HI Cookery is 7!

Life is a gift and today is a “present”. This belief has guided us when we began our food blog back in 2010. HI Cookery, now in its seventh year, aims to feature a recipe for every day of the year—because there is something always worth celebrating, such as living another day.

This is especially true when Highlander went to the emergency room and then was taken by an ambulance to be hospitalized last summer for pulmonary embolism. This was a shock to both of us since he has been relatively healthy and there were no symptoms of the original blood clot in his leg. Hopefully, the doctors have treated him early on before he developed a deadly brain aneurysm. We are so grateful to God that Highlander is doing better now. His health still needs to be monitored but we realize just how precious life is—it is truly a gift, and getting a chance to live another day is a “present”! We ask our readers to please pray for his complete recovery.

As we have continued to “cook our way through the calendar” for the past seven years, we have finally filled in the all the days for January, February and March! We have leisurely cooked recipes randomly, but now we will be more focused on filling in the rest of the blanks of the remaining months. Tomorrow is not promised but we have scheduled some recipes to be posted already on their specific holidays.

HI Cookery is still a work in progress and we hope to live on and complete the cooking calendar. As always, thanks to everyone who have supported us in our blogging journey. Eat, drink and be merry!

Tapadh leat! Mahalo! Thanks!

Highlander and Islander

HI Cookery is 6!

We are now in our sixth year of blogging and are taking our time to “cook our way through the calendar”. At first, we wanted to finish fast and fill in all the food holidays on the list. But then we would not have enjoyed the experience as much if we were rushing. Eventually, we will complete our goal while, in the meantime, following the philosophy of Greg Anderson, founder of the Cancer Recovery Foundation International charity organization, who is quoted as saying:

Focus on the journey, not the destination.

Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

AN ENRICHING EXPERIENCE

We did not start this blog to get rich and famous through ads and publicity. Over the years, we have been approached by different groups inviting us to participate in monetizing our blog through affiliate marketing programs or publications asking us to be interviewed about a holiday recipe. We are flattered with the attention that HI Cookery has been getting. And maybe we will miss out on a lot of potential opportunities. But we have always wanted to keep things simple—cook a familiar or new dish to celebrate every day of the year, photograph the process and share the recipe with our memories with family, friends and followers. Life is busy and complicated enough. To us, the cooking-and-sharing ritual is what has made our food blogging an enriching experience. And that’s simply the reward in itself.

BIGGER WATERMARK

Within the past year, a few keen-eyed readers brought to our attention that some of our food photos have been used without our permission to promote someone else’s home baking business (which is a misrepresentation as well as a violation of copyrights). Other readers offered their support and ideas (such as making our watermark bigger on the newer photos) when we were plagiarized. We realize that others still use our images on Pinterest or other blogs, with or without links back to our blog. The bigger watermark still will not prevent people from using our photos anyway but it will identify better HI Cookery as the original source. We truly appreciate our readers and subscribers, many of whom we have not met personally, for looking out for us in cases like these.

CAKE LOVE

Islander won a cake competition this past Valentine’s Day—her first! Fellow members of the local cake club were asked to bring in a 6-inch cake (real or dummy) to the February meeting to match the month’s “love” theme. For her presentation, Islander patiently hand cut silhouettes of couples during different stages of their love lives—from engagement and marriage to pregnancy/family and the golden years. Her cake told “A Little Love Story” which won her $25 to a cake supply shop. She is happy and encouraged to learn more about cake decorating and will share her techniques in a future blog post.

We hope you continue on our food blogging journey with us as HI Cookery heads into Year 6 with more recipes to come…and, as always…

Tapadh leat! Mahalo! Thanks!

Highlander and Islander

HI Cookery is 5!

It’s HI Cookery’s fifth year blog-o-versary and Highlander and Islander are still here trying to cook our way through the calendar year. Since we began this foodie project in 2010, we have posted more than 525 recipes. Other noteworthy happenings since last year include the following:

We have moved again! Last year we lived in south Texas. Just four months ago, we moved slightly northeast—about 3.5 hours’ drive away—due to Highlander’s job. We miss our family and friends but we are still in the same big state and can visit each other. We are also adjusting to our new kitchen; we no longer have an island and our oven is smaller but the pantry space is good. Unfortunately, we do not have much natural lighting so it is more challenging to photograph our food. However, we like our new kitchen and hope that we can continue to cook for our blog and ourselves and host new friends in our dining room.

HI Cookery’s new kitchen (December 2014)

Islander joined the local cake club and culinary book club. She is still a member of the previous cake club and helps with their graphic design needs. The one she just joined only meets quarterly and is less formal but members visit cake club events all over the state and sometimes the nation. So she is able to see familiar and friendly faces at various sugar arts events in Texas. She also joined the culinary book club at our local library. Members meet monthly for a potluck and follow a food theme. Some of the recipes exchanged at the culinary book club meeting will be featured in future posts on our blog.

We are now a “Cottage Food Law” certified kitchen. Although we don’t sell baked goods, we sometimes participate in church bake sales and other benefits. Some organizations require that volunteer bakers and home cooks get a food safety training certificate if their state has a cottage food law. We think it is a good idea just to review the sanitation and food handling information so the food that we cook and serve is safe for everyone to eat and enjoy. Check Forrager, a cottage food community website, for more information about cottage food laws in the United States.

New theme menu on the menu. Navigate on the dropdown menu options above and notice that we have added a new page for “theme menus”. Throughout our fifth year of blogging, we will classify some recipes into themes, such as Star Wars, Halloween, ethnic, etc., to give readers a few ideas on what to prepare for their own parties. As listed on our “cook the calendar” page, there is always something to celebrate in life—so make it fun with food!

We may be slowing down—but HI Cookery is still around! And we hope to continue sharing recipes beyond our five-year milestone. As always, thanks for reading and visiting our blog. We appreciate your loyalty. God bless!

Tapadh leat! Mahalo! Thanks!

Highlander and Islander