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Editor's note: The Citizen learned this week that Darlene Kratz, the “Dip Queen” featured in this story, has been hospitalized. Because of the strict limits on hospital visitors during the current COVID-19 crisis, interested readers and cooks may choose to show their support for Kratz by choosing a dip recipe from her blog (diprecipecreations.com) to make. Snap a photo of the completed recipe, post the picture on Darlene's site and add an encouraging note, if you would like. We hope that the sight of so many favorite dips, along with caring messages from the community, will speed Darlene on her way to recovery.
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During her childhood and teens, Darlene Kratz was never one of those people who was into cooking, puttering in the kitchen, or trying new recipes.
So it's more than a little ironic that she has spent much of her free time in recent years creating and fine-tuning a blog with a focus on food and recipes.
Not just any old recipes, either; Kratz' specialty is creating dips.
"Very, very niche," she says with a laugh.
And despite the limited time she has to devote to her blog – since she also works full-time in the software technology field – the site has grown steadily in traffic and popularity.
It's gotten so popular, in fact, that visits reached an all-time high number during the 2020 Super Bowl.
And thanks to the ad revenue generated by her sideline, Darlene and her husband, Justin – loyal University of Virginia fans that they are – had enough extra cash to travel to the Orange Bowl in December to watch the 'Hoos play.
Not a bad turnaround for someone who admits that when she graduated from Longwood U in 2004 (followed by 2 years at UVa. grad school), she didn't know a thing about how to cook. Her interest in dips, she says, was sparked by "going to parties where I had to bring something."
At one event, she recalls, a friend made a pizza dip she liked. It seemed simple enough for even a novice to master, and Kratz learned to make it. But she didn't stop there.
"I began looking at dip packets," said Kratz, "and thinking, 'I wonder how I can make that?'"
Banana to Buffalo
On her website, Kratz tells the story of how she branched out from her initial attempts.
"My dip recipe collection grew from one, to two, to three, and is still growing," she writes. "My friends now call me the 'dip queen' and expect me to make at least one (usually more) of these yummy creations for any event that I host or attend."
Moving from 'dip queen' to blogger, however, did not happen overnight. Kratz had actually built a website 20 years earlier, and describes her first attempt in irreverent terms on the current site.
"That was back in the day of early websites," she writes, "with static HTML pages and horrible flashing graphics that we all thought were so cool."
With the new venture, however (diprecipecreations.com), it soon became clear that Kratz had tapped into an unmet demand. Turns out others were looking for easy new recipes, too.
No desperate digging
Asked to name the most popular recipe on her site today, Kratz says Banana Pudding Dip is probably tops among fan favorites – although Buffalo Chicken Dip follows close behind.
Now that the blog has been around a few years, she is familiar with the seasonal peaks and valleys of interest in her recipes, which climbs throughout football and tailgating season and reaches its height with Super Bowl Sunday. After that – aside from Easter or Mardi Gras dishes like the King Cake Cheese Ball – interest tends to wanes until summer approaches, and people begin searching in earnest for Memorial Day and Fourth of July picnic fare.
But Kratz stays busy year-round with her blog sideline – doing most of the technical support and design of the site herself, in addition to collecting and developing the recipes. Being frequent travelers and serious foodies, she and her husband are almost always engaged in informal recipe research, whether trying out local restaurants or hosting parties and cookouts.
Although she loves her full-time career, Kratz says she enjoys the creative expression she finds in the blog, which allows her to use other skills such as writing and photography. She also enjoys interacting with readers, hearing about their experiences with the site, and fielding their questions. (According to Kratz, the most common questions revolve around such practical matters as, "How far in advance can you make this dip?" and "How long will it keep?")
Judging from reader feedback, Kratz shouldn't have a problem meeting her goals of building traffic to the site and growing her fan base.
As one reader from Wakefield commented, the blog offers a wealth of ideas and resources, and had saved her from a desperate, last-minute dig for recipes on Super Bowl Eve.
"Yours," she told Kratz, "is one of the most fun food blogs I’ve seen."
