About This Site

In 18 Words
Baking and Books is about food and books. Many blog posts also feature fascinating bits of culinary history.

What Kinds of Recipes Will You Find Here?
Not surprisingly, most of the recipes on this site are baking related. But you’ll also find recipes for yummy things like Whole Wheat Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes and Blackberry Parfaits with Peach Zabaglione. I’m an equal opportunity food blogger in that regard!

Since June 2007 Baking and Books has been a vegetarian blog so I no longer post meat recipes. I’m a vegetarian 99.9% of the time (I have a weakness for authentic Mexican food) and since my husband has been a strict vegetarian since he was 5-years-old I never cook meat at home. To satisfy my carnivorous tendencies I’m always looking for ways to create satisfying vegetarian dishes that make me forget meat is even an option. It’s a work in progress but so far I’m having fun with it.

The Blogger
My name is Ariela, but call me Ari. By day I’m a Jewish Educator, by night I’m a home cook and baker.

When I’m not working or reading a book, you’ll almost always find me in the kitchen kneading a batch of dough, experimenting with ingredients or cooking something spicy. Going back to the early days when my mom would make lemon meringue pies as a special treat for us kids, food has been something I love to make, share and enjoy. One day I hope to take a professional baking/cooking class or two… or three… or four.

In no particular order, some of my favorite things are: comfy pjs, vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce, coffee, historical fiction, strawberries with whipped cream, scary movies and staying up late. I also really, really love chocolate. But not fudge.

I live with my husband and our eight-year-old Labrador Retriever, Oreo. She’s obsessed with baseballs and likes to spin around in circles until she falls over.

I Love Books
In addition to food, I also write about the books I spend time with. The folks at our local library know me pretty well. I can be recognized from afar by the canvas bags I bring to return my previous haul of books, and bring the next load home!

Reviews

If you are an author or publisher and would like me to review a book for you please feel free to contact me at bakingandbooks [at] gmail [dot] com. If you already have my address please do not automatically send books to me.

If I agree to write a review I ask that you allow me to be open and honest in my assessment of the book. I also reserve the right not to write about a book if I don’t like it since I’m not such a fan of writing negative reviews.

As a rule I don’t review food products or kitchen gadgets, though if you think your product is so spectacular that I may reconsider you’re welcome to email me.

FAQs

• Why don’t you post vegan alternatives with your recipes? I don’t eat dairy or animal products.
• Why aren’t you a vegan? You should be.
• Do you take all the photos on this site?
• What kind of camera do you use?
• Why did you blacklist me? None of my comments ever go through and you don’t respond to my emails!
• Can I use your photos/text on my site?

Why don’t you post vegan alternatives with your recipes? I don’t eat dairy or animal products.
Some of the recipes on this site are vegan friendly, but I don’t know enough about vegan cooking/substitutions to write about it with any authority. Sorry! But if you modify a recipe so that it’s vegan and would like to share the results with me I’d love to hear about it.

Why aren’t you a vegan? You should be.
Food preferences are, I feel, somewhat like religion. We each have our own beliefs and know what works for us, but it’s impolite to impose our thoughts on other people. So while I appreciate your belief that I should be vegan, I can’t say that I will ever agree! I like cheese, eggs, ice cream and many other vegan-forbidden foods far too much.

Do you take all the photos on this site?
Yup. Unless otherwise noted.

What kind of camera do you use?
I use a Nikon D70 for food photos, either with extension tubes and a manual lens (which creates a macro effect without the cost of a macro lens!) or with a AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm lens. When I’m out and about, I carry a Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital Elph. It’s pocket size and perfect for traveling, but I generally don’t use it for food photos.

Why did you blacklist me? None of my comments ever go through and you don’t respond to my emails!
If you’ve been blacklisted that means you’ve been up to something naughty – such as trying to post spam or off-color/x-rated comments on this site. The first time you did this I probably emailed you to ask you to be more respectful and pointed out the comments policy, which is displayed above the comments form. If you posted an offensive comment again your email, IP, etc, was added to a nifty little program I’ve installed that automatically deletes comments. I don’t like moderating nasty comments any more than the next person, so automatic deletion is the way to go if you ask me! As for emails, if you’re habitually disrespectful I’ve probably created a Gmail filter to automatically send your messages to the trash.

Can I use your photos/text on my site?
Unless otherwise noted everything on Baking and Books is copyright 2006-2009. So the brief answer is that no, you can’t use my content on your site. The longer answer is: send me your url along with details about how you want to use my images or text. Maybe we can work something out.

As Seen In…

• C&H Sugar’s Summer Newsletter (2007)
• Culinate’s “Blog Feed” Column (2007)
• The New York Times – “The Author Will Take Q’s Now” (2007 Interview with author Amy Cohen)
• The Forward – “Viral Philanthropy Starts to Spread.”
• The Jewish Journal -“Virtual, viral fundraising brings real donations.”
• Ohio.com
• Topeka Capital Journal – Best of the Blogs
• “10 super simple things to pack in your work lunch bag” from Shine Yahoo
• Culinary School Guide: Top 100 Blogs for Foodies (#13)
• Port City Foodies featured my recipe for Yeasted Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread in “More Fall Cooking with Pumpkins.”
• Interview at MaTweeps
• BlogHer
• SlashFood, coffeecake feature
• SlashFood, pancakes
• The Forward
• Serious Eats
• C&H Sugar (Jan 2009)
• Domino Sugar (Jan 2009)
• JTS

Full Disclosure

I’m an Amazon affiliate and as such earn a small referral fee every time you purchase something through this site. It’s not enough to pay the bills or even support the hosting of ‘Baking and Books,’ but every little bit helps right?

Say Hello

I’m a friendly gal and love connecting with readers from Baking and Books. You are welcome to get in touch with me by:

• Emailing me at bakingandbooks [at] gmail [dot] com
• IMing me on AIM, using the screen name ‘BakingandBooks’
• Following me on Twitter

If you are contacting me with a question, please be sure to read the FAQs first! I may have already answered it.