Whenever I need a recipe or food idea, I usually look up a blog. Often that will be other peoples blogs. Whenever I know that I’ve written a post about something myself, I will look it up on my own blog though. So when Simone of Jungle Frog Cooking asked me to join in the 7 links project, I got excited. A post looking back on my own favorite posts. Looking back onto the posts that deserve a little extra attention.

In the year and a half that I’ve been blogging. there have been enough posts that I remember. Ones that I like to look back to myself. In this post I put them together for you.

My most beautiful post

Sprinkling chocolate over Tiramisu

This was a post very early on in the blog. We had really only just started making photo’s specifically for the blog. As I started sprinkling the chocolate Laurens told me to stop. He started placing his flash elsewhere, moved cutting boards around to reflect the right light and tried to choreograph the photo. When he said okay, I started sprinkling more chocolate over the tiramisu and hoped he got the shot he wanted as I was running out of chocolate. The picture tuned out amazing, or so I think. The Tiramisu was very tasty too. the secret – make it in advance!

My most popular post

A swiss roll ice cream cake - delicious

The one single post that has been getting the most hits ever since it’s been posted – even after moving the whole site to a new domain, is the step-by-step post of a swiss roll ice cream cake I made for Daring Bakers last summer. The challenge was to make everything yourself, from swiss rolls to 2 kinds of ice cream and a sauce. It tuned out to be a lot of work, but very tasty! I haven’t made it again since, but I’m glad to know I have the skills to make such an awesome dessert if I need to!

My most controversial post

Grocery store meats, not very appetizing!

In May of 2010 I had just about had it with the terrible quality of the meat sold at our local grocery store. I wrote a long rant about the quality of meats at grocery stores and illustrated it with this not-too-appetizing picture. Since we moved into our new home in October of that same year, I’ve been buying 90 percent of my meats at the butcher. I already knew that the taste and overall quality would be (and indeed is) much better, but in all honesty, it really isn’t that much more expensive either. A rant about the quality of food seems a little controversial though.

My most helpful post

The best home-made cinnamon rolls in the world, no questions asked!

Cinnamon rolls were my first breakfast-pastry-love. And you can’t go much better than a fresh baked Cinnabon from a mall somewhere. Warm, a little gooey with that wonderful cream cheese icing on top. Yep, I love my cinnamon rolls, and I found/tweaked a recipe that mimics my favorite type pretty much perfectly. Judging from popularity and comments, both on- and offline, I’ve got to say that this is my most helpful post. Also the trick with the ceramic cups to make sure they sit close together seems to be a keeper!

Most surprising success post

A sliced of bread with the pastrami piled on.

I honestly have no idea why this post is so popular in page views. It’s an explanation on Dutch sandwich lunches and a request for a good pastrami recipe. To make my own. Despite the fact that there are a bunch of people who look at the post every single day, no-one has sent me their favorite recipe yet. I guess they just come here to see if I have one.

Post that didn’t get the attention it deserved

Delicious, crispy catuccini. Perfect for soaking in espresso or vin santo.

These beautiful and very tasty cantuccini didn’t get all that much attention and I bet I know why. It was the second post of that day. Posted only a little while after I posted that I screwed up my cantuccini. It was the first time I made cantuccini and I had certain expectations. Halfway through it looked like the cookies didn’t even come close to meeting those expectations. The fact of the matter was, I had just made them a little larger than I thought I did. They turned out to be delicious, and they deserved a LOT of attention. However, they didn’t get it, and that’s just sad!

Post I’m the most proud of

Fresh pasta, hanging to dry before cooking.

This might be the hardest post to choose. There are so many posts I’m proud of. More so, there are so many things I’ve made that I’m proud of. Cooking, grilling, smoking, baking, all kinds of things have been made since I started this blog. I’ve experimented a lot. So what did I choose? I’ll tell you. I chose my very first post. PArtially because I love this picture, and partially because that’s what I should be proudest of. The fact that I dove in and started the blog and gave myself the option, or challenge, to make all those other things I’m proud of. I’ll always cherish that first post, and hope that if you’ve never seen it, you’ll go there and check it out.

Now to continue the 7 links project, I have invited 7 other bloggers who’s blogs I’d love to see through their eyes. I can’t wait to see their surprising, favorite and helpful posts! And thanks again Simone, for inviting me! IT was hard, but fun!

Giula of Juls’ Kitchen

Jill of JBean Cuisine

Kelly of Condensed Stew

Marica of Cooking with Marica

Regula of Foodwise

Sara of Cocina para Emancipados

Zita of Zizi Adventures

Group photo @ Food Blogger Connect (c) Sarka Babicka of cookyourdream.com

Last weekend was spent in London, at Food Blogger Connect ’11. An annual, international Food Bloggers conference/get together/party which lasts three days and leaves you with experiences and friends worth a lifetime. At FBC, people get together from different cities, countries and even continents. People with completely different backgrounds, but one common denominator. We share a (in other peoples eyes possibly unhealthy or strange) hobby, or profession that brings us together. We’re all food bloggers.

Olives from Spain (one of the sponsors of FBC11) on the table during drinks

The thing is, in normal-people-land I am considered a weirdo. I get excited by kitchen gadgets that have only one use, and are only useful once every other year. Herbs and spices make me giggle. I make my own pasta and vanilla sugar. I’m no fan of yardwork, but I have a little garden, because fresh veggies just taste so much better. I think it’s completely okay to spend 6 hours decorating a cake that will be devoured in 5 minutes. I buy flour and chocolate in bulk because who knows if I’ll feel like baking and I don’t want to be low on ingredients. Laurens gave me a cookbook titled ‘the perfect Dutch kitchen maid’ for my birthday and instead of smacking him upside the head, I kissed him and told him it was the perfect gift.
You understand by now, I get a little giddy about food. I know this and have come to accept this. The people close to me have gotten used to it and see it as one of my strange-but-charming quirks. The rest of the world - I really don’t care what they think about it – give me strange looks when I mention it.

Tasty falafel during drinks at FBC'11

And then there was Food Blogger connect. Suddenly I wasn’t a weirdo at all. Suddenly the fact that I like to talk about recipes and social media or technology or photography was completely normal. Suddenly taking a picture of food instead of eating it wasn’t strange at all.

Long live social media. It unites the freaks and outcasts of the world and makes them realize they’re actually the normal ones. Or something like that.

Giulia (Juls' Kitchen) and I at FBC11

When I first heard about Food Blogger Connect last year I got excited and a little sad that I’d missed it. I made sure to get on the mailing list so I could go this year. I blogged my prequel a little while ago, after I booked my hotel and plane tickets and got more and more excited as preparations started. I agreed on a prop exchange with Giulia of Juls’ Kitchen, agreed to share my hotel room with Kelly of Condensed Stew and arranged to meet Simone of Jungle Frog Cookingat the airport. All people I had never met before, which instead of making me nervous actually excited me more. I knew there was no way I wouldn’t have fun. A weekend filled with other people with the same obsession just had to be fun.

Marthe of Baking Bluefinger, me, and Simone of Jungle Frog Cooking

And fun we had! Simone and I arrived in Londen late Friday morning. We walked around, had lunch and then met up with the other attendants for drinks and snacks. Everyone talked and laughed as if we had known each other for  years. Even though I hadn’t met anyone before, it didn’t feel like that. I knew they were foodbloggers, or even knew their blogs and therefor had taken a glimpse of their soul.

Tasty chocolates at FBC'11

There were sessions and many more sessions and food, lots and lots of food. Breakfast and pastries and chocolates and lunch and warm cookies filled me up. There was wine and talking and getting to know each other, advice giving and receiving, friendly banter, serious conversation, food photography, pictures with newfound friends, exchange of business blog cards and Aaron of Cuisinart made wonderful cappuccino’s.

Kelly of Condensed Stew, me, and Regula of Foodwise at FBC'11

I can’t properly convey how wonderful this weekend has been. There is just no way to explain how awesome all these people are. They’re instant friends – but instead of water, you just add food to ensure a wonderful, wonderful time.

Duck canapes, served at FBC11

Thanks Bethany, Sarka, Nando, Joclyn and everyone else who made this happen! Oh, and thank you social media, for existing, and making my life just so much more awesome!