Alice Horton's Famous Donuts

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

On Saturday evening, my great friends Nick, Kat, Zach and I tried our hand at making Alice Horton’s Famous Donuts. Will was there too.

The batter whipped together in no time, and I was super careful to follow the instructions to a t. Not privy to the secrets of donut-making, I was careful to avoid any obvious mistakes (such as not sifting the flour).

My best friend g. bakes by throwing all the ingredients in a bowl and mixing well. I was glad she wasn’t there to watch as I obsessively measured and sifted and remeasured and, well, I didn’t sift again. Continue Reading

The Days of Our Lives Drinking Game

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’ve had Days of Our Lives on the brain all morning, partly because I posted Alice Horton’s Famous Donut recipe yesterday, and partly because I couldn’t sleep last night and finally resorted to letting the Days storyline do the trick.

That’s one of the nice things about soap operas; you don’t worry about missing an episode, or falling asleep in the middle. And it moves slowly enough that it will actually put you to sleep.

I’m having some of my fellow die-hard Days of Our Lives fans over tomorrow night, and we are going to try our hand at making Alice’s famous donuts. Continue Reading

Donuts, Days and a Dream

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

The other day I asked you all for some feedback to help me entertain you. That is my goal, after all, so please provide feedback if you haven’t already!

One of my readers asked for donuts (doughnuts???). I’m not one to disappoint, but the nature of the web does keep me from really, and truly, handing you all a donut.

I had a dream sometime ago that I started a vegan-donut-selling business. This is strange because I am staunchly not vegan and I don’t eat too many donuts. Talking about donuts sure makes me want a donut, though. Even a vegan one. They’re actually really good–you don’t miss the animal fat at all. Subrosa, the coffee shop a block away, has vegan donuts. Maybe I should have a donut for lunch. Continue Reading

Cats vs Crustacean

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

At a crab feed this past Friday, my aunt and I pocketed some extra crab to take home to Shawn and the Guster. I was a little concerned about them getting the meat out of the legs. Do cats eat crab in the wild? I bet they’re pretty hard to catch. I know Gus would run in fear from those intense claws.

When we got back we tortured Gus by making him wear the bib for a photo!

The next day when Shawn and Gus were both around, we videotaped giving them some hunks of crab. They didn’t give us a lot of a material, but I saw a blog the other day that posted a video of a cat grabbing its owner’s arm a million times. If that can go viral, maybe two cats nom nom noming (did I use that right?) on some crab will also be popular? Who knows. Continue Reading

Marketing Mistakes Makeover: Love Nails Spa

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I walk down Piedmont Ave in North Oakland at least three or four times a week. It’s my hood, and I love it.

The other day I spotted this sign for Love Nails Spa (I think that’s what it’s called?) which gets pretty good reviews on Yelp.

I think 3 1/2 stars is a pretty good score for a nail place, though it seems the high marks might be due in part to their low prices.

I would think that a place that has the foresight to name their business “Love Nails” or “Love Nails Spa” would continue along the line of good marketing instincts, and forgo any major marketing mistakes. Continue Reading

So you want to be a blogger?

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I received an email from a friend of mine with an extremely unique point of view on the world.  I’ve been encouraging him to get a blog for awhile.  All through our college days, he collected followers to the point where people joked he should start his own religion.  A born blogger!  He asked me some tough questions about blogging.

(1)I noticed you have advertisements on your site but they are for non-tacky items.  Can you select what kind of ads go on your site?

The ads that I have on jenniferheller.com are for services or products that I actually use.  I’m signed up as an affiliate and should someone make a purchase, I make a commission.  I have made $0. So, yes, I chose them, and made the effort to add them to my site.
Continue Reading

Help me entertain you!

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I spent kind of a lot of time analyzing my Google Analytics last night. As you can see from the graph above, the number of visitors has skyrocketed ever since May of last year. That was when I released the Diary Project, where I share my journal entries exactly 18 years after they happened, and is also when I started paying attention to my blog almost every day.

On my best day, I had 89 visitors!  Maybe in 2011, we’ll see a day with a 100!

I am honored that you are here today, and that perhaps you have visited in the past. Over the past year, I’ve had 4,621 visits and 2,336 unique visitors.  Those can’t all be my mom! Continue Reading