Blake Makes

UPDATE: Geggie swooped-in and saved us. She cleaned-up the code. Thanks, Geggie.

People have been asking me for months to create some badges for Blake Makes and Soopz. Well, I’m trying to figure it out. I’ve added a new page to the site with 2 new badges.

If anybody knows anything about blog badges (creating/distributing them), HELP! Comment or e-mail with advice or offers to help.

Lots of posts coming today. One post I’ve been preparing all week is the round up of all the posts from the Sooper Heroes who received PBDDL. There’s a collage of post pics below, but I also added a new feature to Blake Makes last week.

Say It On Blake Makes is way for me to collect blog posts and stories from my Sooper community. If you’ve posted about PBDDL or anything else you’d like to share, Say It On Blake Makes (and I’ll post it here once a week)! Use the little brown ad on the right to submit stories.

Even without drawing attention to it, we had 3 people Say It this week:

1. Kylee says, “(I tried the PBDDL) May I be one of the first to use, and review the PBDDL? I have tasted it (right out of the jar on the way back from the mailbox), and used it in something….A PBDDL Banana smoothie. Out of this world good….
2. Erica says, “(PBDDL Chocolate Banana Rolls) Here’s my first tasty experiment with the (already) very tasty PBDDL!”
3. Michelle says, “(Blake Makes - Delivered!) I was so excited to get my mail yesterday and see a little package with the “Blake Makes” label on it. My dulce de leche had arrived! I honestly love nothing more than finding fun packages at my doorstep. It’s always a pleasant surprise and pick-me-up! If you don’t know who Blake is or what he does, be sure to check out Blake Makes! In a nut shell, Blake runs an awesome food blog and makes his own dulce de leche, which he periodically gives away to members of his blog, known as Sooper Heroes (first come, first serve!).”

1. Sooper Jamie
2. Sooper Caitlin
3. Sooper Nikki
4. Sooper Danielle
5. Sooper Melissa
6. Sooper Erica
7. Sooper Michelle
8. Sooper Laurie
9. Sooper Amy

Thanks to everyone who has donated to support the Blake Makes campaign! If you’d like to donate, click here.

Hello Blake Makers and Sooper Heroes (new and old). Say hello to our new Sooper Heroes:

Bryce patrick Lora Nicole Lisa Lindsey Lauren Mark Allison Amanda Katie Jen Kay Kimberly Kristina Lindsey Ashley Rachel Rachel Angela Shanda McKenzie Alanna Karina kate Nadine Hilary Adria Lisa Laurie Erin Paula Vicki Stephanie Alondra Nicole Carrie Enza Jenny megan Melissa

Welcome to the family! We’re so happy to know you.

UPDATE: This is just the teaser post for the Sucre’ giveaway next Tuesday, March 4 at 8pm CST. I may actually be modifying the giveaway since there are so many people interested, and we have so few boxes to give away. I think I’m going to do a lottery. I’ll post more soon. But for everyone who thinks they’ve missed the Sucre’ giveaway, you haven’t. It hasn’t happened, yet.

Alrighty. Here we go again, another amazing giveaway. This time, from Sucre’, a sweet shop on Magazine Street here in New Orleans. And this time, FREE CHOCOLATE!

This is a very limited giveaway, so you’ll have to be quick (I’m trying to get more boxes from them).

You’ll see what’s inside the box next Tuesday at 8pm CST (or now if you know where to look).

Let me just say it’s filled with the best chocolate you’ve ever tasted - 9 pieces!

If you can’t wait until next week, you can buy online now.

Quick post because I’m thinking about this right now. It’s no secret that a community (network) is forming around Blake Makes. Last Monday, we had 32 Sooper Heroes. Today, we have over 100 (and getting 5-10 news sign-ups a day).

Oh, and we’re building out the Soopz social network site (think of it as Myspace or Facebook, but only for Sooper Hereos - aka You Guys!). We’re about 60% complete, and I’ll launch it as soon as it’s ready. Stay tuned!

As much as I am enjoying exploring the possibilities for my own use, I want to explore the possibilities of helping all of you (my beloved readers) grow your own blogs and networks. I’m a pro when it comes to social neworking, and everyday I’m exploring new networks that [a] can benefit me, and [b] can benefit you (and your blog).

Two social networks I’m looking at now:

1. Sk-rt
2. Blogged

We can use these networks (and there are tons more like them) to grow our communities. I can show you how, and we can help each other.

I know this may seem a little vague/confusing, but it will all make sense in the coming weeks. I think I’m going to introduce social networks to the community (all of you) with instructions on how to use them. Then, for every person that takes an action to help Blake Makes, I will take an action to help their site.

What does “take an action” mean?

Most social networks are built around a ratings system. The more people that rate or review a site within the social network, the more prominence that site receives in the social network. The more prominence given to a site, the more people will see it and ultimately click to visit the site.

It’s a beautiful circle. You help promote my site in them, and I help promote yours. I will give you prominence on my site (hopefully you’ll reciprocate), so the more traffic I get, the more traffic you get.

Make sense? If not, it will. Stay tuned. bk

p.s. I’m having a meeting today with someone who can possibly get PBDDL onto grocery shelves, or at the very least, help me produce a product that I can sell online.

Hello Blake Makers and Sooper Heroes! Wowsers, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. There are tons of posts and information coming about the next round of PBDDL and more (and different) free food on Soopz, but I want to post some food! I will, however, direct you to Say It On BlakeMakes.com if you’ve gotten your free PBDDL and would like your blog featured on Blake Makes.

Enough dulce for now. We live in New Orleans, so let’s talk about Poboys!

Yes, we actually eat them on a regular basis down here. No, they’re not just some touristy treat, but I will say that we rarely make them at home.

To get really good poboys, you’ve got to go out for them…like to a gas station, or some nondescript shack somewhere (that’s where you’ll find the best).

I wrote about a poboy like this months ago when I discovered the Banh Mi at the New Orleans Poboy Preservation Festival. It was my favorite of the fest because it was daring and different (I get really descriptive in my Serious Eats post).

Bridget and I decided to make these at home, and they turned out great! We grabbed the recipe from Epicurious.com.

To be honest, I was a little uncertain because of the combination of:

• Asian fish sauce
• Daikon
• Cilantro
• Liverwurst

But, they’ve been doing this in Vietnam for centuries, so of course it turned out spectacularly. Everything blends together in your mouth, and it was sublime. My favorite part is the pickled carrot and diakon salad - it’s sweet and sour at the same time.

(Bridget told me my Nesties are going to be hungry for more than just dulce soon, so in addition to being for everyone else, this post is especially dedicated to my Nestie readers! Hello!) 

UPDATE 2: I’m getting e-mails and comments that people are trying to donate using the ChipIn widget, but it’s not working. Click here if you would like to donate. Sorry. Technology. Sometimes it helps…sometime it hurts. TGIF!

UPDATE: Got any ideas for how I can give all you Sooper Heroes more exposure? Let’s all think about it and comment your ideas on this post. Remember, there are no bad (dumb) ideas. You never know when one thing may lead to another. Doing something like this may be a good place to start.

Hello everyone! It’s Friday which for many of you means you’re just a couple of days from getting your PBDDL in the mail! As you know, it’s been an exciting week on Blake Makes, and we’ve gotten a lot of new readers. I suspect this is a trend, so every Friday I’m going to try to holla back and say hello to all our new Sooper Heroes.

“Hello, Sooper Heroes!”

Erica, Erica, Gayle, Michelle, monica, Danielle, Alexis, Steffan, alison, chris, Katie, Amy, Clara, Nikki, Kylee, Jaime, Elly, kandice, Joelen, Ally, Jessica, Ashlee, N, Jen, alisa, Nicole, Meghan, Tiffany, Cheali, Natalie, Brooke, Kat, Chris, Darrell, Bob, Melissa, Rachel, Deborah, Melissa, Sarah, Joy, Mike, whitney, April, Danielle, Carrie, Shari, Emily, Candice, Elyse

To the new peeps listed above: I’ve linked to the site you gave me at sign up. If you’d prefer I didn’t, I completely understand. E-mail me at blakekillian and then the “@” and then “yahoo” and a dot followed by “com”.

I’m adding a field to the sign up form for people to opt in or out at sign up.

“Everyone, meet our new Sooper Heroes. New Sooper Heroes, meet everyone.”

Stay tuned! bk

UPDATE: It’s official! They’re in the mail. Everyone in the U.S. should get them in 3-5 days; 2 are going to Canada and should take 5-7 days; 1 is going to Australia and should take 7-10 days. Thanks to everyone that’s donated! It really helps! If you’d like to help, use the blue “PBDDL Support” widget to the right. Thanks!

Hello Blake Makers and Sooper Heroes. Ugh…my back and neck are a little achy. For the past 3 hours, I’ve been hunched over mini little jars of peanut butter dulce de leche affixing labels, packing them into their little boxes and addressing them. It took some time, but they’re done!

I’m dreading this shipping bill tomorrow. I know each of these little boxes is going to cost me over $3.

All I have to say is thanks to everyone who’s supporting the dulce project. If you’d like to support us (sponsor a jar of dulce), just click on the little PBDDL Support widget to the right.

Donations are by no means required, but completely appreciated!

(Yawn) Sleepy…must go to bed. Blake Makes has been completely over stimulating me the last couple of days.

I do it for you! It’s all for you!

Nighty night. bk

UPDATE: Very good, Blake Makers. I see we have 11 comments on the post on Epicurious.com (as of 2:28pm CST on 2/21). Thanks for the love! If you’d like to show some love, click on the screenshot image below to visit Epicurious and add your two cents.

Hello, Blake Makers and Sooper Heroes. Last night went better than I thought. I mean, I thought all the jars would be claimed, but I didn’t think I would have twice as many requests as I had jars. I’m preparing a micro case study right now to share the numbers with all of you, but you can look at the time stamps on each comment to see how fast the first jars went.

I owe it all to my great community of Blake Makers (and the Sooper Heroes among them). I also owe a big THANKS to my new Nestie friends! I knew my wife (DW) loved the Nest, but I didn’t know there were so many others. Welcome, come back (again and again) and tell your friends!

In all the madness, Epicurious caught wind of us.

Thanks so much to Amy for being a fan of BlakeMakes, and for writing such a great post. Go read her blog, it’s spectacular!

One last thing, you know me, I always love to challenge my community. So, here’s a task:

• Let’s make this Epicurious post mean something!
• Show some BlakeMakes love by commenting on the Epicurious post!
• That’s it!

As always, stay tuned. Tons more on the way!

New Blake Makers (people just discovering me tonight), click the Soopz tab at the top of the page to sign up for Soopz. That way, I’ll have your address and will be able to send you some peanut butter dulce de leche (in Round 3 if not sooner)!..And any other goodies I can dream up. Thanks!

BTW, apparently I got ‘nested’ tonight. Hello Nesters!..or is it Nesties? Hello nonetheless. bk