Allie's+Special+Interest

2/3/10 Late start to the Practicum project, but I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia (which I loved, by the way) and was inspired to learn how to cook. I figure I can follow a recipe like the rest of them, so I may as well try to learn more and have a few good dinners this semester. I joined a virtual community for cooking called Epicurious. I just made my profile today and I am planning on picking a recipe every week and making it. Hopefully, I'll meet other members by adding recipes, reviewing other members' recipes, and asking questions about how to make things. Maybe I will even meet a few other younger members like myself. I do not have much to say at this point because I've only done a little exploring around the website, but I am planning on trying out a recipe this weekend. We'll see how it goes... Below is a link to my epicurious profile and I also posted a screenshot. []

2/5/10 A few things have happened in the past few days! First, I love epicurious, it's so fun! I chatted with one woman in a chatroom called, "The Kitchen", she complained a little about how if you change windows on your screen while in the chatroom, epicurious will automatically log you off. She was very pleasant and friendly though and a few other people came into the chatroom too. I made my first dish today though! I found a recipe for giant chocolate chip cookies that I made for my roommates and I. They came out really really well. I think they're the best cookies I've ever made and they're HUGE and so soft! It was a really easy recipe to follow and I used some ingredients I'd never used before, like vegetable shortening. My roommates are stuffing their mouths. I reviewed the recipe on the page as well to try to incorporate myself more into the community. I also read the reviews beforehand and took some other members' suggestion to double the vanilla.

I took a picture of the cookies that I'll upload here so you can see how great they look and be a little jealous that this is a virtual community so you cannot actually eat one: I found a recipe for Chicken with Black-Pepper Maple Sauce that I'm making next. It looks great! My roommates are really benefitting from this project also because they get to eat well without doing any of the work! Hopefully this week I'll figure out how to make some more friends, but what I've found so far is Epicurious is a great forum for people to find recipes to make, ask questions about them, and get other people's opinions and suggestions. It's just a good way to connect to other people who are also interested in cooking. Anyways, I'll let you know how the chicken comes out!

2/19/10 So, first of all, I'm not quite sure why my pictures keep getting messed up, but I swear I am uploaded relevant screenshots onto my page. I'll change it again, but if the pictures seem random, I don't know what's going on. Anyways! I have had like no time to cook lately because I had a lot of work, and then I got sick. But I am planning on making an appetizer tomorrow night for my family...I am home for my mom's birthday. She'd kill me if I wrote how old she is. I do have something to report though. I've been playing around on the epicurious website and I found a ton of recipes that I added to my recipe box. Things are categorized into different meal categories like appetizer, dessert, dinner, etc. so that's made it a lot easier to search. From there, it's also broken down into primary ingredient, ethnic food type, and a variety of other categories. I can also just search a specific ethnic food group and find something so they've made it really easy to find what you're looking for. I'm trying to embed a screenshot of my recipe box, but someone else's picture keeps popping up instead, so I'll try again later.



Today, I went into the epicurious chat room and talked with two people. They've nicknamed me, "as" because my profile name is "asblomberg". I spoke to one woman for a bit. She's Canadian and her husband is British so she was telling me about how they take an ocean liner to England. A man jumped in too. He was familiar a bit with the Badgers and then I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about after that....he mentioned the name "Edmund Fitzgerald". I was a little confused. I think a lot of people, mainly women, like to use epicurious just to talk to other people. Before I came in, two women were discussing how a lot of Canadians were going to Florida. One left by stating that, "Mr. Wonderful" was having a tantrum. It seems like it serves as a good escape to just talk to other people and connect about a common interest. It's not very hard to break into the community, everyone is very friendly and invited. One interesting thing was that the same people were in the chatroom both times I've gone in there. I'll try to start involving myself more in discussion boards and posting recipes. I'll let you know what appetizer I pick for the weekend and how it comes out! Below is a screenshot of my chatroom conversation:

I'm getting quite frustrated because I just uploaded a screenshot of my chatroom conversation and then it was replaced with my recipe box....is this the Wiki page? Or am I doing something wrong?

2/23/10

So, first of all, I renamed all my pictures as Germaine suggested and tried to embed them again onto my page. Right now, all my pictures are correct, so hopefully it'll stay that way! My practicum project is tomorrow, so I was looking around the website and found some more interesting things. They have information relating to the time period. For example, right now there's a feature called, "Oscar guide" all about having and hosting a party for the Oscars. I think a lot of it is targeted at women because there's how to videos on how to host and put together a buffet--basically information on the correct way to entertain. There are a lot of men on the website though, so I wonder if it is gender-specific or if it's intended to be neutral. I just got to thinking about this today...I wonder if some of the sections are intended for gender-neutral audiences and others are more targeted at women. I wish there was a way to track which members are using which tools. Anyways, just a thought. I've been sick lately, so I haven't cooked anything, but I will for sure do it this weekend. Also, the first time I looked around the website, I found a forum where food was a jumping off point, but people talked about other things. I can't find that one again, but I'm going to keep looking... That's all for now!

2/23/10 later.... I just added a post to an epicurious page. There's something called "Epi-log" where people can post food news from all over. I found an article about this new 32% alcohol content Scottish beer. The author goes on to suggest Irish beers that have a little less alcohol than the Scottish beer. I lived in Belgium for five and a half months while studying abroad so I know quite a bit about Belgian beer, which is world famous and amazing. I added a comment about a very rare type of Belgian beer to the bottom of this article: I also started a thread today. My friend's birthday is this weekend and I can't seem to find a good cake recipe to make for her, so I posted in the Kitchen forum and asked for one... hopefully someone responds soon and I can make a good cake for my friend's birthday.

2/24/10 Got a response....now I just have to find a recipe for and figure out how to make a Texas sheet cake... I also decided to post another thread about something I know a thing or two about...beer: I didn't realize before that there were more general-question threads, about things other than what you are going to cook your family for dinner, so I'm glad that I found this forum. I feel like now it might be a bit easier for me to participate in the community.

I also responded to someone else's thread. They were asking about culinary tours in France. I don't know much about culinary tours, but when I was abroad, we got a chance to visit Alsace which has great wine. I suggested that he/she take a day trip there and sample some wine. Plus, it is just absolutely beautiful.

Then I also commented on an epi-log (like a blog) about "Mancakes". They are cupcakes designed for men, with manly names and manly designs on them. It says there are no pastel colors on these cupcakes and there names are things like, "the Jackhammer". I thought it was hilarious. A typically feminized food made masculine...

As the day has gone on, people have responded to my Birthday cake thread. One man said something kind of snotty, but the other person who has responded three times now is very helpful. I have responded back to each of them:

So, this guy, "FrankJBN" is really just being a huge jerk. He wrote me back again and said some really mean things that were totally unwarranted and uncalled for! My roommate was making fun of me because she's like, "c'mon allie, It's epicurious", but it makes me realize that these virtual communities do have real-life implications. This guy has no idea who I am, no basis in any insult he says, and no reason to insult me at all, yet it still hurts when he does. There's my real-life translation of my virtual life. Even if someone insults your avatar, it can still affect your real self. Virtual communities do not necessarily stay online. This other woman stuck up for me a bit too, so that was nice. I responded to him something along the lines of, are insults really necessary? If you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all...

2/25/10 Well. I definitely just experienced the bad side of Virtual Communities. Since it is a public forum, anyone can read it, obviously. Because of that, another woman chimed in, completely misunderstood what I said, and proceeded to insult me. While I enjoy speaking to strangers, I do not feel comfortable being insulted and misunderstood by people I don't know and who don't know me. I'm not even sure exactly what I did, but internet bullying is not something I signed up for. Also, because it is online, I'm sure people are more outspoken with what they're really thinking since, after all, no one will ever meet in person. It's the whole concept of anonymity, but what people don't seem to realize is that their actions can still have hurtful affects. Maybe even more so since words are so much more harsh. And, the frustrating thing is, after 3 apology messages for my initial misunderstanding I was still getting blamed and called names. So, I figured I am now very uncomfortable posting under that name because of these misperceptions of me. I hate conflict. I don't understand how or why I got into one. If this was my normal life, I would not go on the website anymore-I felt bullied. But, since this is a project and I must continue, I started a new account under my roommate's e-mail address (Thank you, Kelsi). I am now "MissyMoo47" because my mom called me Missy Moo Moo when I was growing up and 47 is my lucky number. I honestly don't think this is going to interfere with the project at all because I am still navigating the website, interacting with people, and exploring how people use a digital space. I just figured I don't want to waste the negative energy feeling bad about what strangers were saying to me online. And, under my new account, I will feel more comfortable putting myself out there and talking to people. So, there's my update on why I changed my avatar. Here is my new account: From now on, I will be using this account instead of my old, horribly misunderstood persona. And, who knows, maybe this bad online experience will add to the overall experiment and give me a more well-rounded idea of the effects of the internet...

I tried to start out on the right foot with this avatar, commenting on a neutral blog about Purim, a Jewish holiday this week that I haven't celebrated since I was a kid. Hopefully this avatar will have better luck than the last one

Also, someone responded to my Spotted Cow thread. I wanted to respond to that person, but as my new avatar, so kind of like a loser, I pretended I didn't know my original self and responded to that last guy

3/2/10

First of all, I made a Texas Sheet Cake for my friend's birthday the other day. It was amazing. I had never baked a cake or made frosting from scratch before and I did both. It was messy and at first I was nervous I had put in too much cocoa powder, but turned out really really well. Below is a picture; while it may look like a regular chocolate cake, let me assure you, it tasted like so much more... Next, I feel a little bad because people are responding to my "asblomberg" account which I am no longer using. I guess that goes to show that not everyone will judge based on some other, more active user's comments. Also, the website took off part of the thread that caused so many issues so there is some censoring going on. Next, more people responded to the beer thread so I added a bit more to that: And finally, I started a new thread. I have been really really stressed out this week and I am definitely a stress eater. I was thinking about what my mom used to make for my brothers and I when I was little and thought of various comfort foods. I decided to start a thread about what people eat to make them feel better: Hopefully people will respond to that one. More later!

Later... Lots of responses tonight!! People seemed to like that thread...

3/17/10

I noticed a post someone else did with a lot of responses. It was about Girl Scout Cookies. Apparently people think they've changed and they don't like them anymore! I think a lot of the people on this site are a lot older than me because people are referencing what the cookies were like "decades ago" and how they changed in the 80s so maybe I just don't have the right reference point, but I really like girl scout cookies! Anyways, this was my response...

3/18/10

Epicurious just won a social media award for their iphone app! You can download recipes and shopping lists to your iphone...I thought it was relevant since this is a media class...

3/22/10

Added a comment today to a blog on Epicurious about foods I will not eat...

4/20/10

One member decided to revamp some old threads today for new members. He/she posted A LOT and usually threads revolve around needing food advice. These were just more fun questions about food, so I was able to respond to a lot of them... Post 2: Post 3: Post 4: Post 5: Post 6:

I think I'm going to follow one of the recipes and make artichoke dip tonight...one of my favorites!

5/3/10 First, in response to my carmel brownie comment, one regular commenter, "GrannysKitchen" asked me to post my recipe. I keep forgetting to do that, but I think i'm going to seeing as the odds are about one and a billion that I'd ever actually show up in the same place as her with my recipe in tow...I just have to make sure none of my, or my mom's, friends ever see it. I thought this was cute today so I commented...it's tea bags with famous people on the top of them so it looks like they're lounging out. I'll post a picture of them and then the comment:

This was my comment: