Seven Randoms: Reflections on Recipe Posts

Happy new year! The end of year/start of year vogue in the blog-world at present seems to be posts reflecting on statistics and popular posts on individual blogs in the past year. Part-way through the year, however, I unsubscribed from Google Analytics and so I’m limited to the stats Blogger provides, which do not give annual breakdowns. So, I thought I’d do my own version of a reflection, but base it on all recipe posts since the blog began. And here are the results…

1. Most popular recipe post: Condensed Milk Fudge

2. Second most popular recipe post: Chocolate Éclair Cookies

3. Recipe I’ve made the most in the past year: Vanilla Blondies and Hazelnut and Chocolate Chunk Brownies

4. Sweet recipe I’d most like to consume right now: Chocolate and Raspberry Tart or Piña Colada Mocktail

5. Savoury recipe I’d most like to consume right now: Beef and Butternut Stew or Lemon and Olive Chicken

6. Favourite yeast-based recipe: Cinnamon, Plum and Apple Rolls

7. Recipe I’d most like to make and share with good friends right now (if I had the time, inclination and ingredients to get baking this evening): Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

And based on the motley collection of photos here, I’m pleased to say that my photography appears to have improved (vastly) and perturbed to note a tendency towards sweet food – there is definite scope to work on savoury offerings in the coming year!

Seven Randoms: Food Blogs That Inspire Me

Following on from last week’s post about food blogging, I thought I’d make the next ‘Seven Randoms’ food blogs and websites that inspire me. So, in no particular order…

1. The Pioneer Woman Cooks

2. Tasty Kitchen

3. HoneySage

4. Bakerella

5. Smitten Kitchen

6. Seemingly Greek

7. I am Baker

Seven Randoms: Blog Posts I’ve Enjoyed Recently

In no particular order…

1. Pastor Ryan’s post pointing out how small we are and how big God is.

2. Nicole’s post on her blog with photos of beautiful flowers.

3. The challenge on the Good Morning Girl’s blog to say kind words to others. I know it’s aimed at mothers, but I think the principles are applicable to anyone.

4. The delicious salads posted by HoneySage.

5. Clairabelle’s post showing the wedding cake she made. I want to pipe like that when I grow up!

6. My friend Ruth’s posts about her son – he sounds very cute and quite a little character. I hope I get to meet him sometime soon!

7. Tartelette’s photos and recipe in her post on mixed berry sorbet with vanilla shortbread cookies. Her photos are always amazing and an inspiration to me.

Seven Randoms

1. I love chocolate way more than I should. Which is why I just picked all the chocolate confectionary out of some pick ‘n’ mix leftover from Saturday when J (my husband) and I went to a movie. It’s a good thing that we recognise in this household that I eat way more chocolate than J does.

2. Speaking of chocolate, one of my sisters made some beautiful chocolate ducks as favours for the wedding one of my other sister’s just over a year ago. They were awesome. And in the process she learnt to temper chocolate. I still don’t know how to temper chocolate.

3. But I do know how to play around with melted chocolate and various fillings, including a chocolate truffle type filling, to come up with filled chocolate things. Maybe one day I’ll get round to posting how to do that.

4. I’m due to finish my PhD in September. I don’t know what job I’ll do when I finish but I am nervous and excited about what God has in store for my life.

5. Speaking of the PhD, I’m currently working on the first draft of my last big chapter. And it’s taking a long time. And I am desperate to finish. Sigh. But for now I just have to keep plodding on.

6. My wonderful husband has bought me flowers twice recently, because he knows how much I’m struggling with my work. Here’s a peak at my current bunch:

7. Taking pictures of yellow flowers by the yellow light of our living room light does not work very well. That’s one reason to look forward to the long days of natural light in summer…