Ok, this is getting a little creepy. You are here because you are wanting to know even more about David Gates and Fuzzy Monkey’s Kitchen. Are you stalking me? I know I have this on the web and all, but what else would you like to know? Well, since you are here by all means please read on!
Q. What’s the story behind the name of your site?
A. The short answer is that it’s my trail name, the long answer is this.
Back in 2007 I decided to hike the entire 2,176 miles of the Appalachian Trail (AT). Prior to leaving on this adventure I asked my good friend to give me a trail name before I left for my trip. Fuzzy Monkey is the name he gave me, and to this day that is how I’m known in the hiking community. I quit my high paying tech job to pursue this bucket list item. It took me 6 months of hiking an average of 14 miles a day to successfuly complete my AT adventure.
As if this wasn’t enough abuse on my body, I decided to embark on another adventure three years later.
In 2010 I decided to hike the entire 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I used my trail name Fuzzy Monkey again for this adventure. I quit my job again, to fulfill this bucket list item. I guess you could all me a quitter. HA! It took me 6 months of hiking an average of 17 miles to successfully complete my PCT adventure.
Since my family and friends were accustomed to calling me Fuzzy Monkey it seemed a fitting title for a food blog.
Q. Where can I get more information about your travel adventures? Did you blog about it?
A. Sadly, I did not keep a digital trail journal as some long distances hikers do. I use a good old-fashion pen and paper. I have transcribe some. I also took over 3,000 photos which are on my hard drive. When I returned from each trip, I shared these images at a few presentations at local businesses.
Q. What recipes do you use?
A. At first I started working with my mother’s library of recipes. There are a few family recipes that are not written down or have been customized over the years. One of my first priorities was to learn my mothers marinara sauce.
My father makes great home-made chicken noodle soup. He is also skilled at, smoking meats and barbecuing. I’ve yet to figure out how to smoke meats, it’s on my to-do list. Stay tuned as this is another great reason to subscribe and keep up with FMK.
I also draw inspiration from a library of cookbooks, recipes attached to packaging, other blogs, 3×5 index cards found at garage sales, friends and co-workers recipes. You just never know when an interesting recipe will turn up.
After I’ve made the dish a few times I’ll photograph and make mental notes of the exact steps I used to create the dish. Often times I’ll also modify the recipe to my liking.
After I have a good feel for the dish I’ll write-up the article and publish the recipe here on FMK.
Q. What do you do with all this food?
A. I have a lot of happy family members, neighbors and co-workers who are more than happy to sample my creations.
Q. I noticed your articles have the wording (affiliate link, or Amazon). What does that mean?
A. It means that if you click on the link and purchase an item from that link, I may get paid. It’s similar to receiving a referral fee for telling someone about a product or service. You as the reader do not pay for this, the advertisers pay for the ads you see on our site. These are managed by other companies, not FMK. I display ads to help support the cost of running the site and to support my baking and cooking habits. If you’d rather just send me money you can do so by using PayPal.Me.
Q. How can I contact you?
A. Please submit the form on my contact page and I’ll get back to you as soon as the dishes are done. If you are a social creature, I can be found on Pinterest, Instagram.
Q. Do you take all your own pictures of the food you have displayed on your site?
A. Yes, every image and video you see has been produced by me. At this point I have not borrowed, stolen or modified any pictures or images here on FMK. I don’t intend to steal or borrow anyone’s images. If an image appears similar to something you have posted on your site that is purely conincidential.
Q. Can I use your images?
A. If you are interested please contact us for written permission. We all know how easy it is this day and age to borrow/steal images online. If you are this type please realize how much work goes into this. Please use the form on our contact page to ask permission. In most cases I’ll want you to credit fuzzymonkeyskitchen.com for non-commercial purposes.
Q. What kind of camera do you use?
A. I didn’t realize how important this was to people, I consider myself an amateur photographer, I’d much rather cook than figure out the best setting on my camera. Currently, I’m just using my iPhone 15 Pro to photograph and film the content on FMK. In the past I have used a Nikon CoolPix AW100. At the present time I’m focused on publishing my favorite recipes for practical reasons as opposed to winning any sort of photography award.
Q. How did you build your website? What tools or services are you using?
A. Another interesting question. When I first started building a food blog, I found myself reading other food blogs. Not necessarily to get recipes, but rather to learn how they did things. What tools they use, how they used it. I felt like it was a mystery trying to figure all these things out. So I dug deeper and asked questions and did lots of research. Things can get overwhelming pretty quickly.
I’ve observed more bloggers sharing their secrets to blogging, how they do it, what works and what doesn’t. It’s a great way to connect with your readers and to give back to other prospective bloggers. I created a blog resources page that talks about the technical details behind FMK.
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