Today is my first blogiversary!  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging about food for a year already, time has flown!  I’ve opted not to make a huge elaborate meal to celebrate my blogiversary.  Instead, since I was a mathematician in a former life, I’ll be posting lots of blog statistics because I find those things to be fascinating. 

My first recipe post was Ham and Cheese Macaroni Bake with Peas.  Since then I’ve posted 415 more recipes which averages to just over one new recipe a day.  That average decreases with time, not because I cook less but because in the early days of blogging every recipe needed to be posted.  As time goes on and I revisit recipes, fewer need to be posted because they’re already here.  My most prolific month was June 2009, my first full month of blogging.  It had a whopping 71 posts. 

My most used recipe category is, and will probably always be, chicken.  It’s got 83 recipes. 

Sadly, I only started tracking statistics with the help of Google Analytics back in February 2010.  During that time my blog has seen 9,703 visits with April being the busiest month so far.  Traffic keeps increasing every month which is very promising!

The majority of my readers from the United States and most of those are from California.  My own state ranks 4th behind New York and Illinois. 

Most of my readers use Firefox, Windows, and have a 1280x800 screen resolution.  1.7% of you view my blog from your iPhones. Hooray for iPhones!  .06% of you are early iPad adopters.  Sadly I don’t fall into that .06%. 

The majority of readers find my blog through google searches and searches that send people to my blog most often involve some combination of the words slow, cooker, roast, and chicken. 

Black-Bottom Cupcakes and Slow Cooker Roast Chicken with Crispy Skin are, by far, my most popular recipes. Bacon Swiss Quiche, Crunchy Buttermilk-Coconut Chicken Fingers, Ham and Cheese Macaroni Bake with Peas, Marinated London Broil, Slow Cooker Honey Roasted Chicken with Rosemary and Dijon, and Slow Cooker Lemon and Dill Salmon with Spinach follow close behind.  Delmonico, Le Cirque, Mesa Grill, and TenPenh are my most popular restaurant reviews. 

Last but not least, 927 people have read “Who are you people?”  This is probably my favorite number to see increase since I tend to think of it as being in line with unique readers. 

This past year has seen quite a few major changes but my favorite is the beautiful banner artwork painted by my dear friend Lierre. 

The next change on the horizon is making the switch from my current content management system (Joomla 1.5) to the newest release. Joomla 1.6 is currently in beta, but it has features that I’m too impatient to wait for so I’ll be implementing it sooner rather than later.  This might make my blog a little buggy in the beginning, but Art will be on top of things to ensure everything continues to run smoothly during the beta phases.  The most notable improvement is that I’ll finally be able to put recipes into multiple categories.  Keep your eyes peeled for new categories like “Slow Cooker” and “Almost Vegetarian.”

It’s been a great year in food here and I have the feeling that the year to come will be even better.  Thank you all for your interest and support – knowing that people read makes the whole project even more enjoyable and festive!

I have finally implemented tags again!  You will notice that every recipe and market post now has a list of tags at the bottom, if you click on one of these, it will take you to a list of all of the recipe and market posts that share the same ingredient.  

I have chosen not to include tags for salt, pepper, water, butter, most oils, and various other peppers because those things are ubiquitous.  

You will also notice a list of tags in the bottom left hand corner of the site.  At the moment, these represent the 50 most recently added tags.  

I hope that you all find this feature useful!  As always, I welcome any and all feedback.  

And, in other news, Thanksgiving was a success!  Pictures have been added to all of the Thanksgiving recipes and we will be enjoying leftovers for the rest of the week.  

The market season has also ended so market posts will resume in May 2010. 

I apologize for the lack of posts.  I have been both busy and under the weather.  I hope that posting will resume by the end of the week.  I have been cooking and taking pictures, but haven't had the time or energy to write. 

I haven’t made a news post in a while but I’m happy to announce a few bits of information!


Welcome to readers from the Waldorf Farmer’s Market!  All of the wonderful produce shown on my blog and used in the market season recipes come from the wonderful farmers who take the time every week to participate in the Waldorf Farmer’s Market.  I’m thrilled to have my blog included in the newsletter for the market and I’m pleased to welcome new readers looking for ideas.  I look forward to seeing all of you every Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoon at the Festival Shopping Center. 


I also have the pleasure of announcing that my blog has been accepted to Urbanspoon.  What does this mean?  When you look at a restaurant I’ve reviewed, my blog post will be linked on the restaurant’s page.  I’m a huge Urbanspoon fan, so it’s pretty exciting to be included on a great site. 


Food Blog Search is another great resource that I’m happy to be a part of!  At the three month mark of blogging I was eligible to submit my blog to this great search engine and it was accepted.  I recommend the site when you’re interested in searching the wide world of food blogs. 


And last but not least, I’ve reached the three month mark of blogging with just over 150 recipes! :D  This blog has certainly helped me put my cooking into perspective and it’s been such a fantastic project so far.  I look forward to seeing what the next three months will bring.