Celebrating 15 Years of Food Blogging!

This fall marks 15 years of Jamie Cooks It Up’s existence. Holy cow, that is a lot of water under the bridge! Since 2009 I’ve published over 1700 recipes, and nearly raised all of my children to adulthood. How did that happen? I’m not sure. 🙂 The picture above is of my family in 2009, just a month after I started the blog.

Here we are in 2023. We are so happy to have the addition of a daughter and son in law and three sweet grandbabies. We have full hearts, of that you can be sure.

These are my youngest children, twin boys who were just 3 when I started. They logged a lot of time “helping” in the kitchen. 😉

Look at these two boys of mine now, nearly grown up. We are walking the final stretch of high school and loving all of the final hurrahs that go along with a senior year (times two).

All my kids have been great taste testers along the way, and they would be the first to tell you that not all the recipes turn out to be “blog worthy”. Ha! Many a recipe they decreed as being “mid”, didn’t make it to the blog. You are welcome. 🙂

We’ve been a work in progress all along the way.

When I set out on this adventure, I was honestly just trying to create great recipes, publish them on line and make a bit of extra money for my family. I was looking for a job that would allow me to be home with my kids, and give me a super flexible schedule. I’m happy to report, it has been that…and much, much more.

I didn’t know a thing about food photography when I started. The picture of the left was taken back in 2009, the picture on the right was taken last year. It has been fun to learn about photography, the use of light and how to stage a shot.

The internet, and certainly the food of the internet has changed a lot in the past 15 years, and I’ve tried to learn and adapt along with it, to the best of my ability. I’ve loved learning more about food, and different cooking techniques and methods. Back when I started no one knew about the Instant Pot, or Instagram for that matter. I’ve loved learning how to make REELS this past year, posting them to Instagram now and then. My daughters have encouraged me to start posting on Tik Tok, but I’m not sure this grandma version of myself has what it takes. 🙂

I have, however LOVED making a monthly appearance on one of our local television morning shows, Good Things Utah. I’ve done it for the past couple of years and man, is it a good time. I adore the team there and so enjoy bringing my recipes along to demonstrate. The crew and hosts have become dear to me. And truthfully, it’s been fun to be on the other side of the camera, which includes such perks as getting dressed in something other than sweat pants and putting eye lashes on. 🙂 Also, now and then I get to meet someone famous, like Donny Osmond. So fun.

Over the past 15 years, the site has undergone several major redesigns, the most recent was this past spring. While I was preparing for the redesign, I was re-formatting some of the super old recipe posts (updating them, goodness some of them have such ghastly pictures!). I was pleased to find many little family stories I’d written along the way, attached to old recipe posts. They included funny or tender things that had happened in our family life. I loved finding them! You can see a few HERE, HERE and HERE. If you are up for a laugh today.

The “writing” or “blogging” part of this job is something that I have loved so much. I do enjoy telling a good story. I’m hoping to do more of that in the future. I’ve got a lot of stories that need telling and I hope you will enjoy them as we go along. Watch for them to be posted occasionally on Thursday’s or Saturday’s and logged in the Family Stories Category.

There is one element of this Jamie Cooks It Up job, that I have loved most of all, and that is the connection it has given me with all of you. It makes me so tremendously happy to hear from you. I love knowing that these recipes are helpful and being used to bring families, friends and neighbors together. Thank you for coming here and reading my stories and trying these recipes. I love you for it.

What can you expect at Jamie Cooks It Up, moving forward? My goal is to post 3-4 new recipes per month, continue posting the weekly Menu Plans on Friday mornings, and begin posting more stories. We need stories, don’t you think? Something to ponder over, laugh at, and be inspired by while we chop vegetables and make food for the people we love. I’m hoping to add more of that kind of content along with more great food.

All of my love to you! Thank you for 15 years of blogging success. On to many more.

Thank goodness for grandbabies, who like to “help” in the kitchen. 🙂

Have a great day, everyone. Thanks for dropping by today.