How To Post Recipes

Getting to the dashboard:

1. Log in to your google account. 
2. Go to your blog, or to blogger.com, or use the link I sent. I suggest bookmarking it in your browser. 
3. Click "Sign in" in the upper right corner of any of those places, if you aren't already signed in. This will take you to the editing dashboard. 
4. In the upper left side will be a drop down arrow. Choose the blog you want to work on. 
5. TIP: Blogger's editor insists on defaulting to Paragraph.  It may cause your formatting to misbehave. If it changes itself as you're editing, finish your recipe then highlight the whole thing and choose, "Normal" to get it to single space. Then you can go in an manually add spaces where you want them.  

Add a new recipe:

1. Click "New Post" in the upper left side of the dashboard. A new window will open.
2. Type the recipe title in the "Title" bar, just under the orange B on the left side.
3. You'll see a tool bar under the title bar. These functions work like any other document editor: Word, Excel, Open Office, Google Docs, etc. Hover your mouse over each icon to see what it does.
4. Click in the body section.
5. Before typing change "Paragraph" to "Normal" to automatically get single spacing.
6. Type the ingredients, with the measurements, ingredient, brand, and preparation (chopped, minced, etc.) on one line each. 
7. Type the preparation and cooking instructions under the ingredients.
8. If you know how many servings, nutrition information, tips, freezer instructions, etc. type those in below the basic recipe. 
9. TIP: you can find nutrition information using a free online tool. I like Very Well Fit's nutrition calculator. I don't use it for every recipe, but it's useful for calculating substitute ingredients in a recipe to see how it affects the calories, carbs, etc.
10. TIP: Other people's recipes I use are on my blog, either as written or modified by me, so I don't have to follow links or grab a book all the time. I credit the title and author if the recipe came out of a book or magazine, or link to it directly if I found it online. If the recipe is a family favorite, came to you from a friend or relative, or has good memories it's fun to add this info either before or after the recipe. 

 Add a jump break:

1. Click your mouse at the end of the last ingredient in your list. 
2. Click the horizontal line that says "Insert jump break" when you hover your mouse over it. This will hide the instructions while allowing you to see the ingredients. Good for grocery shopping reference. 

Add labels:

1. Labels are useful when you have a main ingredient you need matching recipes to use.
2. Click the three dot menu on the far right in the tool bar.
3. In the right side bar, under the orange "Publish" button, click the arrow by "Labels".  This will show the existing labels for your recipes. 
4. Click one or more existing labels from the list to automatically add them to the Labels section for this recipe. 
5. Add a new label if necessary by typing it into the "Separate labels by commas" section. 
6. Capitalize the label, add a comma, and click or add another label without any spaces between, until you've got all the ones you want.
7. TIP: Only add main ingredient labels to keep that section from getting too long and overwhelming. 

 Publishing or Draft?

1. If you're ready to publish the recipe click the orange "Publish" button. You'll automatically be taken back to the dashboard. 
2. If you want to save it as a draft until you're sure you'll like it enough to add to your blog, hover over the little cloud symbol to the left of the "Preview" button and make sure it says, "Changes saved". Blogger automatically saves changes every second or so as you type.
3. To bulk manage posts: In the dashboard search for the recipe you want to manage. Click "Manage" in the upper right.  Click the box next to the recipe. You have four choices, "Publish", "Revert to draft", "Apply labels to this post", or "Move this post to Trash".    

Modifying a recipe:

1. To modify a recipe you already posted follow the steps to get to your dashboard. 
2. You can search keywords, or the recipe title in the search bar at the top of the dashboard. 
3. Or you can search by label by clicking the label icon next to "Manage" in the upper right side. 
4. When you find the recipe you want click the title to open the editor. 
5. Modify the recipe as you wish, then click the orange "Update" button in the upper right corner.
6. TIP: if you're experimenting with changing a recipe copy/paste the recipe above the original. Make changes to the new version and publish. When you're happy with new version you could delete the old, or leave it for future reference. Especially if it's a family favorite. This is really helpful if you're experimenting with a brine, or smoke type & time, or making substitutions for nutrition value. 

Where do I go from here?

1. You can go back to the dashboard from your editing page at any time by clicking the arrow pointing left, next to the orange B in the upper left side. 
2. To see the public side of your blog scroll down to the bottom of the left side menu in the dashboard and click "View blog".  It will open in a new tab. You can return to the dashboard by clicking the Blogger browser that that will still be open. 
3. You can also type in your blog's URL, which is the name of the blog plus (dot) blogspot (dot) com sheriessizzleshack.blogspot.com or parlorfare.blogspot.com
4. On the blog you can type a keyword or recipe title in the search bar under the image, or click one of the labels on the right side bar. 
5. When you find the recipe you want click the "Read More" link under the ingredients to open the entire recipe. 
6. If you want the link to a specific recipe click the title and it will open just that recipe. Copy the link in the URL bar and paste it into a text, email, etc to send. 
7. To return to the home page of the blog click the image at the top, or anywhere it says "Show all posts".