Hi! I’m Jose, Maria’s husband. I’m the guy behind the scenes. I got one (and only one) chance to guest blog here. Then I became the Chief Tasting / Technology Officer.
Want to skip the story? Jump to what we use.
How MariasMenu Started
We had just got married. Love was blind. Maria tried a Kerala fish curry recipe from her Aunt Tessy. The recipe said: “Place the kokum across the bottom of the clay pot.”
Nobody told her how much. Her idea of “a few” was 20 to 30 pieces. Sunny Chetan, who helped us at home, said it was too much. Maria, loving as she is, is hard to teach!
The curry tasted great. I even asked for it again at dinner. A few hours later, I was down and out for a week. Yes, the curry did the trick.
After I got better, I told Maria to share her recipes with everyone. Why should I be the only one to suffer? :p That is the real reason MariasMenu started: recipes with clear steps and clear measurements.
Jose: “Why don’t you start a food blog?”
Maria: “There are hundreds of food blogs. What will make ours different?”
Jose: “Just start.”
Just Start
That is how I do most projects. We will fail, but we will learn. Tim Ferriss said it well:
“Big things take time, but that’s OK. Almost nothing can stop a glacier from moving once it reaches critical mass.”
Your first reader will be you. Then your mum, your spouse and your friends. That’s OK. Every blog starts that way. Twenty years later, MariasMenu is still here.
What We Use to Run MariasMenu
This is the real list. We only show what we use today.
Hosting: Where the Site Lives
Runs the site, backups, security and updates for us. Less time on tech, more time on recipes.
🔗 wordpress.com
Theme: How the Site Looks
Plugins: The Extras Behind the Scenes
Plugins add features to a WordPress site. If WordPress is the car, plugins are the extras.
Every recipe card on the site. It also helps Google show our recipes in search.
🔗 wprecipemaker.com
Camera: How Maria Takes the Photos
Ads: How We Keep the Site Free
Learn Food Blogging
These are the courses and books we like:
Everything about running a food blog. I wish it was around when we started.
🔗 foodbloggerpro.com
Remember: just start. You will figure out the rest on the way.
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