Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

– Oprah Winfrey

It has been four months now since I started this blog.  With the start of the new year, I thought it would be a good idea to review the current state of things.

Blog Entries:

There were 20 posts between September 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.  That’s 5 posts per month, and a little over 1 post per week.  I’m happy with that frequency, and I hope that I can maintain it into the new year.  If I can, I should have approximately 60 posts for 2011.

1. Beauty and the Yeast
   • My first ever post.
   • It is all about yeast and how we use it in the kitchen.
2. The Dirty Dozen
   • Based on a published report, this post lists the fruits and vegetables that are grown using the most pesticides.
3. The Ideal Thanksgiving Menu
   • Does the average Thanksgiving menu satisfy our basic nutritional requirements?  I tried to find out.
4. Salad Dressing
   • Don’t buy pre-made salad dressings.
   • Making your own is very easy.
5. Got Milk
   • We wanted to find out if it was better for our son if we bought organic milk versus regular grocery store milk.
6. The Apple of My Eye
   • This post provides a brief summary and description of some common apple varieties.
7. What’s the Score
   • A current interest is the method used to label foods.
   • This post describes one method, Overall Nutrition Quality Index (ONQI).
8. Breaking Bread
   • I enjoy making bread.
   • This post describes the purpose of various ingredients used to make bread.
   • This was my most popular post to date 🙂
9. Substitute Teacher
   • Just a simple list of substitutions you can make when cooking or baking.
10. It was a Dark and Stormy Nitrate
    • What are nitrates, and why are they in my food?
11. Read the Label
    • More on food labeling.
    • Canada has introduced and new educational campaign to help consumers read nutrition fact panels.
12. Bake Sale
    • My company had a bake sale to raise money for the united way.
13. Jack-O-Lantern
    • Pumpkin is good for more than just jack-o-lanterns.
    • It’s good to eat.
14. Peppered with Questions
    • All about black pepper.
15. The Great Chili Cook-off
    • My entry in a recent chili cook-off.
16. Curry in a Hurry
    • All about curry powder.
17. Beef Stew with Blue Cheese Dumplings
    • The title says it all – a Beef stew with blue cheese dumplings.
18. How ‘Bout them Apples
    • New genetically modified apples don’t turn brown when cut.
    • What do you think?
19. Cinnamon Toast
    • All about cinnamon.
20. Baby It’s Cold Outside
    • Some fun for a cold winter night.
    • Hot Buttered Rum.

Recipes

I generally post recipes on pages separate from my blog posts.  I don’t know if this is a good idea or not as it seems to be different that almost all other food blogs I read.  Anyway, I like the format and I think I’ll stick with it for now.

In 2010 I posted 15 recipes in 5 categories:

• Breads and Baking,
• Desserts,
• Main Courses,
• Soups & Salads, and
• Snacks.

I won’t list all of the recipes because they are easily visible from the main menu.

Readers

Between September 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010, this blog has received 1834 visits and 5655 page views.  There were 1412 absolutely unique visitors.

The average time spent on this site is 2 minutes and 16 seconds.

The most popular post, Breaking Bread, received 624 page views.  There were 173 visitors the day of the post.

I’ve only received 7 comments so far.  I’m very disappointed with this number.  In 2011, I hope I can find a way to improve reader participation.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.  Thanks!

Summary

Overall, I’m happy with the way things have been going.  As previously mentioned, this blog has only been active for four months.  There is a lot to learn, and I feel I’m making progress.  I have a lot of plans for the coming year and I’m sure good things will result.

Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks for reading.