Her blog has also attracted advertising, which now generates $500-$600 a month. (None of it comes from the South Beach Diet folks.) Denny says she knows at least 20 bloggers who are able to make a full-time living from their blogs.

"For me, one of the biggest benefits is the daily feedback from readers and other bloggers," she said. "I love reading in the comments that someone tried my recipe and liked it."

She's discovered a worldwide network of thousands of food blogs. Some host "events" where bloggers all create recipes around a common theme. Kalyn's Kitchen sponsors one of the longest-running food-blog events — Weekend Herb Blogging.

"The food-blog community in general is a close-knit group of people who are united in their passion for food, and it's been very fun learning from all these other good cooks," she said.

The camaraderie among bloggers became evident when writer Peter Wells, in the 2006 issue of Food & Wine magazine, said many food blogs are boring and referred to them as "cheese sandwich blogs." One of the sentences he used as an example came from Denny's blog. In a spirit of retaliation, a number of food bloggers declared a Cheese Sandwich Day. They posted recipes on a variety of cheese sandwiches, along with sayings, such as "More Food. Less Whine," on their blogs.

"He missed the point of blogs,"she said. "Food blogs are not meant to be slick and shiny like food magazines. They are meant to be whatever that particular writer wants it to be. People write them for all different kinds of reasons, and some are writing them just for self-expression."

And what may seem boring to one reader might be intriguing to another. There are blogs devoted to every type of food topic, such as The Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen (www.blog.fatfreevegan.com) or Gluten-Free Girl (www.glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com). The site foodpornwatch.arrr.net lists most of the food blogs in existence.

Denny has a program that tracks the number of visitors, what they read and how long they stay on her site. She has found there are two types of visitors: People simply seeking recipes, and those who enjoy the interaction of posting comments, sharing recipes and feeling part of the food-blogging community.

She doesn't think that blogs will ever replace the food writing in cookbooks, magazines and newspapers. "They all have their place, but with blogs there's more interaction with people creating the food."

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