Frequently Asked Questions- FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions- Faq about my blog. Please feel free to visit this page and read more about who I am and what I do.

Here you will find some of the most popular questions about The Bossy Kitchen

Why do I blog?

I cooked all my life for family and friends. They always encouraged me to open my own restaurant, food truck, or blog to share my recipes instead of posting pictures of my food on Facebook.

In 2014 I created my first website Gabitza’s Green Kitchen, a bilingual blog(English and Romanian), where I shared many of my personal kitchen and life experiences.

To separate the two languages due to technical issues, Gabitza’s Green Kitchen blog became a website with recipes written only in Romanian. This is how The Bossy Kitchen was born.

A few reasons why I blog:

• I love challenging myself writing in English, as it is not my first language(not easy, believe me)
• I love sharing my heritage, culture, and way of living with people out there
• I believe that cooking and baking are survival skills that everyone should have. Therefore, I want to offer practical, easy recipes made from fresh, natural ingredients that are not processed, so more and more people discover the benefits of eating healthier.
• I would love to create a community of people who love to cook from scratch and enjoy being in the kitchen. I think the world would be more peaceful if we would often gather around good food.

WHY “THE BOSSY KITCHEN”?

The kitchen is my territory. I know my stuff, and I am very passionate about it.

I have strong opinions about food (and other things in general), and I am committed and care about what we eat every day. I like to think that food is the best investment in your health and future.

There is no excuse to buy processed food when you can get your butt in the kitchen and make a simple, delicious meal that tastes a million times better than anything else out there.

The Bossy Kitchen will show you how to make delicious foods for you and your family. We all deserve to eat better.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND IN FOOD?

• I am a self-taught cook and a trained pastry and confectionery baker.
• I am a first American-Romanian generation who was born in Romania in a challenging time during communism. I grew up with little food, cooked from scratch, using local ingredients. We ate whatever we had in season and canned everything available for winter.
• My cooking and baking style is mainly eastern-European, but I was also exposed to and very interested in all kinds of cuisines.
• I read and do a lot of research before I post a recipe on my blog. I like to learn techniques, methods, and tricks to cook and bake professionally, and I will share that with you as much as possible.

DO YOU FOLLOW A PARTICULAR DIET?

No, I do not. We aim for balanced meals and do eat meat, lots of vegetables and fruits. We enjoy baked goods but do not eat many of them.

Believe it or not, when I make a cake, it is usually not for us. I like baking easy bread recipes at home and sometimes making yogurt from scratch.  

I am not a nutritionist, but I read a lot about nutrition. I believe in the way our ancestors ate. Therefore, I have real butter, cream, whole milk, and sometimes, yes, lard in my refrigerator and pantry.

I prefer olive oil in my cooking and sunflower oil because I grew up with them.

I also think that if you consume a certain food every single day, you should buy it organic. Therefore we always purchase organic the following:

• eggs
• bananas
• apples
• potatoes
• carrots
• onion
• dairy
• chicken
• grass-fed beef

We are not perfect, and once in a while, we would order pizza or go out to eat. We do prefer ethnic restaurants, though, because we enjoy different cuisines.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THE FOOD YOU COOK FOR THE BLOG?

We eat the food, but we do share the sweet goods. We enjoy leftovers, and most of the time, I cook for 2-3 days in advance.

We like to take leftovers with us to work the next day, especially soups. There is no way we could eat an entire cake or a batch of bars/cookies alone. Therefore we give them away to friends and coworkers.

Everybody loves a cookie.

WHY DID YOUR RECIPE NOT WORK FOR ME?

I am not sure. I try really hard to explain how to make the recipe the best I can so it is easy to follow.

If you measure the ingredients correctly and follow instructions, there is little room for error. In terms of baking, it is essential to follow the recipe. 

I cannot take responsibility for your baking when you use a different type of flour or replace an ingredient with something else.

However, sometimes the recipes can contain a typo or need clarification, so the best way to correct it is to use the comment area to ask questions. I will do the best I can to answer as soon as possible.

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FOR YOUR RECIPES?

• Most of the recipes you will find on my blog are recipes I cooked all my life, some of them inherited from my grandmother or my mom.
• I am in love with culinary books. I have an extensive collection of them in different languages. (read here about my favorite ones)
• I am also interested in old cooking books and the way people used to eat in the past before the industrial revolution.
• I read magazines and other blogs and go to the library for research.
• I create my own recipes with ingredients I find in the pantry and fridge. Most of the time, even if I make a recipe from somewhere else, I put my personal stamp on it.

HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU MAKE EACH RECIPE BEFORE YOU POST IT ON THE BLOG?

At least two times, if not more, than that. I do feel a huge responsibility for posting accurate recipes that use the correct techniques.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE?

I love shrimp, and this Spanish recipe is one of my favorites. I could eat a ton of it with crusty bread, especially if I baked it myself, like this recipe.

WHAT KIND OF CAMERA DO YOU USE?

I use a Canon EOS 6D Mark II Digital SLR Camera.

Lens. Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras – Fixed.

I use it regularly and just love it. 

I also have a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Fixed Lens for Canon SLR Cameras, which I use for more detailed photos of my food. I absolutely love this lens for the sharp images I can take from a relatively short distance.

However, I am not an expert in photography. I know a little more than a few years ago when I started my first blog Gabitza’s Green Kitchen and took pictures with my iPhone.

I still struggle with photography, and I know there is a lot of room for improvement.

WHO IS BEHIND THIS BLOG?

I am the one behind this blog. I wear many hats every day, which I never thought I would be able to do.

I am the cook and the baker, the writer of the stories, the photographer, the blog designer, and the social media manager.

When I get stuck, I use professional help because as much as I think I can do everything, there are times when things get overwhelming.

Read more about me here.

DO YOU WORK WITH BRANDS FOR SPONSORED POSTS OR CAMPAIGNS?

Of course. Please read more about this here.

IS IT COST-FREE TO RUN A FOOD BLOG?

No, it is not.

Some of the expenses you have to consider:

• Server hosting and domain– The blog needs a hosting company and a domain to exist before anything else. An annual payment is required for both of them.
• Theme and plugins– the frame of the blog is called a “theme,” which makes the pages run and look pretty. Most of the time, the theme needs to be purchased because free themes are very limited in their capacity to do different things. Then there are plugins, some of them are free, but some of them are not.
• Security services– you must ensure that the site is protected from evil. You have no idea how many people are trying to hack the site on a daily basis and steal your hard work.
• Camera, lenses, and photography gear- To take beautiful pictures, you need a good camera. At the beginning of my blogging career, I took most shots with my iPhone. Unfortunately, this might work for a while until you learn more about photography, but in the end, if you want quality, you need to invest in a good camera. You also need lenses for the camera, which are probably the most expensive. If you live like me in a cold climate(Minnesota), the natural light is not very good. The days are short, and the nights are long and cold. I had to find photography lamps to use after 4 pm, so I could cook and bake during the day and take pictures of the food at night when I needed to.
• Plates, pots, pans, cast iron cookware, silverware, furniture, etc. All these things, as you can imagine, are not cheap. I use the basics from my kitchen, but I always look for more things to add to my collection (I love antique or thrift stores).
• Technical services cost lots of money. As much as I try to avoid the cost of many of these services, I sometimes feel like things are too complex or time-consuming for me to learn, so I pay to solve the issues. I like to use my creativity in the kitchen and not behind the computer screen.
• Ingredients for the recipes– We usually eat what we make, but we still spend a considerable amount of money on ingredients and food for the blog.
• Internet, computer, electricity, gas, my personal time– there is no need to comment on those, but you get the idea.
• Classes – to learn how to do new things, as blogging is constantly changing, and you need to keep up with the new stuff.

Interested in opening a food blog? Read here to see what you need.

In conclusion, running a food blog is not as cheap as one might think. It is a full-time job, which I love, but the growing pains are real. The recipes on this blog are free.

To keep them free, I need to run advertising on the blog, as it helps pay for all these expenses. Don’t think that I make a lot of money with it, but anything helps. When you purchase ingredients, for example, on Amazon, through my blog, you do not pay more, but the blog benefits from a small percentage of that sale. 

COMMENT POLICY:

Thank you so much for your nice, polite, constructive, and on-topic comments. I love all your comments, and I will try to respond to as many of them as fast as possible.

However, I reserve the right to remove any rude, inappropriate, or offensive comment.

I would love to create a community of food lovers, people who enjoy being in the kitchen or would like to learn how to cook.

Let’s learn from each other and be nice.

Thank you all!

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