Hello and welcome!
First of all, thank you so much for subscribing and putting faith behind yet another newsletter that will most likely clog your inbox. This newsletter might just be my recipe ideas that have been languishing in my notes, but I'm really excited about how many of you have shown interest!
A quick heads up: I am working out the kinks, editing content, and generally trying to make sense of what I want to communicate to all of you; so the recipes they are a comin'!
(For those of you who were a part of my initial email message, feel free to ignore this. To the others who have no idea what I'm talking about, maybe don't ignore this?)
This is the first issue of Shelf Offering, which, in its basic stripped off form, is a newsletter on cooking during quarantine. That's not all it is though.
The idea(s) behind Shelf Offering (fun fact: it is also a type of public offering!) is that it will:
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Offer recipes and cooking tips in the time of quarantine, and hopefully beyond
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Celebrate a community that values food and diverse ingredients
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Create a conversation amongst ourselves, and help each other out with respect to cooking
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Keep all of us occupied in a way that doesn't make us anxious!
While initially, I would like to offer simple (and "complicated") recipes, I would also like to expand the boundaries of this newsletter to include anecdotes, food stories, news, events, photos, and recipes from all of you! For example, it would be great if person A in London wants an idea of what to do with beans, tomatoes and cheddar, and person B in Delhi has the answer, and I will find a way to integrate that in this newsletter. At the end of the day, this newsletter is as personal to you as it is to me.
This newsletter will be fortnightly, and I'll run it by myself. However, there is always space for those who want to help/get involved: I'd be extremely grateful for that. This is also a personal project, and will be free. I don't know if I necessarily believe in making profits out of "Internet culture" or monetizing something cool (TBD) and personal into a profitable business model. This is something that I'm going to try and do to keep myself busy and to help people out in my own small way. That said, if you strongly feel that freelance content shouldn't be given out for free (as some of you have kindly pointed out) — and thank you for saying that — I'd be happy to set up a Patreon or something similar where you can donate/buy me a cup of coffee. Whatever money you give will only be poured back into this project or into ingredients that I will use to test recipes out, which I will then write about to all of you.
If you do have ideas you'd like to share with me regarding this project, do get in touch with me at seriouscheats@gmail.com, the email address I will be using for this newsletter. (Feel free to LOL at this email, which was set up a long time ago with my friend Susanna when we planned a small project of our own. She has been kind enough to let me take ownership of this email now). I will do my best to get back to anyone who writes to me!
Finally, I will try and get the first issue out by the end of the week!
If you have an idea or would like to chat about Shelf Offering, you can contact me at seriouscheats@gmail.com.