Normally, the main subjects of my posts are the recipes.
I’m actually somewhat shy and don’t like a lot of attention on myself.
But many people have asked what I do as a full-time blogger.
I do not just sit around and eat cookies all day. (Too bad, ‘cause that would be fun.) I work really hard! So today’s post is going to be a little different from the normal recipe posts.
A Day in the Life:
I wake up naturally around 5am, amble downstairs, and start replying to a massive amount of emails, comments, facebook messages, and tweets. If it’s a running day, I’ll eat pre-run snack, then and answer more questions while waiting for the food to digest. [Insert run here: a little over an hour]
Upon returning, I quickly check the computer again, then eat a real breakfast.
Yesterday’s breakfast was this: 5-Minute Chocolate Oatmeal.
With breakfast done, I go back over to the computer, this time to ensure the day’s post published as scheduled. I work on writing new posts for about an hour and a half, taking mini breaks to measure dry ingredients, get one or two things started on the stove or oven, and cook something else in the microwave. (I’ve become a master at multitasking.) Then I run upstairs for a quick shower, after which I do maybe 20-30 more minutes of blogwork (writing posts, editing photos, answering questions) whilst also making lunch.
After lunch, I take Henry and Batman for a walk (unless they’re at my parents’ house, in which case I go by myself). I come back and do a photoshoot or two, since it’ll usually be nice and light out by this time. I also do some taste-testing of whatever recipe experiments were cooked that morning. Yesterday, I tested chocolate peanut butter pie and peach cinnamon coffee cake.
About two hours after lunch I’m usually hungry again, so I’ll have a snack. Sometimes the day’s experiments have turned out so well that I’ll just eat them for snack.
Yesterday’s snack was one of my favorites: Fudge Brownie Energy Bars.
Yes, more chocolate.
Then it’s back to the kitchen for more recipe experiments (and washing dishes!). I also continue to check the computer intermittently, answering questions and emails. Y’all ask a lot of questions, which I love because it means people are reading and making the recipes. I do try to answer as many as I possibly can!
Some days I run errands, often with a friend (or my roommate, if she’s off from work) to keep me company. And then it’s dinnertime, which is often followed by hanging out with whatever friends (if any) have found their way over. Our house is quickly becoming the “hang out after work” place, and I take advantage of this by giving out samples of the day’s experiments, asking for honest opinions.
Not all my experiments turn out; it sometimes takes two or three trials before I arrive at a recipe worthy of publishing… or ten in the case of my Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies!
Sometimes we’ll watch tv (Gossip Girl, Friends, whatever sports are on), but I always have a notebook in hand to multitask—brainstorming recipe combinations, writing out new posts, making a to-do list, etc. After people leave (or even sometimes when they’re still over), I’ll schedule the next day’s post, continue to tackle the never-ending inbox, eat a nighttime snack—usually more chocolate!—and finally turn off the computer. I don’t take days off, and even if there’s no post for the day I’m still working on all the other components of the site. When it’s time for bed, I rarely have a problem falling asleep.
I know some people (a lot of people?) think blogging isn’t a “real” job, but truthfully it’s no different from saying my job is: photographer, photo-editor, recipe developer, writer, and often–too often!–web technician. It’s definitely never boring!
What do you do as your job?
Do you enjoy what you do? I love almost every minute of this (except when the site crashes or an experiment fails… those times are no fun), and I really hope to continue running this website for as long as people continue to read.
EDIT: By popular demand:
Part Two: Questions and Answers
Love your blog! I am a mom of 4, runner, fitness fanatic, and nutritionist wannabe so I am always looking for healthy, delicious recipes for our family! You always have some great ones! Keep up the great work!
I am a Respiratory Therapist and when I am not making sure people keep breathing then I am homeschooling my 4th grader. While she is doing her work, I am checking your blog for exciting things to make my family. We are gluten, dairy, and soy free so finding exciting recipes were difficult until I discovered your blog. Everything I make my hubby and daughter ask “Is this Katie’s recipe, it is delicious!” Thanks Katie!
Aw thank you (and your family, too!) for trying the recipes!
Hey Miss Katie, my husband and I are new to the vegan lifestyle (after watching Food Inc, Food Matters, and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix!!) and I’m so glad I stumbled upon your website. We JUST tried your 5 minute carrot cake recipe and really enjoyed it! That is so cool how you can microwave the cake like that!!! However, to be honest, we were not the hugest fans of the Better’n Cream Cheese frosting….. I think I must have done something wrong b/c it turned out kind of sour-tasting..(our health food store was out of “silken” so I used extra firm tofu!)…
I’m a flight attendant for Delta… aka professional drink server/global food tester. 🙂 And my husband is in school to be a preacher. Blessings!
Hmmm… I’ve never tried it with firm tofu. I highly recommend the mori nu tofu (lol if you ever are brave enough to even want to try it again!) because it’s completely different.
Thanks for sharing this – it was nice to have a little glimpse into your life 🙂 I work as a TV reporter … so I have the same “job” everyday – but everyday is very, very different!
thanks for letting us having a sneak peak in your daily life! I’m a freelance copy writer and public relations consulter 🙂
I’m an assistant English teacher in Japan (ALT). I do enjoy my job, though thank god I’m exempt from a lot of the responsibilities teachers here get saddled with. Teachers here are really stretched to the max attending school functions, helping students with anything and everything (even researching and applying to colleges for them!!), etc.
I’m in awe that you naturally wake up at 5! I did that (via alarm) last year and wanted to die a little, especially during the winter. May I ask what time you usually go to bed? Also, holy cheese! You run 8-10 miles in “just over an hour”?! I’ve been running for about two years and I just can’t seem to eke out a consistent sub 9:30-minute mile (on a really good day), so my morning 7 miles can take upwards of an hour-ten to an hour-twenty minutes or so. It’s been driving me nuts. I know you’re being inundated with questions, but you have any tips about that I can steal off of you?
Thanks always for being fabulous ~<3
I go to bed pretty early… like 10?
And lol I think most of my normal running routes are closer to 8 miles. (And “a little over an hour” is like an hour and ten to fifteen minutes)
I guess… make sure to take days off? I know I’m usually fastest if I’ve had enough rest and my legs aren’t tired. And also, stop stressing about times! I don’t even own a Garmin, and it makes running much more enjoyable ;).
if you want to get faster, try doing intervals. for example, run fast for 30 seconds, then jog for 60. And repeat. You can mix up the length of the intervals, and if you do it once or twice a week instead of your regular run, you will definitely start to notice a difference.
This was such a fun post.
I wish I could say I currently love my job but I don’t. My fulfillment ends up having to entirely come outside of work. I do love doing my own blogging, my quilting, and thanks to sites like yours I have become really into baking and cooking (to the point I am trying new recipes almost daily and changing them up myself).
Since I have worked from home for a long time (which is the best part of my job) I actually can totally appreciate the self-scheduling aspect. I love and admire what you do. It is inspiring to me because I would love to make my own way doing something I love.
Love that you have people coming over to be recipe testers as well. 🙂
The side bonus of this post is that it is fun to read what other people do actually…especially some are regular responders so it is fun to get a sense of this larger community.
I am a stay at home mom. It sounds like you really like your job…so do I am and it makes waking up so much nicer!
I’m a teacher for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students with Autism. I teach an SH class (which stands for severely handicapped). My students are awesome and awe-inspriring, but many days I go home in tears and simply exhausted because they’ve taken every speck of energy from my mind, body, and soul.
There are days when I love my job and there are days when I tell myself that I’m going to resign. This week, my days have been the latter of the two. I am sitting in my empty classroom as I write this (the kids have gone home) just trying to kill time until I’m “off the clock” because I can’t bring myself to do any more work for the day and my patience has been tested to the brink of losing it.
It’s funny because today I looked at my classroom aides and said, “I hope some day my blog becomes popular enough that all I have to do is sit at home, bake, and blog.” It doesn’t sound so easy after all! Thanks for the insight and thanks for taking my mind off work for a second.
By the way, both sounded good: chocolate peanut butter pie and peach cinnamon coffee cake.
Did they both turn out?
They did!
Well, the peanut butter pie was pretty much guaranteed to be successful because it was a food processor recipe. So I just kept adding ingredients until it tasted good. Those types of recipes are so much easier than baked goods, where you can’t fix it if it comes out of the oven tasting/looking horrible.