Dooney’s Kitchen has a new look

Welcome to the new and revamped Dooney’s Kitchen. This has been a painstaking task, labour of love, the hardest thing I have ever done, the most stressful, I can go on and on. Seriously I mean that. I haven’t slept in days, I have put everything on hold. When you start getting tension headaches, hyperventilating in the middle of the night and you are on your FIFTH Web developer. I will tell you the full story another day. Today is for celebration. The journey that started in July 2014 has finally, well sort of come to an end.

As you all know, I quote Big Oladunni a lot. I am going to share one of her most famous quotes. This quote has been etched deep into my memory and that of my siblings. The quote you may ask, “You may have been born here, but I am NOT raising you to be the ordinary Nigerian. You are going to operate above the standards anyone expects. My mother said this so many times in between scolding us, meting out discipline and of course, we wrote out those lines in their hundreds, my brother especially, oooooh, he heard those words more than all of us. You do something, you do it well, you do it to the best of your ability and beyond, no cutting corners, no wishy washy job, you give it your best, it won’t kill you. She has been an entrepreneur since she was a teenager and having to deal with employees strengthened her resolve that she will not raise children who will tow the same national stereotype.

When I was going to re-design the site, I kept remembering those words, and I said I am going to design an un-expected Nigerian food site. I am going to go above and beyond. Dooney’s Kitchen is no longer just a blog, but a fully fledged world class Nigerian food site. Good enough to stand at par with food sites from all over the world. You visit the site and you take me and what I do, seriously. I want to represent Nigerian food in all its glory, abundance and give it a high standard people haven’t seen before. I wanted to create a one stop shop Nigerian food site. What I do is no longer a hobby, this is my passion and my life’s work.

Here is a brief summary of the key features of this site:

When you type in www.dooneyskitchen.com, the landing page will bring you here:

 

 

It gets even better. When you click on HOME on the navigation bar, it brings you here:

So, yeah, the site has two homepages. I wanted to display a lot of content that would have been too much for one page, so I split it into two. If you click on the logo, you get the first homepage, if you click on HOME, you get the second homepage. There is a method to the madness as they say.

Features – This page and all its dropdowns are for content not directly related to Recipe posts. Here you will find interesting sections like Announcements, Product Reviews, Food Blogger events, etc.

Tricks and Cheats – You know me, I am the Gadget Queen and the Queen of shortcuts. On this page and all its dropdowns, you will find everything you need to enhance your kitchen and cooking experience. From simple How To’s, to Kitchen Gadget Tricks, Food Plating Techniques and Cooking Video Hacks.

Meal Planner – stuck on what to cook, either for your family or to entertain guests. This page will give you all the details that you need, include clever food timetables, and hosting menus for your next party. The timetables are also downloadable (coming soon), so you don’t have to take screenshots or write on a piece of paper. Just click download and you are good to go.

Food Diary – Here you can peek into my world. What I eat every day, my food travels around the world, and best of all, you can peruse my shopping list to your heart’s content. You can take Dooney’s Kitchen with you every time you go shopping, by downloading a blank shopping list. If you would also like to share your shopping list, I would love to display them. Just fill the shopping list form and email it to me. [email protected]

Recipeadia – You know I needed to have a page that displays all my recipes in their full glory. On this page, recipes have been carefully categorised. You also have the option to view the full category index. This page has two drop downs; Recipes by Culture – for dishes categorised according to the 6 major food cultures in Nigeria and Recipe Collections.

Ingredientspaedia – This page right here takes the cake. Not fully functional yet, but a quick summary is that, I am creating Nigeria’s first online encylopaedia of Ingredients. On this page, ingredients have been carefully categorised. Each category will be explained and ingredients under that category will open up into a gallery, with a brief description of each ingredient and wait for it, links to the recipes you can cook with that ingredient. See why i haven’t finished yet? It is a lot of work, but I am hoping to finish it before the end of the year. Here’s a sample of an almost completed category. Click HERE

New Sections – there are lots of exciting new introductions to Dooney’s Kitchen

Fitness and Nutrition – Listen up team #Fitfam, a new contributor is joining the team, by the name of Akin Akingkube. He is an excellent resource for all things fitness, exercise and healthy eating. Someone who has been successful on the journey to losing weight and being a healthier version of himself, he has a lot of knowledge to pass on, and I was very pleased he agreed to be a regular contributor.

Hotel and Restaurant Reviews – do you love dining out and staying at fabulous hotels? This section is just for you. Chinwe, a lifestyle blogger is going to be contributing articles to this section. You will read reviews about exciting Hotels around the world, and fantastic places to have a great dining experience. I will also be contributing to this section from time to time, but you can read about my food travels HERE

The Dooney’s Kitchen Experience – on this page, you will read about the details on how you can partake in the dooney’s kitchen experience. From placing adverts on the site, to product reviews, to inviting me for events, corporate collaborations, and best of all, having delicious meals cooked by me.

New to Nigerian Food – I have been told that Nigerian food can be scary to a newbie, so I have created a page that introduces a newcomer to Nigerian food. Quick hints and tips, easy recipes to try out and so much more to usher you into the world of Nigerian cooking.

Recipe of the week – Highlight of the recipes posted every week

Ingredients Index – one of the best features of this site. You can find recipes on this site in several ways. Through Recipeadia, by typing the recipe into the search bar, or by the ingredients of a dish. This page has been indexed from A – Z. Scroll through to the ingredient you want, and all recipes you can cook with that ingredient will be displayed. This is also a work in progress, please bear with me.

Market Reporting – The first step to cooking Nigerian food is shopping for it. Market reporting will be showcasing the different markets all over the world that stock Nigerian food. From Lagos, to Abuja, to London. This section is where you can also come in. You can be a DK Market Reporter, just as CNN has iReporter. When next you go shopping, you can take pictures of your local market, write an interesting piece about the market, and I will upload it on this section for all to see.

I believe I have given a good summary about the features of the new Dooney’s Kitchen. I hope you love it here, as much as I have loved designing this site.

Everything about our food that is symbolic and unique to us, you will find here. A Nigerian food site that you go to for more than recipes. I want it to be on the lips of anyone who talks about Nigerian food, thinks about Nigerian food, your online resource, the Google and Bible of the Nigerian Foodosphere. The features of this site are exhaustive, and I haven’t even finished. Like with a restaurant, this is what is called The Soft Opening. Please bear with me while we work out the kinks. All the posts are here including the pictures, but some pages still lack content and some redirected links may be broken. I have over 450 posts to look through, so you can imagine how much work is involved. I had to make the call, to go live by midnight, so I can release my web developer to work on other projects, such as the site for Our Thoughts and You, while I work tirelessly to complete all that is left. I have set a personal challenge to finish before the middle of November, so I hope you will be patient. The day I finally complete everything for the site, I will share the long, arduous, painful and very expensive process to get to where I am now. You will need a tall drink and popcorn when you read everything I have been through.

So, enjoy the new Dooney’s Kitchen!!!!!!!