About


Allow me to introduce myself...

It’s been on my mind for a long time but it just kept getting delayed. However, after just a little under one and half years, almost 100 posts and loads of visitors to the blog, I seriously need to introduce myself. So this becomes my official about page for Culinary Experiments of an Amateur. Something that was missing all this time, making the blog and my blog personality rather incomplete. So, here I am with a new resolution – a decent “about” page.

Who am I?

Donna – that’s the name given to me by my dad and mom. I was born back in 1984, one beautiful day in Chennai, India and after a few years moved to Cochin, Kerala where I spent all my growing up years. Though I grew up with the yummy aromas and flavors of my mom’s kitchen, I failed to pick up any cooking from her at that time. My interests varied between different things but the kitchen!

I graduated in Psychology and went on to do my Masters in Social Work, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed and certainly hope to do something with it in the near future.

I now have settled in Bangalore, Karnataka with the love of my life, Reju, my loving hubby and best friend :)

How did the Food Blog come about?

Somewhere along the way I got obsessed with food. Not so much the eating it but more the cooking it. It was simply divine to see people relish the food I had prepared and then to see the perfect look of satisfaction on their faces. That was it! I did not need the compliments – it was the look that had me hooked. You know the one I mean. It all started with my hubby’s love for flavorsome food which led to my quest to make that happen and this subsequently gave birth to Culinary Experiments of an Amateur.

What’s with the name?

The name has a very simple story behind it. The blog was created within a short span of time and without much thought to it and me being an amateur, fit the bill perfectly and right then and there we (both my hubby and I) decided that this would be the perfect name for my food blog. I started with what now seems like a rather naive first post, but as always, once thrown in the deep water, I learn to swim on my own and fast. At that time I had no idea that there were so many other food blogs dotted all across the globe. As I discovered the wonderful world of food blogging I also discovered what an exceptional community this is. It has been a true gift to have found so many friends, support, motivation and fun along the way. Something I am always truly thankful for.

Today, Culinary Experiments of an Amateur has become a means for me to express my thoughts, share my crazy ideas, experiment, muse, ramble and discover. I strive to share my passion and record them for myself to refer to later on in life. In the progress, I am learning something new almost everyday. This blog has been so many things to me over the past year and a half (almost); a learning platform, culinary and otherwise, a way to meet awesome people and make new friends, sanity check, inspiration, and most important of all, an outlet for the foodie, writer and artist in me. At the heart of it, I love food in every form (ok, except the exotic stuff like tongue, bugs and stuff!!) and this is my ode to my love and now, my passion!

As much as this is a personal journal, I look forward to sharing my experiences with you. I thank you for stopping by my space and hope that you enjoy the journey as much as I did. I appreciate all your thoughtful comments and feedback and if you would like to drop me a line, please feel free to do so on my blog or Facebook page.

Recipes

The recipes you find on my blog are all put together with love, care and a lot of passion. The sources of my recipes are various - a newspaper or magazine, the Internet, a cookbook, my parents, other family or friends, my own creations and experiments. Many a time I have altered or modified a recipe and almost always post my version of it. If I prepared the recipe from a cookbook or online food service I will most certainly recommend the book it came from or link to the online source. I do take time to post these recipes and often my experimentations are a matter of taste - ours. However, if you find something not quite right about a recipe please do let me know. I will certainly look into it.

Posting & Commenting

Maintaining a blog is a difficult job - no doubt about it. When I sit down to create a post it is a process of many steps, to describe them all here would blow this post out of proportion. But basically after a dish has been cooked, I carefully skim enough of it away and hide it in the fridge to photograph at a later time. Photographing as soon as a dish was prepared, as I did in the earlier days, was proving to be to stressful on myself and the tummies of my family and friends. (though I still do it at times when I have no choice!) Once the shots have been taken, I sit down to work out a rough sketch of what I want to discuss in the post. Thoughts, dreams, memories, venting or informative - whatever the nature of the post, I ponder on it for a while. Finally, all aspects of my post come together and in the two-three hour period it takes to finish a post I always feel elated when it is finally published. I publish about two to three posts a week. (atleast I try)

Commenting is the most important feedback and a way for me to know which nerve I have hit with my readers. I appreciate all your comments and make sure to read every single one of them. Unfortunately, I am unable to always reply to every single one individually. Although, I do try when time allows, I am not as good as I would like to be. So I try to address the feedback in bundles. Unless, there is a very important comment or a question, I tend to reply to comments about a day or 2 after it has been published, however even here depending on time, it might take longer.

While I appreciate all feedback, opinions and arguments from both sides and do not delete comments that take on a different point of view, I am irritated when the comments are insulting, rude or personal attacks. If these type of comments cross my threshold of patience, I will delete them without any kind of acknowledgment.

I also get annoyed when people leave anonymous comments. Please stand up to your views, thoughts and opinions.

I do not appreciate people using my space to promote their own sites. Long post-like comments to publicize their own websites or blogs are uncoy and I find them suspicious. Do not be surprised if I delete them too. I do not mind links if the content of your post applies to what I wrote about and will generally be helpful to both our readers.

Copyrights

Pretty much everything in my space is self-generated. That is not to say, I come up with all the crazy stuff, but I credit inspirations and expect mine to be too. As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of effort to develop the idea, create and test the dish and reproduce it on the site. So, everything on the blog is copyrighted under the common copyright law and general courtesy.

Please ask me first, before reproducing! If you are interested in licensing one of my photographs for commercial purposes, please contact me. You may not reproduce any of my work for commercial purposes without my permission. You may not alter or otherwise modify any content for reprint.

© 2011-2012 Donna George - All content, including photos, writing and recipes are my own. As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of effort to develop the idea, create and test the dish and reproduce it on the site. Please ask first, before reproducing or distributing any material from the site.

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