🥳Happy New Year!🥳 I’m just popping in for a quick update about what the new year will hold for this lil blog. I also want to do a roundup of my top five favorite books from 2023 (because I read sooo many exceptional books and can’t help sharing the crème de la crème). Let’s begin!
So long, 2020! Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out! 😉
I’m SO psyched for the new year. After spending the past four years publishing two books, having two babies, and moving to a new house, 2020 was gonna be my “rest year.” Let’s all take a moment to have a hearty laugh over that one. 😂😂😂
This year, I’m committed to taking it easy. No big project plans (not right now, anyway). However, there is ONE thing I really want to make happen: the return of full menus on the blog! If you’re new around here, you may not know that I used to make a recipe every week (each Book of the Month got a 4-course meal). With all the big projects and life changes that came my way, I decided two years ago to reduce my blogging schedule to 1 recipe/month.
It was definitely the best decision at the time, but now it’s starting to feel limiting. Plus, doing a 4-month recipe series on fiction-inspired cookbooks showed me that I could definitely pull off 2 recipes/month without feeling too stressed.
So here’s my plan: a new recipe every 2 weeks, a new book every 2 months. Each book finishes with a 4-course meal just like it used to, but in 2 months instead of 1. This will give me a chance to return to the format I love while still taking it easy.
Although I have no huge project plans, I’ve got some ideas for smaller changes/additions I’d like to make to the blog. Some are ideas for non-recipe posts that might pop up intermittently when I have time; others are user tools I’d like to add, provided you guys think you’ll find them valuable. I’d love to get your input on the stuff I’m considering, so I’ve shared a survey below. Thank you in advance to everyone who chooses to participate. I love hearing your feedback!
Hello, folks! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Just checking in to do a post-Christmas update to January blog plans, then I’m off to thoroughly enjoy a relaxing cup of tea and downtime with the kids. 😊
As many of you may recall, I’ve chosen Hans Christian Andersen as my next recipe inspiration, and I’m taking a poll to determine which of his stories I should make recipes for (you can vote here—poll closes January 1st!). I’ll make recipes for whichever 3 stories get the most votes, and I’ll post 1 recipe per month in January-March. Lots of you have been voting, which is amazing! Thank you! 😀
Oh, year’s end. I can’t believe how quickly you sneaked up on me. One minute I’m hunkering down to wait out the last few weeks before my baby’s born; the next minute said baby is zooming around on all fours trying to eat all my books (RIP Eva Ibbotson omnibus). Add in writing a cookbook, and this year has been quite a whirlwind.
There are lots of ways I’ve wanted to expand, improve, and otherwise stretch my creative muscles with my blog format this year. However, I knew it was best to put them on hold until the chaos subsided. Now that things are finally starting to approach some semblance of normal, the time has come to dust off those ideas and take them for a spin! After all, the New Year is supposed to be all about new beginnings, right? So I’ve got lots of fun new blog plans—both big and small—in the works for 2018.
And today, we’re setting the very first of those ideas in motion! Y’know how I always choose the Book of the Month in advance and leave a hint on Twitter? Well, for January 2018 I wanted to do fairy tales, but there are so many great ones I had trouble choosing, especially since I wasn’t sure which ones you guys would most like to see on a menu. And then I thought, “Why not ASK them?”
Below you’ll find a poll with a list of 6 Grimm’s fairy tales. Vote for your favorite or add your own! The 4 with the most votes with be featured in my January menu. The poll will be open for all of December, and I’ll make sure to pin it to my Twitter page so you can check progress. Who knows, if we get a big turnout, voting for the January Book of the Month might become a new Alison’s Wonderland tradition!
Thanks for voting, and may the most magical tales win! 😉
NOTES:
- It is possible to vote for multiples (but no more than 3).
- If you decide to add a new fairy tale to the list, be sure it's from the Brothers Grimm (I'm planning on doing a Hans Christian Andersen menu at a later date).
- If you change your mind, don't worry! The poll is set up so you can change your vote if you want.
2017 is here, folks! Can you believe it? I seems like just yesterday I was making plans to kick off 2016. So much has changed since then! I doubled my number of blog posts, hosted my first recipe linkup, and am expecting a baby by the end of this month. So much excitement!
Every New Year, I like to share a review post detailing the most popular recipes of the previous year. This year I’ll also include a summary of the changes you can expect to see on the blog in 2017 (many of them are baby-centric changes). So in true New Year’s spirit, whip yourself up a cocktail, and let’s get started! I recommend our most recent recipe, a nonalcoholic cocktail called Sugar Plum Punch:
This year I’ve decided to close out December with a survey to get a better idea of who is reading my blog. This way, I can tailor my posts to my readership better in the coming year. None of the questions are required, but answering as many as possible will be very helpful. Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
[powr-survey id=11fae1c4_1482774225]
Now that we’re starting a fresh new year, I want to give you guys a heads up on some changes you can expect to see around here:
Happy 2016, folks! Can you believe we’ve made 52 recipes this year? I can’t. I’m convinced cooking fairies came in the night and finished all these posts for me…mostly because I want to believe there are such things as cooking fairies. 😉
Last New Year, I made a review post detailing the most popular recipes of the year. Y’all seemed to like it, so I’m doing it again this year! In the spirit of the season, feel free to mix yourself up something to drink before we get started. I recommend Siren Notes on the Rocks from The Odyssey:
We did it, folks! We made it all the way through 2014. With 50 recipes under our belt, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back on the recipes that have made the biggest splash. In true New Year’s fashion, feel free to mix yourself a drink before we get to reminiscing. I recommend the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster:
Do you have your drink? Ok. Time to reveal this year’s most popular posts! The winners are…
