A small section of my recipe books on a shelf in my kitchen. I'll have to tidy these up soon, too !I think it’s mainly because I’m happy with the way my blog looks for the time being, and there is not much I really want to change or add to it for now. I’m also trying to make it a fast loading blog, so don’t want to slow it down with too many unnecessary things and if I do spend extra time working on it, it’s mainly on the content of my blog posts which I feel is more important as after all, that’s why people ‘read’ me !
Anyway, one thing which has really been bothering me for a while now has been my labels. You know, the “Categories” section in the right sidebar ? I had all my Main Meal recipes lumped under “Main Meal Recipes” for example, and all my desserts & sweet and savoury baked treats lumped under “Baking”. Which - let’s face it - made it very difficult to browse and find the recipe which you were looking for.
So, this weekend I started to tidy my labels up (starting with my recipes) & if you look now, you’ll see that everything has been categorized a little further. For example, Main Meals are now in different sections like “Main Meals – Pork”, “Main Meals – Chicken” and so on. Baking has been split into sections covering desserts (hot and cold) and there are now sections like “Cake and Loaf Recipes”, “Savoury Treat Recipes” etc. I also have sections like “Salad and Soup Recipes”, “Sauce and Preserve Recipes” to give a few examples, and I hope that this will make it easier to find what you’re looking for !
I’d also like to – when I have some more time – break my “Miscellaneous” section down into categories to make that easier for browsing, too – although I don’t want to end up with a hundred labels, either !
You'll notice that I have also recently added "Link Within" to my blog, which shows links to related blog posts (with thumbnail photos for each recommended post) underneath each blog post I write. So lets say, for example, you're reading a post about my garden, it will give you 3 of my previous gardening posts underneath that blog post which you can choose to read if you wish - or if you're reading a recipe for a chicken casserole, it will show you links to 3 of my previous chicken recipe posts. It's quite fun and I hope that it will make your browsing experience more enjoyable, too ! (Thanks to fellow blogger and ex Tanzanian expat Catherine over at "Dispatches From The Deise", as I first saw this great widget on her blog !)
So, I hope that these small changes make it easier for you to browse and enjoy the blog – and that you find some recipes which inspire you to get into the kitchen – if you do, let me know how you like them as I always love hearing back from people who’ve tried and enjoyed recipes which I’ve published. Happy cooking !
