Happy New Year, all!! :)
Hope you guys have had a great holiday. I’ve been enjoying reading some 2010 round up posts on other blogs, and thought maybe I’d recount some of the stuff I did in the first half of last year before this blog’s existence.
After spending the first 5 weeks of 2010 in New Zealand, something I missed a lot was baking. When I got back, things starting getting out of control, especially because I had a lot of free time on my hands due to a lack of gigs. :P
One of the first things I made was a black forest cake for my dad’s birthday in February (okay, this I did actually blog about) and helped my sister bake cakes for my niece’s first birthday in March.
Also that month, I ventured into the world of Yeast Baking for the first time and made Smitten Kitchen’s light honey wheat bread. You need to make this.
For Easter, I made a carrot cake and some super trippy shortbread cookies.
And then in April, I somehow created a freaking wedding cake for a family wedding. It was three tiers of chocolate, stout beer, butter, sugar, strawberries, and ganache. What.
It was after making a pizza entirely from scratch (crust and cheese included!) that I decided it was time to start blogging about my food adventures.
And then with this blog, this happened:
At least it keeps me off the streets?
Thanks for the support these last five months! Looking forward to see what this year brings in everyone’s kitchens. :)
Update: Confession – I’m a bit obsessed with site stats, so this was a really fun email for me to get this morning:
2010 in review {from WordPress}
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.
In 2010, there were 43 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 37 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 18mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month. [err, well I use flickr ;)]
The busiest day of the year was December 2nd with 3,190 views. The most popular post that day was Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were thepioneerwoman.com, foodlibrarian.blogspot.com, foodpress.com, Google Reader, and facebook.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, bake me away, bakemeaway, chai spiced snickerdoodles, and peppermint brownie cookies.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles October 2010
46 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com
Bundts Gone Wild: Zebra Bundt Cake! November 2010
54 comments and 9 Likes on WordPress.com
Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies November 2010
17 comments
Kale and Leek White Bean Soup November 2010
20 comments and 4 Likes on WordPress.com
No-Knead, Overnight Dinner Rolls December 2010
17 comments
***
Goodness… Thanks, stats helper monkeys! :)
As you can see, I am forever indebted to Pioneer Woman, Mary the Food Librarian, and FoodPress for featuring this blog, and to all of you for following along with my nerdy adventures.
Um, I’d like to see you on the streets. hahahahahaha.
Those shortbread cookies are awesome. I’m almost inspired to pen a musical called “Jessica and the Amazing Technicolor Shortbread Cookies.”
And you made a wedding cake? With ganache? Swoon.
Jill – haha, good point…maybe I should stop blogging!
Victoria – I was thinking about making them again this Easter and blogging about them. And haha!
Yis! I had a chocolate buttercream fail, so ganache it was. I think it was for the best, really.
So many baked goods in such a short time–keep it up! :-) Happy New Year!
I’m so glad I found your blog, even if late in 2010. Those shortbread cookies look so cool!
I think we should make a video with sad music of what life on the street is like for our heroine, Jessica. Lugging the kitchenaid around with nowhere to plug it in. Sob.
Beth – Thanks, will do! :) Happy New Year!
Liz – Aww, thanks!
Jill – This is theoretically a good idea, but I’d be all Jimmy Fallon-like and keep cracking up.
We could get your sister to play your part. Just dye her hair.
excellent stats (:
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