This totally isn’t food-related, but I’m so stoked to have my new iPhone 4G that I wanted to post pictures. Just got the new phone a few minutes ago – the FedEx guy said that all iPhone 4G packages were guaranteed delivery by 10:30am, so I didn’t have to wait around all day. Sweet.

Now where to get a cover to keep my new iPhone clean?!

My husband and I recently moved into a gorgeous, though much older, apartment. The kitchen at the new place is a bit smaller than the one at old place, but the new digs are brighter and have a lot more personality. With the exception of the small stove – which is gas, at least – I thought that I’d love cooking in this new kitchen.

Wrong. Ever since I got it setup, I’ve avoided that room like the plague. I wanted to cook, even felt inspired to cook, but would I cook? No. Something about my new kitchen was off-putting and stressful. I feel overwhelmed when I walked in the door and turn right around and plunk my butt at my computer instead, which usually results in hours lost on the internet. I’ve only lived here a month! How could I already be tired of this room? I picked the pale yellow color of the walls and cabinets because they make me happy, but it wasn’t helping in this situation.

I had to think a while about what the problem was. A few apartments ago (yay, the life of a renter) I had a feng shui specialist come in to look at our place. The first thing she did was stop in the kitchen. “This area is uncomfortable,” she pointed out. “It’s not the layout, though. It’s that corner.”

She pointed to an area of the kitchen where I tend to stick stuff without thinking. We all have a place like that – the default dumping ground for stuff that doesn’t belong anywhere else. “Does that corner feel good to you? No, I’ll bet it doesn’t. We need to clean that up. Oh, and put a small red rug in the spot where you stand the most.”

At the following apartment, I brought in a friend who works as an organizational consultant. That kitchen constantly had me feeling overwhelmed, despite the fact that it was new and roomy. She pointed out that my cabinets were terribly cluttered, and offered solutions for making things look and feel neater. Once I followed her advice, I felt much better moving about the room and working with my cooking tools.

Now, here I am again. A new kitchen that makes me uncomfortable. Instead of dragging everyone back over to my house – though I suppose I could bribe them with goodies, were I actually able to prepare anything – I decided to recycle the past advice I’d received.

First, I looked for the inevitable dumping place that I usually create without realizing it. I cleared out the clutter of cutting boards and cookie sheets, moved my monstrous KitchenAid Pro mixer to another corner, and stuffed my food processor in the closet. I also put all of my cookie sheets in the closet, slid in between a shelf where they’re out of the way and not causing problems.

That was a good start, but the room still felt stifling. I took out my Cuisinart rotisserie brick oven that we almost never use, which takes up a HUGE amount of space considering how little we use it, and ditched the butcher block of knives for a magnetic wall strip. I installed some shelves on a black wall space, which now houses salt, pepper, cat treats, and a nice green plant.

Now, the kitchen feels much more open and inviting. I can actually breathe in there and I don’t feeling a dark cloud of impending doom whenever I step into the room. Going a step further, I organized the dishes in the cupboards with some handy accessories from The Container Store, but I still need to work a bit on organizing the food cabinet a bit. I’ll save that for later in the week.

Today, I’m going to bake something.

PS: I was so excited that I put together this little slideshow video – it’s only like 7 seconds long:

Hey everyone, if you look at the bottom of my posts, you’ll now see a little button that allows you to “like” that post on Facebook. I’m curious to see what you all think of it, and if it’s working for you. Please let me know if it gives you any problems, like errors, so that I can figure out if it’s more of a nuisance than an asset.

A note – this won’t pop up some big, ugly thing on your Facebook page or add some silly new “page” to your profile; rather it will just tell Facebook that you like it, just like if you “liked” an update on the Facebook site itself. It won’t even take you away from this site. Or at least it’s not supposed to.

Try it and let me know what you think! I’m always wary of Facebook and don’t want to piss you all off.

Father’s Day is just round the corner (June 20th, to be exact), which means it’s time to start shopping for Dad’s Day deals. If your pop loves to cook, here are a few gift ideas that will tickle any guy with a culinary inclination:

• The Artisan Burger Tasting Kit is a great gift for beef-loving dads. Put his meat savvy to test!
• Is your dad a grilling master? Stock up his bbq toolbox with a digital thermometer for grilling. Insert the probe into your food, then set the temperature alarm and forget about ever gnawing on leather-like steaks again.
• If your family likes to tailgate or grill in small spaces, then consider a Picnic Plus Portable Gas Grill Tailgating Set Perfect for camping, road trips, or the big game event.
• Or maybe he’d like the perfect compact patio grill, which can be stowed away in a closet when not in use.
• Maybe dad wants a break from the grill – so get mom a copy of She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book. This new release, written by a woman, encourages women to step up and don that Grilling Queen title with pride. (here’s a review)
• For a cold one on a hot day, your dad might appreciate insulated tumbler glasses that won’t leave icky sweat rings all over the table. Mom will love it too!
• Add a little schwank to his evenings with a travel martini set. Shaken, not stirred, please.
• Beer: every dad’s balm. Why not surprise him with a nifty home beer tap system?

High Tech Father’s Day Gift Ideas

Or how about a new way to read and cook? Two devices have revolutionized the way people interact with cookbooks. Any dad would be stoked with these tech-related gift ideas:

• The Kindle revolutionized the way we read books. Great for cookbooks and novels, dads doubly love Kindles because of their cool tech-toy status.
• Apple’s new iPad Tablet is paving the way for an entirely new interactive experience when it comes to cookbooks. Flip pages, search for recipes and watch instructional movies, all from one bright, colorful screen that is very kitchen-friendly.

What gift ideas are you considering for your dad?

For the past few months, I’ve been using Scribe to try and tighten up the SEO around this blog. It’s been working, and I’m pretty excited about the possibilities that this little plugin opens up. If you’re not familiar with SEO or Scribe, here’s a quick guide on how to create compelling content, from the makers of Scribe. It puts SEO in terms that you can understand, which is really useful for bloggers who don’t have an internet marketing background.

So why is Scribe an important tool for food bloggers? First, as anyone who is familiar with food blogs can attest, Google is an important partner in building traffic. Users often come to your site by searching for recipes, and it’s important to tailor your posts to the terms that people are searching for. If you’ve got a great bacon cheeseburger recipe, you want that recipe in the hands of as many readers as possible, right? This is where Scribe comes in handy – by picking up the SEO keywords in your post and suggesting new ones, you can craft your content to reach the readers who are out there looking for it every day.

Second if you don’t know anything about SEO, this plugin will teach you a boatload pretty quickly. By analyzing your individual posts, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing right and wrong. Scribe will not only tell you how to highlight your current keywords, but a recent update has also added a feature that recommends new keywords that might be closer to your topic. Definitely a handy thing in the SEO world.

Overall, it’s worth a free trial at least, right? Right now Scribe SEO is offering a free 30-day trial for those who want to give it a test drive first. And if you subscribe to the paid service by June 4, you’ll get a pretty incredible deal on their pro plan: 300 analyses for $27/mo. That’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the $97/mo they usually charge for their pro plan. Check it out.

I wrote a guest post over at Food Blog Alliance on how to use Google Analytics:

If you blog, you’ve probably given at least a passing thought to your site’s web statistics. Some people spend a lot of time considering their stats, while others barely give them any thought at all. Either position is fine, really, but I’ll bet that most of us fall somewhere in between: we’re curious about our stats and want them to grow, but we’re not constantly hitting “refresh” on our reports screen to see if we have any new visitors.foodblogalliance.com, Tracking Your Stats with Google Analytics.

Click through to read the whole article!