The article that I enjoyed the most was the Fieri review. I thought it was interesting in how harsh it was. This reviewer came across as completely biased to the point where it seemed he was reviewing the man rather than the restaurant. However, at the same time it was still pretty humorous for how direct it was. While it was entertaining to read this, the sarcasm and tone took away from the actual message as well as the author’s credibility.

I chose to read “19 Lazy But Brilliant Recipes That Won’t Let You Down, ” a Tasty by Buzzfeed article. This was my mentor text I used to guide my original composition. This article is great, because it was written for millennials and the content was intended to be sharable, which were two characteristics important to my writing. It also promotes a simplicity to cooking which is very valuable.

At the beginning of the semester I would have thought that the rhetoric of food was just simply writing about what we eat. I thought it pretty much would be cookbooks and restaurant reviews. As the semester progressed it became apparent that who was writing was also just as important as what was being written. Also, the content of what was being produced took on many more forms than what I expected. It encompasses everything from cookbooks to Tasty videos to Buzzfeed articles. I never realized how many different genres can be used in food writing. All in all, I learned that the rhetoric of food is the way in which we express and analyze our experiences with food.

The genre I am writing about is the listicle. The listicle was highly popularized by Buzzfeed. Listicles appear all over Buzzfeed including the Tasty food section, which utilizes this literary form to compile recipes, cooking tips, and other helpful food information. Research has shown that we tend to read slightly slower on computer screens. The list format helps to mitigate that, while also capitalizing on short attention spans in today’s Internet Age. Lists give us focused, annotated “tables of contents” of the Internet. This means finding recipes or dinner ideas in one consolidated place rather than scouring the Web for hours.

As long as people want stories in bite-sized formats, there will always be a place for the listicle. With the tsunami of incoming stuff on the Internet, our brains will automatically try to find a sorting mechanism and try to make sense of it, which is why we naturally gravitate to the listicle. Lists let us process complicated information spatially, transforming it from cluster to linear progression. Lists can be categories; they can be timelines; but either way, they place digestible bites of information in context of a larger whole.

Functional Purposes:

• To curate information into a numbered list that is easy to consume
• To provide information in an entertaining way that attracts younger generations.

Formal Elements:

• Title with numerical identifier

• Witty subtitle

• Picture with link to website where the information was found and caption to provide context

Texts for Genre Analysis:

19 Lazy But Brilliant Recipes That Won’t Let You Down: This article combines the “listicle” genre made popular by Buzzfeed with the simplistic style of recipes made popular by the Tasty videos. Tasty’s “anyone can cook” attitude has opened up a whole new world of food writing.

17 Cheat Sheets Every Home Cook Should Know About: This category of food listicle focuses on cooking tips rather than the actual food itself. These tips are aimed at beginner level cooks whom Tasty targets with most of all its content.

17 Useful Tips And Tricks If You Have An Instant Pot: This article highlights a specific cooking product: the instant pot. Obviously, this listicle is targeted to people whom own instant pots. As the name implies, instant pots are for people who want a easier and faster way of making certain dishes, which follows the Tasty on Buzzfeed theme of simpler cooking.

7 Facts About Potatoes That You Didn’t Know And Will Now Want To Tell Everyone: This type of listicle intends to educate the reader about a specific aspect of food or cooking, in this case potatoes. These articles tend to contain quirky, interesting facts a reader wouldn’t casually find elsewhere on the Internet.

Telling, Marie. “19 Lazy But Brilliant Recipes That Won’t Let You Down.” Tasty on BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 19 Mar. 2017. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

I chose an article from Tasty on Buzzfeed titled “19 Lazy But Brilliant Recipes That Won’t Let You Down.” This article combines the “listicle” genre made popular by Buzzfeed with the simplistic style of recipes made popular by the Tasty videos. People want content that cuts straight to the point, which is what has made Buzzfeed’s style of writing so popular and has essentially created a new genre. A reader can scroll through a list rather than read a whole article. Combining this with Tasty’s “anyone can cook” attitude has opened up a whole new world of food writing.

Our generation wants content that is catchy and to the point. As seen in this article, this type of writing combines bright, attractive photos with grabbing but concise captions. Each photo and caption is accompanied by a link to the recipe, so instead of having to scroll through nineteen recipes, the reader can instead just look through the photos and then decide which look appealing to them. This way the reader does not have to go and search through cookbooks or food blogs, but instead is given nineteen recipes in one article that offer a variety of easy recipes. People, in general, want to see food rather than read about it, but I think millennials are even more demanding of pictures or videos in the digital age.

The text is targeted at millennials not just with the format but also the content itself. Millennials are characterized as “lazy” quite often and not even just by other generations but by themselves as well. Each caption is aiming to attract a reader because it is quick, easy or foolproof. The Tasty brand was built on taking popular recipes and showing how they can be made by anyone in their videos.

This text is a great representation of the modern style of food writing Buzzfeed and other “social news sites” have created. A reader who wants simple and “lazy” recipes can easily scroll through and find a dish that looks appealing. From there, they have access to the recipe, rather than the reverse when a reader has to scroll through hundreds of recipes to find something appealing.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/marietelling/lazy-but-brilliant-recipes-you-need-to-add-to-your?utm_term=.qm9Kgv70q5#.bvoRbED5OL

I chose Tex-Mex food and its role in Texan cuisine as my topic as I love the food and have a great appreciation for its origin in Texas. I am wanting to explore this topic from historical and geographical viewpoints. I think this is an important topic to write on since food is such a crucial aspect of any culture, and Texas certainly has its own unique culture to be explored. Tex-Mex is likely the most well-known cuisine in Texas aside from barbeque. I have had great success in finding detailed history about the origin of Tex-Mex and the history of Texas cuisine in general. It was difficult at first to find diverse sources on Tex-Mex itself, so I expanded my topic to include the role it plays in Texan cuisine as a whole. From a historical standpoint, I am looking into how the history between Mexico and Texas led to this food fusion and what Tex-Mex is today. I found a great article from the History Network about the creation of Tex-Mex. I also found information from the Texas State Historical Society on the research they have done on this distinct cuisine and its significance to Texas. I also have been researching and found information on the history of Texas cuisine in general as to add more context to my bibliography. Geographically, I am looking at how Tex-Mex differs across the state as Texas is large and has many different regions. I also want to explore the difference between Tex-Mex and traditional Mexican food. I found a great article in Texas Monthly that gives a crash course on what makes Tex-Mex different from traditional Mexican food.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/8-essential-tex-mex-dishes.html

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/tracing-the-history-of-tex-mex

http://texascultures.housing.utexas.edu/assets/pdfs/texas_cuisine.pdf

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lgtlt

I wanted to find a topic that particularly fit my taste in food. So what I did was start going to establishments and trying different genres of food to see what I was the most interested in choosing for my topic. The first thing that came to mind was my love of donuts. This appealed to me, because it’s one of those things that helps “Keep Austin Weird.” Round Rock donuts has the “Texas Donut” which is bigger than a football, Ken’s Donut’s keeps with the tradition of Texas with the “Longhorn Donut”, and finally there are Voodoo Donuts, which is as weird as it sounds. So I went to their websites first which can be found by just typing their names into Google.

Then I thought to myself maybe I should do something completely original to Austin. So I went online in search of truly Austin establishments. What I found is that a lot of the famous ones were Tex-Mex which makes sense given this is Texas. The ones that stuck out to me the most were Juan-in-a-Million for breakfast and Matt’s El Rancho.

I think I want to stick with Tex-Mex, but unfortunately between Math theory test last week, career fair, SOA qualifications, and my econ test tomorrow I haven’t had much time yet. So any suggestions on where to go with this topic are welcome.

Sausage Balls

Coming from a family of avid hunters, we always have an excess of meats in the fridge. We are always in need of simple recipes to use these meats, and this is one of my favorites. These are the perfect snack for your Super Bowl watch party or a grab & go breakfast treat. The best part is all of the ingredients cost less than $15 and will always a hit with friends.

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground sausage
• 3 cups baking mix (Bisquick)
• 4 cups grated cheddar cheese (or whatever grated cheese is on hand)
• ½ tbs all-purpose salt-free seasoning (Mrs. Dash)

Supplies:

• measuring cups
• large bowl
• baking sheet
• aluminum foil

Time: 35 minutes                                                 Yield: approximately 3 dozen

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with cooking spray.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with your fingers. The mixture will be very crumbly. Form into 1-inch balls (it is important the balls are all the same size so they cook evenly), squeezing the mixture so it holds together, then rolling it between the palms of your hands to form balls.  If the mixture is not holding together, add a few tablespoons of water. Place the balls on the baking sheet (leave about 1-inch of space between each ball). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. To prevent sticking, move the balls with a spatula halfway through cooking. After cooking, lay the sausage balls out on paper towels and allow them to cool.

Note: This recipe can be adapted to fit the ingredients you have available or your specific tastes. You can make an Italian version of it by substituting Italian seasoning and mozzarella cheese and serving it with marinara sauce. You could also give it a Mexican twist by using Monterey jack cheese and chili powder and serving it with salsa. The opportunities are endless!

Format

The type of format in which a recipe is written can vary based on how the recipe is being published (book, magazine, online, etc.), the length and difficulty of the recipe, the audience the recipe is being written for, and many other factors. There are three distinctive formats in which recipes are commonly written.

The first being the more traditional standard format where ingredients are listed in the format they are used and instructions are listed in a simple step-by-step format. This form takes up little space allowing for easy printing and allows for cooks to easily check the ingredient list. This recipe format is often used in cook books and magazines.

Another popular way for recipes to be formatted can be described as “active format” in which ingredients are listed with step-by-step instructions. This makes the recipe easy to follow; however, it is more difficult to check for ingredients needed. It also is not as convenient for printing since it takes up more space.

Narrative format is when a recipe is written in paragraph form and the ingredients are listed along with the instructions. The recipe can be hard to follow using this format making it much more useful for short recipes with few ingredients. Often times, the ingredients are listed at the top prior to the narrative of the recipe for convenience. This format is popular on food blogs.

Style

The style in which the recipe is written typically reflects who the person is writing the recipe and the audience for which the recipe is being written. There are general stylistic conventions that are almost used like instructions given in imperative sentences and putting measurements in US customary units (or whatever measurements are standard where the recipe is being published), but style can also be used in recipes just as it is in any other form of writing. Style is most evident in narrative form recipes where the person writing the recipe has more freedom to tell a story of how they prepare a meal. The Pioneer Woman blog is a great illustration of how recipes can have a particular style (http://thepioneerwoman.com).Ree Drummond uses narrative form with pictures to vividly illustrate how she prepares the recipe. She will then include a standard form of the recipe for easy preparation.

Content

There are obviously basic elements of a recipe: ingredients and instructions. However, there are additional aspects that can be added such as, how much the recipes yields, the time it takes to prepare the dish, the origin or provenance of the dish, and nutritional information. Recipes often include pictures of the prepared dish and potentially even pictures of the dish as it is being prepared.

I chose these recipes because they are pretty much the only things  I know how to cook. They were also things my mom regularly made for me.

Garlic Butter Salmon