out our Tumblr microblog?

The food blogging community, while not as saturated as the tech blogging community, is growing in leaps and bounds every day. How, then, do you make your food blog stand out? Here, some quick tips to keep in mind:

Be unique.

This might seem easier said than done, but truly successful food blogs are popular because there’s something unique about them. For example:

• The Pioneer Woman Cooks is interesting because Ree has a unique viewpoint: she lives out in the middle of nowhere, homeschools her children, and shares some of the most comforting “comfort food” recipes we’ve ever seen.
• They Draw and Cook features recipes in beautiful art form (as seen above).
• The Kitchn features not only food recipes and how-tos, but tours of inspiring real-life kitchens and cool kitchen gadgets.

Be yourself.

This is, actually, the easy way to be unique- be yourself, because you are unique. There is nobody in the world exactly like you, and that’s what will make your food blog unique. A good example is the popular food blog Gluten Free Girl, who writes about delicious gluten-free dishes because she herself has celiac disease.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

The Internet is full of advice on improving your blog (this site included!) There are 101 ways to do it, from selecting and tweaking a theme or template, to gathering followers on Social Media networks… but at the end of the day, what matters most is your content. Write with passion, write from your heart, and however plain or non-flashy your food blog looks, people will come. To read.

Have fun.

You probably started a food blog because you thought it would be fun. And it should be, and it can be. Don’t ever lose sight of that: have fun.

Don’t be shy.

Your readers want to hear your opinion and adventures, whether it’s about a particularly delicious restaurant meal you recently had, which Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe has finally won you over, or how your last souffle failed horribly. Don’t be afraid to share both your successes and failures- they’re what make you human. Because ultimately, that’s why we read blogs: because of the human beings behind them.

Some cookbooks include measurement conversions, and there are charts you can download and print- but for food bloggers, sometimes the best solution is an online calculator. Here are our top 3 favorites:

Gourmet Sleuth’s Cooking Conversions

Actually 6 different calculators, including a highly-precise Cooking Conversions Tool that we have to love. Using the calculator involves a few steps, as you first search for a keyword, then select from a list of possibilities, then type in the amount you need to convert.

Traditional Oven’s Calculators

I’ll admit that, as a baker, these are the online calculators I use the most- especially their Flour and Butter calculators. Easy to use, with calculators for Sugar, Honey, Oats, and more.

The Kitchen Calculator iPhone App

Kitchen Calculator iPhone App

(warning: link will open the App Store in your iTunes)
For those of us who never go anywhere without our iPhones, iPod Touches, or iPads, this $1.99 app might just be worth every penny- especially with its support for fractions.

What do you use to calculate your measurements?

The good news is that using LinkWithin couldn’t be easier. Here’s how we did it for FoodBloggers.net, which is running on self-hosted WordPress:

After submitting your preferences and details, download the plugin, install and activate. Then go into the plugin Settings and select whether you want it shown only on Single posts (in our case, yes):

And voila. Yes, it’s that easy.

A little customization is possible- for instance, if you know how to edit your blog templates, you can select exactly where to place the LinkWithin widget with this bit of code:

<div class=”linkwithin_div”></div>

Or edit the text that appears above the widget with this:

<script>linkwithin_text=’Your custom text:’</script>

So far, I’ve been really pleased with the LinkWithin service- and have no problem recommending it highly. You can see it in action at the bottom of this post.

Do you use LinkWithin? Has it increased reader activity on your blog?

Finding inspiration for food blogging doesn’t have to be difficult- sometimes, like a Glee slushie, it hits you right in the face.

After all, who (other than the High School outcasts in Glee) doesn’t love slushies? They’re perfect on hot summer days, and if you serve them at your next backyard barbecue, your guests will love you. Really.

The best thing is that you probably already have everything you need for great slushies in your kitchen or pantry right now.

This recipe from Tyler Florence is something we’ve made for both adults and children (omitting the rum, of course, for the latter).

Mojito Slushy Recipe

Source: Tyler Florence

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup fresh lime juice, about 4 to 6 limes
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, firmly packed
2 limes, zested
1/2 cup light rum (OMIT if serving to children)
8 cups crushed ice
Mint sprigs and lime wedges, for garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, add the sugar and water. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is clear. Set aside to cool.

Put the sugar syrup, lime juice, mint leaves, lime zest, and rum (if using) into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the ice and blend until slushy. Spoon into glasses; garnish with a sprig of mint and a lime slice.

First you need a good light source.

A simple desk lamp will do. Your bulb should be a white (daylight) fluorescent one, as bright as possible. A 15 to 30 watt daylight type fluorescent bulb should give you ample illumination.

Next you need a piece of white translucent paper

Such as Vellum or Tracing paper, about 1 foot by 1 foot square up to about 2 feet by 2 feet square. You will use this to soften your light by placing it in front of your lamp about six inches away from the bulb.

Position your food on a table.

Position the lamp at the back (left, center or right) of your food with the translucent paper about six inches in front of the bulb. Make sure the lamp casts a light from the back to almost the front of your food subject.

Try to keep the center of your food in focus.

Use your auto-focus for this. If you so desire you may want to use manual focus instead. Anything outside your subject can be out of focus to give more attention to your food. With your auto-exposure try to lock-in on your subject’s center. The back may be slightly over exposed, the front darker, richer and the center perfectly exposed.

The result should be something like this…

Or like this.

Many food blogs are mostly recipe posts- and that’s why we love them. Recipes written by the cook, whether original or from another source and tweaked to perfection, are always more personal and, many times, just better.

When writing your recipes down for other, it’s always a good idea to stick to what I like to call “Recipe Writing Standards”:

Always start with the recipe Title, Number of Servings, and Serving Size

Give your recipe a good, descriptive title. For example, Salted Caramel-filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Truffle Frosting is much better than Mary’s To-Die-For Cupcakes.

Begin with a List of Ingredients

Keep these in mind when listing your ingredients:

• List ingredients in order of use.
• Use numerals. Example: 10 eggs instead of ten eggs. This goes for writing out your Method as well.
• Spell out all measurements. teaspoons instead of tsps.
• Use lowercase, unless you’re referring to proper names. Examples: bittersweet chocolate or Callebaut bittersweet chocolate.
• Include simple prep instructions after the ingredient. Examples: chicken breast, diced or cheddar cheese, grated.
• List necessary equipment. Example: 2 9-inch cake tins

Write out your Method or Process

Tips for writing out the process of your recipe:

• For oven-baked dishes, always begin with a preheating instruction. Example: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Use paragraphs. A recipe written as one long paragraph is very difficult to follow. Break up the process into steps, and use separate paragraphs for each.
• Include sizes of bowls and pans. Examples: In a large bowl… or In a medium frying pan…
• Approximate times and include visual clues and cues. Example: Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Include storage instructions and/or shelf-life details. Example: Keeps in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

Strive to Write Better Recipes

The following tips are not necessary, but are always nice:

• Include step by step photos. At the very least, include a photo of the finished product.
• After the title and serving information, write a short description or story behind the recipe.
• Include ingredient or equipment substitutions. Examples: pastry flour or all-purpose flour, 1 9-inch cake tin or 2 loaf pans
• At the end of the recipe, include tips for success and/or options for “gilding the lily”. Example: Try rolling your truffles in crushed walnuts instead of cocoa powder.

What are your recipe writing tips?

Now, much has been said about Twitter killing blogs (with reasons like “it’s easier to write/read”). And I can sort of see their point when it comes to news blogs, but food blogs? In spite of my obvious addiction to the service, I do NOT believe Twitter will kill food blogging. Here’s why:

Poor photo support.

The best food blogs are rich with photos because food blog readers like to see them. To post photos on Twitter, you need to use a third-party service such as TwitPic.

Recipes are longer than 140 characters.

Oh sure, you could post a recipe in a tweet, like say a simple ganache:

Ganache: Bring 1 cup heavy cream to boil. Pour over 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes. Mix until melted.

But the truth is that most recipes require much more than Twitter’s 140 character limit to post.

Searching through tweets is a pain.

I often find myself returning to my favorite food blogs to search for posts and recipes I remember reading in the past- sometimes a long time in the past- which is why the search function of a blog is so important to me. Because Twitter is so “real-time”, tweets even from just a few hours ago can be difficult to find.

Of course, Twitter is a great tool for those who have an existing food blog- you can use it to post real-time updates as you test recipes, try out a new restaurant, or simply alert your readers to new posts on your blog. Twitter’s usefulness can’t be denied- we have one for FoodBloggers, after all- but it won’t kill food blogs.

Do you tweet rather than food blog?

*Update!: We’ve released our very own Food Blog theme. It’s sweet and cupcakey and free! Check out the Winnie WordPress Theme.

The FoodRecipe theme has been around for a while, but it’s still one of the nicest food-related blog themes out there. A wood-grain background gives it a homey warmth, it supports widgets and gravatars, and allows you to highlight your “featured” posts as well.

Cutting Board is a little bolder, and certainly more obvious, with an extra-tall header featuring a knife, salad and- of course- chopping board. Still, it’s a nicely made theme, with a bright red background that most food photos will look good against.

Maybe I was drawn to this theme because strawberries are my favorite fruit ever. Strawberry Blend is a sleek black, white and red theme with two columns. I like how clean this theme looks- and honestly, if strawberries aren’t necessarily your thing, the header photo can be replaced with a photo of your choice quite easily.

I really like In the Kitchen because it’s girly without being overly so, with a nice choice of light colors and rounded corners for softness.

Finally, the new (released just days ago!) and free iRestaurant theme has got to be my favorite. Perfect for a restaurant, but just fine for a regular food blog, it’s got everything from an options page to ad-ready banner spaces to areas for featured videos and featured content.

Do you use a food-related theme on your blog?