Happy New Year: A Recap

Well, 2009 has come and gone, and what a year it's been! There've been lots of changes in my life this year...I started a wonderful new job, built a beautiful new house, and started a little cooking blog! Over the last two days, as I've been making my blog rounds, I've noticed that lots of other food bloggers have compiled a list of their most popular posts/recipes of the year. Most of them (if not all) have used Google Analytics to do so, but I'm not Internet-savvy enough to figure that out. I'm doing it a decidedly unscientific way. I've been kind of keeping a tally of the times people search for recipes on my website (via Feedjit), and it's really been quite simple to identify the top six recipes searched for on my blog. (Why six? Because after those six recipes, there's not really anything else that stands out as a number 7, 8, 9, or 10.) Here we go!

The Sweet Life's Top Six Recipes of 2009

1. Homemade Boursin Cheese

There was absolutely no contest with this one. It's far and away the recipe that brings folks to my blog. Seriously, it brings about 4 people to The Sweet Life per week. Apparently, I'm not the only one who wants to pay out the nose for a cheese spread I can easily recreate at home! This is certainly one to keep in your recipe arsenal. And, on another note, the Boursin Cheese pictured above is my favorite food photo I've ever taken in the 8 months I've been photographing my food!

2. Upside Down German Chocolate Cake
While it's not necessarily a close second to the Homemade Boursin Cheese, it's the closest of the bunch. Searches for this recipe come up on my Feedjit Traffic Tracker about once a week. It's no wonder! This cake is delicious! This cake comes from Sue, one of my mom's very good friends. It's her signature dessert, and she's pretty much expected to bring it to her work potlucks, where everyone asks for the recipe. Everyone loves this cake...even folks who say they don't like coconut. Make it for your next social event, but be sure that you have copies of the recipe to hand out!

3. Chocolate Reese Pieces Cookies

These were the cookies that almost weren't made...which is a shame, because it seems that lots of people are looking for them! I made these on a whim on Halloween, just in case our "niece" Hannah stopped by for trick or treating. As it turns out, she didn't come, so David and I had to eat 4 dozen of these delicious chocolatey, peanut buttery cookies ourselves! We didn't quite make it through all four dozen, so we gave them away at work and church. They were so easy to put together, and they were a success for me, because these were pretty much the first cookies I made that stayed chewy. Yum! The original recipe came from The Sisters' Cafe, and they always have tons of delicious recipes...everything I've made from their site has been wonderful! 4. Pumpkin Pie Dip

I was really kind of surprised to find that this recipe is often searched for, and as a result, often brings people to The Sweet Life. It's so simple to put together, and it's a definite crowd pleaser at fall parties. It's pretty much Pumpkin Pie in dip form. I love it with gingersnaps, but it's also very good with apple slices. I'd love to make some pumpkin whoopie pies sometime and use this as the filling, but I didn't quite get around to it this fall. We'll see if it happens in Fall 2010!

5. Potato, Ham, and Spinach Soup

This delightful soup is probably the biggest shocker of traffic-generating recipes to The Sweet Life. It was very good, but I never would have thought that there were people looking for a recipe like this. I sure wasn't looking for it when I found it! Actually, I just stumbled across it while reading the food section of The Louisville Courier-Journal over a year ago! The recipe originally called for the use of kale and sausage, but I just made it with what I had on hand, and it was a winner! Make it this winter! 6. Pioneer Woman's Flank Steak Marinade

David and I have discovered that we love flank steak, and I've tried several flank steak marinades over the course of my (very short) blogging career. This one is hands down our favorite, and it comes as no surprise that it's courtesy of Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. It's incredibly flavorful, and makes for a very tender flank steak. It's food for real people. If you're cooking flank steak, please use this recipe.

So there you have it. Those are the recipes that have brought new readers to The Sweet Life over the course of the past eight months I've been blogging. This blogging thing started on a whim, but I've come to enjoy it. Of course, there are days that I wonder why I spend time doing this, but I keep coming back to it. I'm thinking that in 2010, I might expand the scope of my blog some, instead of focusing strictly on cooking. I think cooking will be the bulk of the posts, but after moving into the new house, I know David and I will have lots of home projects to work on, so I might include those. You'll just have to keep reading to find out! I wish you all a very happy 2010! Thanks for reading, and please keep on coming back!