Ellie's Blog

How To Promote An Event With Inbound Marketing - On Video!

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Yesterday I did a presentation on How to Promote an Event with Inbound Marketing for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Social Media Marketing conference. Since I'm here in Massachusetts, and the event was out in Texas, I did the presentation via a live webinar and recorded the session.

Here is the full presentation video, plus the slides below. Enjoy!

How to Promote an Event with Inbound Marketing

View more Microsoft Word documents from Hubspot Marketing.

Facebook for Business Tips [My Radio Debut]

Ellie Mirman — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:38:00 GMT

Recently I made my radio debut on Career Life Balance Radio as part of their "Marketing Minutes" segment. My segments are focusing on "How to Use Facebook for Business". Listen below for my surprisingly high-pitched Facebook for Business Tips.

Part 1:How to Use Facebook to Market Your Business

Part 2: How to Get More Facebook Fans

Part 3: How to Get the Most Out of Facebook Ads

Photo credit: foraggio

Do You Own the Search Results for Your Name?

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:26:00 GMT

I won't even attempt to deny I'm not a marketing geek. One of the things I loved about Kyle James' blog post "Jokes: 36 Reasons You Might be Addicted to Social Media" was "#6: You own the Google search results for your name." That definitely held true for me.

Here are all the top results for my name - x right in a row.

My blog
My blog "about me" page
Twitter
Facebook
FriendFeed
MITX
LinkedIn
Twitterholic
SEMPO Meetup
AMA Boston
Amazon.com
RSSmeme
one of my recent tweets
BoardReader
one of my flickr photos
my comment on a blog post
Digg
FriendFeed (again!)
Tweetree
another flickr photo
Twitter mobile
a mention on another blog
BackType
Insightory presentation I did on Twitter
HubSpot blog article I posted
my comment on a blog post
a reposting of one of my articles from the HubSpot blog
my comment on a blog post
SlideShare presentation I did on Inbound Marketing
my comment on a blog post
my listing as a speaker for Geek Girl Camp

OK, I'll stop there. The results actually go on and on - and rightfully all about me. I actually made it 12 results pages deep before giving up on finding that first non-me-related result! Of course, I understand that there aren't a lot of Ellie Mirmans out there (if any!), and that even my first or my last name separately are not very common. But, damn, that was a lot of content!

Some things I realized:

It's easy to create a lot of bits of content. I don't consider myself to be such a prolific writer / content producer (at least for the public web). Most of the results were either profiles on different social media sites, blog comments, presentations I had posted on sharing sites, or blog posts themselves.
I've got a lot of social media profiles. Set up, not necessarily in use. Funny enough, they're almost ranked in the order in which I use them the most. First Twitter, then Facebook, then LinkedIn... In any case, social media profiles rank very well because of the reputation and optimization of the sites, and this actually serves as a good way for helping people connect with you online even via a Google search.
What do your search results say about you? At first I was going to say, no one searches for your name (most likely) anyway, so who cares. But really, there may be a few who do, and they are probably either (1) trying to find/connect with you or (2) trying to learn more about you. Getting found in these top search results ensures that you're enabling connections. And producing more content ensures that you have good results (instead of potentially damaging results) at the top. What do my search results say about me? Well, that I work at HubSpot, and I'm pretty active in social media.

Of course, for those folks out there with less content or more competition for their name on the web, the Google profile gives everyone a good opportunity to get prime real estate on the first page of search results for their name.

Photo by silvery

More Americans Head North For Good But Affordable College

Ellie Mirman — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:54:00 GMT

The secret's out - Canadian schools are a great education at a great price, plus the application process is much easier. It's definitely what got me to go to McGill... So easy to apply (online, no essay, no interviews) and I could attend for less than half the price of a regular US college. Right, and it was a great education too.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Can't see the video? Watch it here.

Oh, and a shout-out to Kelly, my main source for pro-McGill news.

The Ultimate Self-Help Book from the Very Funny Eugene Mirman

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:48:00 GMT

As perhaps the unofficial official blogger of my family, and also a well-intentioned member of society, I feel it is my duty to share this wonderful read. The Will to Whatevs is the ultimate self-help book for dealing with all of life's twists and turns, from school to marriage to death. Perhaps in that order, but perhaps not.

This guidebook comes from the very funny Eugene Mirman. I won't dare try to compete with Eugene's hilarity, but instead will share some of my favorite bits from his book...

The purpose of this book is clear.

"Our grandparents may have had twelve-hour workdays in dangerous, filthy factories, and limited medicine, but they can't imagine how hard it is to list your favorite bands on a social networking site in a way that maximizes what strangers think of you. Some of our parents may have gone to college, but did they temp at a weird PR firm or software company?"

This book provides very practical tips, including ideas for college essay topics, including:

How old people and young people are the same in so many ways, except age.
A concert or reading you went to that had a powerful affect on you.
How you overcame adversity (and tricking someone slightly older into having sex does not count).
How people are animals, but shouldn't be hunted.
Reasons it's wrong to be racist even though it makes sense to you.
Pearl Jam.
How your parents met their new spouses.
The perfect murder.
Your favorite places to throw up.
An essay title, "If I Were Eric Clapton..."

On explaining family relations, these words of wisdom may have held true when I was younger...

Good Uncle, Bad Influence: "Being an uncle is like being a rock star no one but your niece or nephew has heard of."

If you plan on coming out as gay,

"The best place to tell your parents you are a homosexual person from now on (no changing your mind back after college, okay?) is at a fancy restaurant... In the middle of the meal, show them a Vogue magazine (if you're a guy) or a Popular Mechanics (if you're a lady) and go, 'This is me now, and you have to accept it.' If they are confused, whisper, 'I'm gay.' The point of this roundabout exercise is the joy of deduction. Giving your parents clues and making them figure out that you're gay will give them a sense of accomplishment that will balance their initial shock."

And, of course, some wise career counseling.

"A new job is like a new glove. You are excited, but it's just a glove. Still, maybe it will fit well?"

And I can't help but have a soft spot for this section:

The Internet: How to Harness the Power and Reach of New Media: "Make a music video of all your friends fighting in a forest with animals. Make sure the animals are dangerous, but not too dangerous. So no one gets seriously hurt. Put that footage to your catchiest song and post it on YouTube. Then just wait. I forgot to add that everyone (including the animals) should be in their underwear."

Also, a while back I went to New York for the book release party for The Will to Whatevs. Brooklyn Vegan had a good recap of the event.

My Internet - From A To Z

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:29:00 GMT

One of the features that I [hated at first but now] love about Firefox 3 is the "smart" address bar that remembers the web pages you've been to along with all their page titles - so if you start typing the website URL or page title, Firefox pulls up a few suggestions of sites you've recently or repeatedly visited.

Every once in a while, I get a kick out of the suggestions it makes for me, and how smart it's gotten about the sites I visit most frequently.

So here's a look at my Internet - the first suggestion for each letter - from A to Z.

A: amazon.com

D: digg.com

G: gmail.com

H: hubspot.com

I: inboundmarketingsummit.com/agenda

J: jetblue.com

K: hubspot.com/website-redesign-kit

L: linkedin.com

M: maps.google.com

N: netflix.com

O: onstartups.com blog article

P: pandora.com

Q: hubspot.com/customer-case-studies/?Tag=quote

R: rebeccacorliss.com

S: search.twitter.com

T: twitter.com

U: unionstbrooklynbandb.com

V: vcall.com

W: weather.com for my zip code

X: [random yahoo login page]

Y: youtube.com

Z: zazzle.com/hubspotgear

Photo by shibainu

Live Storytelling: A Soviet Childhood Gang

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:49:00 GMT

In this short video, my brother tells a story of his childhood gang - a group of 7-year-olds in Soviet Riga, Latvia - in a wonderfully entertaining way. And I say that not just because he's my brother, but because (1) a Soviet childhood is surprisingly funny, and (2) my brother has a knack for storytelling. "Look up communism. You'll find out."

"On My Street" - First Person Arts Story by Dan Mirman

About First Person Arts: First Person Arts is an organization in Philadelphia (where my brother lives) that hosts a "story slam" (like poetry slam but for storytelling) the 4th Tuesday of every month. Each story slam has a new theme and volunteers are invited to tell a *true* story from their lives related to the theme. They have a bunch more info on their website http://www.firstpersonarts.org

Bonus Video! "Bad Idea" - First Person Arts Story by Dan Mirman

The Story of Exodus, As Told Through Facebook

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:38:00 GMT

This brings together two fabulous things: Jewish stories and social media geekiness - in a hilarious way!

Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah

The story of Exodus, as told through Facebook.

Some highlights:

...

Read the whole story of Exodus, as told through Facebook.

I Made An Internet Marketing Geek Discovery!

Ellie Mirman — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:26:00 GMT

It's no secret that I'm an Internet marketing geek. In particular, I spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of Facebook to share how businesses can use the social network for marketing.

Well, in doing just that, I made a discovery! Yesterday I discovered a loophole that allowed me to create links from Facebook to my website that pass SEO (search engine optimization) credit.

This is a pretty big deal because (1) a link from Facebook.com is incredibly valuable, and (2) almost all links from Facebook are either "no follow" (don't pass SEO juice) or "redirects" (first bring you to a page that warns that you're leaving Facebook). But through the custom-coded FBML (Facebook Markup Language) application, I could code whatever link I wanted - the target URL, the link text, everything!

For at least an hour, I was jumping in my office seat. Of course, after sharing my news with the marketing team, I was volunteered to write a blog article about it.

Read my post: Facebook Gives SEO Credit to Links in FBML Applications

Photo credit: futurowoman

But It's Also A Camera!

Ellie Mirman — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:55:00 GMT

I love this joke from comedian Mike Birbiglia:

"I get really annoyed with technology. They don't make better technology, they just combine stuff. Like you go to buy something, everything's also a camera. They'll be like, 'It's also a camera!' I'm like, 'I just wanted a grapefruit.' They're like, 'It's a camera grapefruit. You take pictures of yourself eating the grapefruit, and then you eat the camera, and you shit the pictures!' Oh my god, that is the opposite of what I wanted."

- Mike Birbiglia, as heard on Invite Them Up

I was reminded of this last night, as I was at a family function talking to some family friends about cell phones. One family friend, who recently became a grandfather in fact, was talking about his old cell phone that he just loved. "It was just a phone. You turned it on, and it worked, and it never missed a call." He was ragging on all these PDAs and data plans -- he had no desire for such technology in his cell phone. I started to explain how valuable it is to have the Internet at your fingertips at all times. I tried to think of examples of how handy it would be, without giving the use cases of twitter or email, but didn't get far before getting stumped.

And so I started to think about how hyper-connected we all are with our iPhones and BlackBerries and how this can actually keep us from the living in the very moment we are in. I have not actually mastered mobile tweeting quite yet, and so still find it quite cumbersome to try to tweet while at a party or other event. Sparse tweets can actually mean that I'm just having too good a time to pull myself away to tweet. And while I'm a big believer in all this technology helping us extend our community and allow more people take part in our experiences, it may simultaneously serve as a distraction from that which we are experiencing at a given moment.

I was recently telling my friend of the "practical" reasons behind "observing the Sabbath." I grew up in a Reform Jewish household, and still consider myself Reform. Though I did have periods of my life where I became more observant, or was surrounded by those who were very observant. My friend couldn't imagine spending 24 whole hours not being online, not using technology. I told her how invigorating it can be - to put aside your cell phone, but aside your laptop, and just be with your friends and family. Spend the day talking or reading or playing games. Just be in the moment.

Isn't it still considered rude to be on your cell phone at the dinner table? That's at least partly because you're signaling to those around you that you'd rather be somewhere else, talking to someone else. Putting down the phone shows that you want to be right then and there.

It's also incredibly calming. That's what I love about traveling, especially out of the country, where my cell phone won't work and I rarely have access to the Internet. I'm disconnected, in a good way. I can just be where I am, doing whatever I'm doing. My brain isn't somewhere else and it doesn't need to be anywhere else. A little bit of the back to basics can be good from time to time. And that's exactly what I got last night, with the Russian music playing, and the happy couples dancing, and even with the camera phones snapping away... it was good to just laugh and dance in that very wholesome my-family-is-ridiculous sort of way.

Photo by pouwerkerk

Social Media: For the Non-Social Marketer

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:24:00 GMT

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, and what better time than just after a great trip to Miami for a marketing conference. I think traditionally marketers are seen as outgoing, social people who can strike up great conversations with whomever they meet. That is not me. I'm the shy girl at the party, who might hang out by the food table in the hopes of striking up a conversation about vegetable dips with an unsuspecting hungry guest.

When I first interviewed at HubSpot, I remember getting the "inbound marketing vision" from Dharmesh, our quiet genious of a co-founder. He told me how the Internet gives us opportunities to interact with people in new ways, on their own time and comfort level. While at a party, you might find him quietly standing alone on the sidelines, online he finds it much easier to write and interact on blogs and social media. There's something - and this is my $0.02 - freeing about writing your thoughts versus saying them aloud. Similarly, there's something freeing about interacting with people online versus in person.

But here's where we can take it to the next level. What I find so cool about the uninhibited social media interactions is that by the time you meet a social media connection "IRL" (in real life - social media speak LOL), you already have a relationship with them and you can jump past that awkward hi-my-name-is stage. By the time you meet in person, you're already long-time friends.

And that's exactly what happened to me this week, at the MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Summit down in Miami. At first, being the shy marketer that I am, I was a little anxious about going to the event and socializing with folks. But then I discovered that my long-time twitter friend, DJ Waldow, was going to be there. Of course! How could I forget that DJ worked for an email marketing company. From there, I discovered even more social media connections.

With the designated event hashtag, #emailsummit, all the event twitterers created a pseudo chatroom for the event on twitter. I would be sitting in a session, essentially chatting with the other twitterers about the content being presented, or about plans for that evening after the conference sessions. What was an event of 500 strangers turned into a friendly group of about a dozen twitterers.

I got to hang out with some great people this week, while of course learning all about email marketing, including: DJ Waldow, Adam Covati, Brandon Wilkins, Lucas Weber, Justin Premick, Erin Malone, GregoryNG, Big Jason, Karen Talavera, Luke, Jeff Rohrs, Judith Soto, and more. Unfortunately, there were even a few more tweeps at the event that I didn't get to meet. Hopefully at the next event.

So with all this said and done, I maintain - social media is not (just) for the social marketer. Social media has allowed this non-social marketer - in multiple ways - to make great connections with people whom I might otherwise never have met.

Photo by nereski

A Picture - Or Case Study - Is Worth 1000 Words

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:44:00 GMT

There's nothing like a great conference to really get lots of thoughts and ideas jumping around in your head, just waiting for a blog post to flush them out. Yesterday I drove down to Randolph, MA for Geek Girl Camp Boston to talk to women about how to use inbound marketing and, specifically, Facebook, for business and afterwards I was so energized with blog post ideas about marketing and Facebook and social media newbies.

But that's not really what this blog post is about. I'm actually pretty new to the conference speaker role, and I was excited to get some experience at this event. Feedback was great (thank you all!), but of course I want to improve. I'll be the first to admit that I have a tendency to be a bit wordy and confusing when I try to explain things that I know too much about. I definitely fall victim to the Curse of Knowledge and need to work on better explaining things I know a lot about, like Facebook.

So when I got home last night, I pulled out (one of the four books I'm currently reading) Made to Stick to pick up where I left off (months ago... I really need to focus on one book at a time). Made to Stick has been one of the best business books I have ever read, really helping me with this Curse of Knowledge that I so easily fall victim to. Something that occurred to me - both in observing the authors' writing style and also the section specifically on Concrete ideas being "sticky" - was that concrete examples or case studies can be a huge help in delivering your idea in an effective way while also overcoming the Curse! By using real life examples of what you're explaining, a reader or listener can more easily remember your story. Also, by using case studies, you paint a picture that is worth a thousand words - your audience can fully experience what you're talking about, draw their own conclusions, and all at the same time, you make a lot more sense by not being so abstract.

Uh oh, I'm falling victim to it again. I'm being too abstract and not using concrete examples! So let's try this again.

In my presentation at GGC, I spent a lot of time talking about the news feed, about business Pages, about Facebook applications. Sure, I was giving step-by-step instructions for setting up a Page, but I still got a lot of questions like, "What if I don't want my clients to see my friends' kids' photos?" or "Should I use my real name?" -- questions more easily answered by just jumping in and seeing how Facebook works from a user's perspective.

Here's what I could have done: logged in to Facebook. Shown the news feed. Look! My friend Dan posted a link to his latest blog post. Mike uploaded a video of his son. Ashley became a fan of Flight of the Conchords. From there, we could go look at the Flight of the Conchords Page on Facebook. We could look at Ashley's profile, that shows she's a fan of that Page. And we remember that her action of becoming a fan actually showed up when I logged in. That's pretty cool.

That's one idea. By making it a lot more concrete, people can see exactly what Facebook is and how it works and will (hopefully) be better able to jump in using it.

What I especially like about the case study approach is that I can still allow myself to be wordy... But in this case, my words are used to describe a story. They add color and texture, and at the end, the listener can get a fuller experience of the picture, instead of me throwing a thousand words at them to describe the picture. I'm hoping from now on I'll try to paint more pictures... and not write any more dissertations.

I Am Indeed A Girl Geek

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:01:00 GMT

Next week, I'll be heading out to Randolph, MA for Geek Girl Camp Boston to speak on How to Use Facebook for Business.

Geek Girl Camp is an unconference specifically for women who want to learn how to use different forms of technology for business.

I'll be speaking on something I know way too much about - Facebook. Specifically, how to use Facebook to market your business. That includes: an introduction to Facebook, how to create a business presence, how to market your business on Facebook, and what and how to measure your Facebook marketing efforts. I'll also be speaking with Rebecca Corliss on the basics of inbound marketing. (Also my coworker Karen "Katie Couric in training" Rubin will be speaking at the event too. We're going to have quite the crew there.)

Got a specific question about using Facebook for your business? Leave a comment below. I'm happy to answer all sorts of questions, either in the presentation (which we'll hopefully record) or on my blog. And if you're going to be at Geek Girl Camp, be sure to find me and say hi! Will be nice to meet some blogging / social media friends.

P.S. Hear about all the changes coming to Facebook Business Pages? If you want to hear more, I blogged about them over on the HubSpot blog.

How To Find A Job In A Recession - Use Blogs, Social Media

Ellie Mirman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:59:00 GMT

Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe came by our offices to talk to Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO, to talk about how people can find a job (in or out of a recession, really).

In short: use blogs and social media to build your personal brand and expertise online so that companies find you and know who you are before you even send in a resume.

Watch the video:

Some Pre-Social Media Soul-Searching

Ellie Mirman — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:15:00 GMT

I love Twitter for a lot of reasons. One is that I get great links to articles and stories and all sorts of interesting things to read and think about. That's exactly what happened to me today, when I was checking out some of my new followers.

I was directed to this article about using social media for personal branding. This is a classic topic, but this article, though short, had some nice tidbits.

Do some pre-social media soul-searching before starting

Most articles about using social media for personal branding jump right into the listening, participating, and publishing aspects. Few actually make the point to step back, figure out who you are and what value you provide, before jumping into the rest.

Some time ago I tried to figure out what I was going to do with this blog. So far, it's been a crazy mix of posts on anything from rants about facebook to funny YouTube videos to updates on what I happen to be cooking in the kitchen that week. Yep, not focused at all. Part of the reason is I haven't figured out who I'm writing for. Is it my friends and family who want to know what I've been up to? Or is it my marketing community where I live and interact all day every day on a professional level. This is where I really start to understand the whole business vs. personal social media dilemma.

So it's time for me to take a step back. Figure out who I'm writing for, and why. This is a hugely important step when you're going to use social media for personal branding.

A Week of Parties, Celebrities, and Videos

Ellie Mirman — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:28:00 GMT

It's been a crazy week for us over at HubSpot - and I swear this time it's crazier than usual.

HubSpot 1K Customers Celebration

First up, we had our HubSpot 1K Customers Party, at which we had probably 200 HubSpot employees, customers, friends, and family join us in our new office to celebrate our 1,000 customer base.

We had HubSpot TV live, SWAG and temporary tattoo stations, tarot readings, foosball, RockBand, and, of course, food and drinks. It was a rockin' time, as the photos will illustrate.

MC Hammer Visits HubSpot TV

And the very next day, just to top the biggest company party ever, we had a surprise visit from - are you ready for this - MC HAMMER. Yup, he just happened to be in town and decided to visit our little ol' internet marketing startup.

Really, what happened was another twitter success story. He tweeted that he was in Boston, a number of HubSpotters responded, saying he should stop by... and he did! As my fellow HubSpotter, Rebecca Corliss, said, twitter really does level the networking playing field. Could you ever imagine our little software company getting a celebrity like that to come to our office?

View a short clip from his visit to HubSpot TV:

World Wide Rave Video

Now, just to top it all off, today David Meerman Scott posted a new video that features over 100 people who have created World Wide Raves (triggering people to spread their ideas and share their stories for free). Watch carefully for my cameo at about 1:12 (right after John Hodgman). David was very nice to even credit me in his post - thanks David!

P.S. - David's new book, World Wide Rave is pretty awesome (I got an advance copy - thanks again, David!) and it officially comes out at the beginning of March, though online sales have already begun.

Easy and Delicious Avocado, Mozzarella, and Tomato Salad

Ellie Mirman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:56:00 GMT

Avocado, Mozzarella, and Tomato Salad

Mix cubed avocado, quartered mozzarella balls, and chopped tomatoes with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper.

Serve in scooped out tomato or on toast or just on its own. Delicious!

Show the Link Love This Valentine's Day

Ellie Mirman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:27:00 GMT

I can't get enough of these videos (especially the bloopers). Danger: contains much geekiness.

Link Love - A Geek Valentine's Day Ballad

(a HubSpot original by our very own Repcor)

Link Love - Bloopers

You might just see my awesome directing skills showcased...

Doesn't make any sense? Check out the lyrics or why link love is better than flowers or chocolate. Oh, and send some link love.

Zucchini Adventures in the Kitchen - Roasted Vegetable Paella & Broiled Zucchini with Rosemary & Chive Butter

Ellie Mirman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:18:00 GMT

Zucchinis, zucchinis, and more zucchinis! These dishes turned out quite well - but how could they not? I pretty much love all the ingredients, and, surprise surprise, when you put them together they're also delicious!

As usual, I skipped ingredients and steps because, really, I'm not going to go boil fresh garlic or saffron threads... so below I've included the cliffs notes version of the recipes I made.

Roasted Vegetable Paella

Ingredients:

3 cups vegetable broth
1 large red bell pepper, cut into bite-size chunks
1 large yellow bell pepper, cut into bite-size chunks
2 small zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
garlic, chopped and fried, or powder
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium plum tomatoes, chopped (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 1/4 cups rice
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400F. Mix bell peppers and zucchini with oil, salt, pepper, garlic and place on a large baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until tender and beginning to char.
Meanwhile, in a large pan, cook the onion until lightly golden, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook until liquids have almost completely evaporated, about 3-5 minutes.
Cook rice in vegetable broth and add tomato/onion mixture.
Stir in roasted vegetables and parsley and cook, stirring, until heated through.

Broiled Zucchini with Rosemary and Chive Butter

Ingredients:

3 tbs butter, softened (or, replace with olive oil)
2 tbs finely chopped chives or green parts of scallions
1 tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary, or 1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 medium zucchini, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
In a small bowl, mash together all ingredients except zucchini until well combined.
Place zucchini on prepared baking sheet and broil until lightly browned, about 3 minutes per side.
Remove from oven and, while stillhot, spread evenly with rosemary-chive butter.

Source: The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen

What Ever Happened to Bronto and His Diet Coke Castle?

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:25:00 GMT

If you haven't yet, go check out the tragic story of Bronto and his diet coke castle - made out of, yep, you guessed it, Diet Coke cans drunk by myself and Rebecca Corliss. We are both Diet Coke addicts and... silly people.

But Bronto's folks are just as silly. Here's DJ Waldow & friends' video response to the whole story:

Ricotta Stuffed Bell Peppers... And Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:23:00 GMT

This week's "Adventures in the Kitchen" was perhaps less successful, though still interesting and tasty. I chose a few recipes - some of which I just scrapped altogether, some of which turned into something completely different by the end. Instead of talking about those other - not completed, let's say - recipes, I'll share one dish I did indeed make:

Feta and Ricotta Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

2 large (red or green) bell peppers, halved lengthwise, seeds and ribs removed
1 cup (4 oz) crumbled feta
1 cup (about 10 oz) ricotta cheese
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 tbs chopped fresh dill
3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (the juice from 1 large lemon)
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
4 cups baby spinach leaves (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.
Lightly oil a baking dish just large enough to accommodate the pepper halves in a single layer.
In a medium bowl, mash together the feta and ricotta until well-combined.
Add the parsley, dill, garlic, lemon-pepper seasoning, and salt, stirring well to combine.
Fill the pepper halves evenly with the cheese mixture.
Tansfer to the dish and drizzle with lemon juice and oil.
Cover and bake for about 45 minutes, or until peppers are tender.
Serve warm, over the spinach leaves (if using).

Results:

So I didn't have feta. Or half of the other ingredients. I basically just grabbed as many of the ingredients as I could find and threw them all in the oven. And it was quite tasty! Seems like a fool-proof recipe, which is pretty awesome.

Source: The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

In addition to all my (attempted) main course dishes, I also made muffins! Tasty (if I may say so myself) apple cinnamon muffins. After hoarding a few for myself, I brought the rest into the office... and they were immediately devoured. Hope everyone liked them!

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the extensive, expert recipe is... well here is my secret recipe (shh don't tell anyone): 1 box of apple cinnamon muffin mix (organic!) from Whole Foods + chunks of fresh apples = delicious muffins!

Enjoy!

Five Fun Facts About Ellie

Ellie Mirman — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:32:00 GMT

This is only my second blogger meme (read my first and this one too), so I'm still pretty excited about these things. In particular, this meme.

To get you up to speed - what happens with these blogger memes is that a blogger will write a post like "6 Reasons Why I Blog" or "Five Fun Facts About Me" and "tag" a number of other bloggers (by mentioning them by name and linking to their blogs) so that they follow in suite.

Well, Mike Volpe tagged me (and the rest of our awesome marketing department) in the "Five Fun Facts" meme. So here goes:

Five Fun Facts About Me

When I was younger, I wrote and illustrated a number of books with my friends. I really wanted to be a cartoonist or children's book illustrator when I grew up. (By the way, I still have those books - maybe someday I'll scan them in and post them here... if I get the OK from my co-authors.)
My other childhood dream was to be a mermaid. I think this had more to do with liking The Little Mermaid than (coincidentally) my last name (Mirman).
I am an organizational geek. The Container Store and art supply stores are my Heaven. I am all about lists and color coding.
I really enjoy learning new languages and visiting new places, but very rarely stick with any one language (I've studied at least 5 languages, but most I didn't get past the beginner level) or visit a given place more than once.
Up until a few years ago, I did not eat pizza. I'm not lactose intolerant or anything, but I do not like tomato sauce and, until about halfway through college, did not go anywhere near pizza. Still, all my pre-college friends would, without a doubt, drop their jaws to see me eat pizza. (I started eating pizza again about halfway through college because not eating pizza is almost as crazy-sounding to a college student as not eating chocolate. Rest assured, I do eat chocolate.)

As for the tagging, I'll let you, my readers, do the work for me... those of you who want to jump in on this meme, go ahead and blog about it and leave a link to your post in the comments below. (What a fun little way to learn more about each other...)

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas, Crustless Roasted Red Pepper Quiche, & Pineapple Fried Rice

Ellie Mirman — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:21:00 GMT

Last week I blogged about the recipes I had chosen to cook this week. In an effort to cook more, and to cook new and interesting things, I'm going to be picking new recipes each week to try out.

In preparation for my kitchen adventure, I went grocery shopping on Saturday for about 2 hours. Then I immediately got to work on my chosen dishes, while The Wedding Singer played in the background.

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas

The eggplant lasagnas were pretty darn tasty - hard not to be, considering it's roasted eggplant. I definitely used too much ricotta cheese - it was my first time making any sort of lasagna and cooking with ricotta cheese at all. Also, I accidentally started following a different recipe part way through, since my cookbook grouped all the eggplant recipes together, and the page accidentally turned. I figured it out when the recipe directed me to poach an egg (hence the eggs in the photo). Overall, pretty great. I used fresh tomatoes instead of pasta sauce too, and it worked pretty well.

Crustless Roasted Red Pepper Quiche

I like the idea of this recipe, but the roasted red peppers I got had more of a kick than I realized. It was ok, though in the future I might actually go for fresh red peppers instead. Also, I think the sliced tomato on the mini quiche (instead of many tomatoes on a large quiche) adds a nice artistic touch.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Simple and easy, and quite tasty. I forgot to get some of the spices I needed, so I supplemented with whatever I could find - which was a dash of soy sauce (how appropriate). I also used brown rice instead of white rice, which I think made it even tastier (and healtheir).

Overall, I think my first week of "Adventures in the Kitchen" was a success. I'm definitely going to try to keep this up. I've got a lot of recipes marked in my cookbooks that I want to try, so hopefully that will help motivate me. Stay tuned!

To go back and get the recipes for these dishes, check out my last blog post: Adventures in the Kitchen - Week 1

Adventures in the Kitchen - Week 1

Ellie Mirman — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:02:00 GMT

A new year, a time to try something new. Also, a time for very cold weather in New England, a time to avoid going outside as much as possible. So I've committed myself to trying to cook more - and cook more new things - so that I also can bring tasty food for lunch at work and avoid going out every day.

Taking the lead from fellow HubSpotter, Karen Rubin, I'm going to blog about my adventures in the kitchen (check out Karen's blog for some serious recipes and tasty adventures). This will help me actually stick to my resolution, and will also give me the opportunity to share another aspect of my life with my devoted readers.

Week of January 19, 2009

On the roster for this coming week:

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas

Ingredients:

1 eggplant, at least 12 inches in length after trimming
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
12 tbs pasta sauce (of your choice) - I'm going to try sliced fresh tomatoes
16 tbs ricotta cheese
dried oregano
4 tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475F.
Slice the eggplant in 24 (1/2-inch-thick) slices and arrange on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
Brush eggplant slices with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 425F.
Assemble in 8 stacks on one of the baking sheets:

1 eggplant slice
1/2 tbs pasta sauce
1 tbs ricotta cheese
sprinkle of oregano and pepper
[repeat 2 more times]
top off with 1/2 tbs Parmesan cheese

Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until heated through and Parmesan cheese has melted. Serve warm.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1 tbs peanut oil
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 cups cooked white rice
3/4 cup chopped pineapple (fresh or canned)
1/2 cup frozen mixed peas and carrots, cooked according to package directions, drained - I'll be using whatever vegetables I happen to have and think will go well
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the scallions and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Add turmeric and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
Add rice and cook, stirring, until thoroughly coated with the turmeric mixture.
Add the pineapple, mixed vegetables, salt, and pepper, cook and stir until heated through. Serve warm.

Crustless Roasted Red Pepper and Cheddar Quiche

Ingredients:

1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained well and patted dry, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tbs fresh parsely, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
8 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.
Arrange peppers in the bottom of lightly oiled pie plate (8 1/2- or 9-inch - though I'll likely make multiple mini quiches in muffin tins).
Top with all but 2 tbs of shredded cheese.
In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Slowly pour over bell peppers and cheese.
Top evenly with tomatoes.
Bake in center oven for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese the last few minutes of cooking.
Cool, cut, serve warm.

You'll note that these recipes do not actually go together - I didn't make an effort to do so. I picked out three of the tastiest recipes (that were also relatively easy) from one of my new cookbooks. I also simplified the language of the recipe for this blog post.

These recipes came from The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen - yum.

Photo by Deluxx

A Tragic Story About Bronto & His Diet Coke Castle

Ellie Mirman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:55:00 GMT

Credits:

Bronto: Himself

Ellie: @ellieeille

Rebecca: @repcor