Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

I’m regular reader of Love and Olive Oil’s blog, but somehow I’ve missed the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap every year. No more! I’ll be following to check out this years results with rapt attention.

What I’m bringing you today is a round up of the last year’s cookie swap recipes! I love to shake things up and try something new in my Christmas baking every year. I picked two from here to try this year. I’m going make Chai Tea Shortbread Rounds and Slice-and-Bake Rosemary Butter Cookies. My sister fell in love with chai cookies a friend made me last year that I shared with her, so it will be a nice a Christmas treat for her. And one of my favorite store bought cookies is a rosemary butter cookie, so I’d like to try my hand at making them myself.

When you arrive at the site prepare for cookie overload! There are over 250 cookie recipes on this page. There’s a brief summary about the cookie swap and then you’re directly into the recipe gallery.

Just click the thumbnail to be whisked away to the blog that hosts that recipe. This was also a great way to discover new food blogs!

You’ll find lots of cookie variety too! Everything from butter cookies to thumbprints to homemade Oreos! Chocolate or fruity cookies too!

Go check out these amazing cookie recipes today!

http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2013/12/the-great-food-blogger-cookie-swap-2013-recipe-roundup-part-1.html an

~Amanda

Get Social With Ello

Get Social With Ello

Imagine a social network without intrusive ads, forced tracking or auto organization of your news feed. It’s not a dream anymore, it’s Ello. The new social network claims to be the anti-Facebook and the minimalist approach keeps the site clean with users’ posts remaining front and center. After a few minutes on the site, you’ll discover Ello seems like the result of Tumblr meshing with Twitter.

Ello’s Promise

The entire purpose of Ello is to provide a true social experience without constantly worrying about your every post, like, comment and profile data being sold to advertisers. The founders believe people aren’t products and shouldn’t be treated as such. While Google Analytics is used, you’re able to opt out. This is the only type of tracking you’ll find. There are no ads, no suggested products, no game invitations or any of the fluff you see on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others. The site’s manifesto alone makes the site seem warm and inviting.

Features

Currently, Ello has a basic feature set. If you’re looking for innovative new features, you won’t find them here. If you just want a network with the essentials, you might just love having a simpler set of features. The site has a list of current, newly added and upcoming features. The current set includes features such as:

• Email notifications
• Simple commenting
• Post editing
• Enhanced user discovery
• Emoji integration
• Invitation system
• Add and edit images
• Profile privacy controls

In the future, Ello plans to add features such as:

• Reposting (similar to Tumblr)
• Mobile apps
• Love bookmarking
• Audio/video integration
• Auto push to other social networks

While simple, the site really does have everything you need to connect with other users, post updates and comment on posts.

Joining

At the time of writing, Ello is an invitation only network. Every new member is allowed to invite 25 new members. The site is currently in beta with a small staff. They’re limiting how many people join at a time to ensure the site can handle the activity. However, getting an invitation isn’t that hard. Start by visiting Ello’s homepage. Enter your email address at the top of the screen and clickRequest Invitation.

Wait for your confirmation email and confirm your email once you receive it. You’ll then be notified as soon as Ello has more invitations available.

You can also ask for an invitation from your friends on social networks. It’s possible one of them may already..