The Food Maven Diary
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09/17/1999 Archived Entry: "Instructions for Using The Food Maven"

It’s time for me to explain a couple of things.

For a start:
How to find recipes on this site
Any day now, the recipe index will be history. It is impossible to keep up to date, not to mention expensive to have my webmaster update it. Instead, we have provided for you -- for some time now – a search engine that has the capacity to find any keyword you type into the blank box. This search box appears on every page of the web-site. If you type in the name of a recipe and click, for instance, it will respond with a list that gives you every mention of the recipe – or sometimes, items that are spelled similarly. (It isn’t totally foolproof.) The search engine is updated weekly, so very new entries to the site will not be available immediately. In that case, check The Maven’s Diary.

Because almost all new material appears in The Maven’s Diary, I suggest you might also look in the listing of diary items. On the diary page itself, the last 10 items that have appeared are listed on the right side, in the light blue vertical bar. In the opening text of The Maven’s Diary, and above the blue bar, you’ll find the word “Archive.” Click on it anywhere and you’ll get a list of everything that has ever appeared in the Diary, in chronological order. Almost all the time, I head the diary items with names of recipes that appear in them, so that makes finding a recipe easier.

How to sign up for special notices and messages from The Food Maven
On my home page, if you scroll down to near the bottom, below the section that describes the different sections of the sight, you will find a blue box where you can sign on to my e-mail mailing list. You will not get solicitations through this list. I use it only to notify regular visitors of new material on the site, about personal appearances that may not be listed on the personal appearances page because they were booked at the last minute, and who knows what else – but not commercial solicitations.

Which brings me to …

Ordering books on line
So far, there is no advertising on The Food Maven web-site, and only my cookbooks and books that I recommend are being sold on the site, although you can order anything from Amazon.com through The Food Maven (more on that in the last paragraph here). Books are easily purchased by clicking on a hyperlink within text (blue words), or by clicking on the Amazon.com logo on my home page or at the bottom of each page that describes one of my books. Sometimes, in other contexts, you will also find books hyperlinked (highlighted in blue). You click on those book titles and you are connected to the Amazon.com page for that item. For your convenience (and, admittedly, my benefit), the Amazon.com logo will soon appear on every page of the site.

Yes, I get a miniscule commission on every sale – even on books that I do not recommend, books on subjects other than cooking and food, on music CDs, on videos, on anything ordered from Amazon.com through The Food Maven web-site. I have been very gratified, in fact, that some of you who already knew that have been ordering through The Food Maven web-site to increase that revenue. So far, the tiny amount I’ve received from this affiliation with Amazon doesn’t even cover the monthly maintenance costs on the site. Naturally, I’d be thrilled if you ordered all your books, music and movies through the Food Maven.