May 2020

Dear friends,

At the start of last month, I candidly wrote about how the pandemic has affected my blog. Since then, other content creators and influencers have opened up about their same struggle. In addition to sponsorship opportunities slowing down or drying up completely, brands have actively pulled advertising on any posts mentioning anything related to the pandemic. That means that content creators actively have to avoid discussing anything related to COVID-19 in order to keep getting paid for their blog content! It’s confusing, especially because our audiences want content that’s more suited for and relevant to our current times. Furthermore, this is an issue that not only affects bloggers and influencers like me, but traditional journalists and freelance writers, too.

So now more than ever, it’s important to find ways to financially support your favorite content creators if you’re in a position to do so. There are lots of free and almost effortless ways you can support my work! I’ve listed them all in this post, but this month, I’d like to highlight the importance of blog comments. If you try one of my recipes and enjoy it, please rate the recipe on my blog and leave a comment. This helps me out immensely by boosting the recipe on Google and enabling more people to find it.

And in case you missed it, I published and updated a TON of recipes in April. Here’s a round-up of everything new:

• Chocolate Chess Pie
• Small Batch Brownies
• Flourless Chocolate Cookies
• Dalgona Coffee (CNN also interviewed me about my take on this popular recipe!)
• My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Recipe
• Chaffle Recipe
• Small Batch Blueberry Scone Recipe
• Banana Bread with Sour Cream
• My Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe
• Lavender Earl Grey Cookies (from my friend Amy’s new cookbook—see more below!)
• Flourless Gluten Free Cheesecake Brownies

Below are pictures of the two most popular recipes from the month—flourless chocolate cookies and dalgona coffee—to inspire you:

And if you’re looking for even more inspiration in the kitchen, good news! Four of my talented friends—Amanda, Amy, Erin, and Gaby—recently released brand new cookbooks full of amazing recipes. Please check them out below:

• Blooms and Baking by @constellationinspiration
• Eat What You Want by @whatsgabycookin
• Procrastibaking by @erinbakes
• Simple Beautiful Food by @amandafredrickson

And here are the recipes and food-related resources I’ve saved these last few weeks:

• “The Food Expiration Dates You Should Actually Follow.” Kenji always knows best.
  
  
• These hazelnut swirl buns from Anna Banana made me gasp out loud. Can’t wait to try the recipe!
  
  
• Also this vanilla snack cake with vanilla bean buttercream from Now Forager. Wow, wow, wow.
  
  
• If you’re in the Portland, Oregon metro area (hello neighbor!), I wrote an article on the best places to get desserts for delivery and takeout for Eater PDX. Do you know about my secret Portland food-related finstagram account already?

Also, I spent a lot of this month reading articles about our new life under quarantine this month. These were the ones that stuck with me:

• I’ve been thinking about the recipes that took off in these last few weeks and why. So far it looks like the most popular quarantine recipes are for banana bread, dalgona coffee, and sourdough bread.
  
  
• On a related note, despite everybody cooking at home and all the food shortages in supermarkets, this was especially heartbreaking: “Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic.”
  
  
• Can we just let women run the world already? I’m looking at you, Angela, Jacinda, Mette, Sanna, Tsai, and more.
  
  
• Gabrielle Hamilton, the famed chef behind New York City’s beloved Prune restaurant (where we were supposed to celebrate my future mother-in-law’s 60th birthday before COVID ruined everything), wrote a beautiful, honest essay on what it was like to close her restaurant because of the pandemic.
  
  
• Stop torturing yourself with quarantine diets. Seriously.
  
  
• And while we’re at it, let’s ease up on the self-improvement projects, too! There’s been a weird amount of pressure to be productive with our lockdown time and “better” ourselves by taking on new hobbies, DIY projects, and more. A big thank you to The Cut for keeping it real. Also: I wouldn’t do a puzzle if it were the last activity on earth.
  

• Especially because, according to this article, now is the PERFECT time to embrace our inner weirdos. As somebody who has worn the same pair of sweatpants for the last three weeks, I’m all for it.
  
  
• And finally, let’s end on a light-hearted note: I personally can’t stop thinking about this guy and his lost and found cat(s).

Hope you all are staying safe and healthy! Please let me know how you’re doing in the comments below, and feel free to share the articles, memes, movies, songs, and stories that are floating around in your heads, too. 

XO
Michelle