A look into the life of food blogger Whitney Bond
We all have our classic "go-to" dishes in the kitchen but consider expanding from those routine recipes and trying some new, delectable dishes.
For inspiration and mouthwatering recipes, there’s only one blog to follow: Whitneybond.com. This delightful food blog is based out of San Diego, California and features “traditional recipes with a bond girl twist.” Whitney Bond and her blog are nationally recognized and continuously featured on Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness Magazine and countless TV news broadcasts. Her recipes, like blackberry jalapeño guacamole, are easy, unconventional and tasty.
Here’s the twist—Bond wasn’t born amidst palm trees and beaches; she was born and raised in the Sooner State. A graduate of Edmond Santa Fe High School, Bond is a serious OU fan and fondly remembers her Oklahoma family dinners. Luckily, during one of Bond’s most recent visits back to Oklahoma to see her family, Linked was able to grab coffee with her and discuss her experience and success in the blogging industry.
A Blogger’s Journey
Bond’s journey wasn’t like most bloggers. After high school graduation, Bond packed up her things and attended college in San Diego. There, Bond spent her first few years in college without any clear idea of what she wanted to do. After deciding to take a break from school, she worked at various jobs and started her own promotional modeling agency at the age of twenty-one. But, with the crash in the economy, Bond decided to give up her business and go back to school for broadcast/journalism in Los Angeles. It was there when she decided to start her blog.
“During school I decided that I would start a blog just for fun,” said Bond. “I would practice my writing skills, because I was already writing stuff all the time for school. I had all of these crazy stories of things that only happened in LA, and I started occasionally throwing on recipes. It was literally like I was broke in LA, and I was asking, ‘Alright, what do I have in my kitchen that I can throw together?’”
But these blog posts weren’t the first time Bond had experimented with new recipes. Bond’s love of food originated back to her Sunday night dinners where her family would walk across the street to have dinner at her grandparents’ house. This is one of the Oklahoma traditions she carried with her to California.
“Way before I started my food blog, I had been doing these dinners in California and would have people over to cook for them,” said Bond. “It was always something I loved to do just because it was something to bring everyone together. And, I mean no one’s going to say no when you say home cooking in college or in California. You’d be surprised, a lot of people who grew up in California don’t know how to cook or might not have grown up with families that cooked.”
Bucket Lists and Branding
The summer after graduating college Bond decided to dedicate a summer to traveling throughout the United States hoping to see new places, try new cuisine and connect with new people.
“I decided to just put my stuff in storage and go travel for the summer,” said Bond. “Then, I got this idea that I should share everywhere I was planning to go on my blog. I even decided to create a bucket list so people could follow along and help me check items off of my list by opening up their homes or connecting me to people they knew.”
The bucket list took off, and people began responding to her zany adventures. She recalls one of her favorite bucket list adventures.
“One of my bucket list items was to visit a pig farm. Someone reached out and said ‘I know someone who has a goat farm would that work instead?’ So, of course, I drove to Texas and visited someone’s goat farm. I got to try goat’s milk, and they videoed me actually milking a goat. It was pretty hilarious.”
This trip didn’t just provide great stories and funny videos, it skyrocketed Bond’s career.
“At the end of the summer, when I was done with all the traveling, totally draining my bank account and having no more frequent-flyer points left, I decided that I wanted to blog full-time. I really fell in love with sharing these stories and the way I was able to connect with people over the summer.”
However, Bond knew she wouldn’t be able to afford blogging full-time yet. Bond got a part-time job working at a digital agency company and continued working on her blog. After several months, she was forced to make a hard decision when the company told her that she’d have to go full-time to continue working there.
“This was at the same time my blog was starting to take off,” said Bond. “I just had my first feature on Huffington Post, and I was speaking to a publisher about my cookbook. I couldn’t commit to full-time at the agency without losing my blog and its progress.”
A Leap of Faith
Bond took the leap and officially started blogging full-time in 2010. She spent most of her time contacting brands and found herself frustrated often.
“I started reaching out to brands whose products I loved, asking ‘Would you pay me anything to blog about your products?’ It was definitely really tough for the first year to make a living. Especially living in San Diego. I just wasn’t at the level where brands wanted to talk to me. I didn’t know what to do.”
After close to 4 years of bootstrapping it and trying to figure out how to keep going day-to-day, Bond is no longer having to contact brands—they are now reaching out to her. Her blog is a wild success, and a short scroll through her laundry list of yummy dishes as well as the beautiful photography and design of the blog, reveals how far this Oklahoma girl has come since the beginning.
However, when asked about her biggest success, it wasn’t her associations with brand names like Daisy, Healthy Choice or Francesca’s that she mentioned. Instead, Bond said her greatest success was seeing how far she has come and being able to share her experience with those that have followed her from the beginning. Like a delicious dish, Bond’s journey has taken some time; however, it’s definitely been worth the wait.
In honor of the upcoming summer months, Bond shared one of her favorite summertime recipes with us. Linked encourages you to enjoy the yummy dishes during your next summer gathering!
Slow-Cooked Chipotle Apple BBQ Brisket Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced apple
- 1 cup diced red onion
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chipotle pepper powder
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 2 lb brisket
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (chopped)
- 1 tsp adobo sauce from the can of chipotle peppers
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup apple juice
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 8 hamburger buns
- Kale Apple Slaw
Instructions
- Add the apples and onions to the bottom of a large slow cooker.
- Combine the garlic powder, chipotle powder, black pepper and kosher salt in a small bowl.
- Rub this mixture on the brisket, then place in the slow cooker on top of the apples and onions.
- In a medium bowl, combine the ketchup, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, brown sugar, apple juice, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.
- Pour this mixture over the brisket.
- Slow cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 10-12 hours.
- Shred the brisket and lightly toast the buns before serving.
- Place the brisket on the buns and top with the slaw.
For more yummy recipes like this follow Bond on social media:
Snapchat: @WhitneyMBond • Instagram: @WhitneyBond • Twitter: @Whitney_Bond • YouTube: YouTube.com/WhitneyMBond • Facebook: Facebook.com/whitneybondblog • Pinterest: Pinterest.com/whitneybondblog