Happy New Year’s Eve everyone. It’s pretty wild that today is already the last day of 2014. Are you guys ready to ring in the New Year’s? We have been laying low and enjoying our vacation at home this week and it’s been pretty fun. We just don’t get to do this very much, so we’ve been hanging out at home, touring and enjoying all of the fun things to eat and do around town. I even spent four hours cleaning, sorting and organizing our kids’ playroom yesterday. My husband thought that it was a much needed task, and wished me well from a far as he tried to keep the kids away from undoing things that I was putting in place. I was never the type who goes out and parties for New Years even before the “married life”, so we don’t have a big plan for night. We’re going to try to do something with the kids at home, and maybe a catch a movie if they fall asleep within reasonable time. For the past several years, I have been compiling the “Top Recipes” for the year toward the end of the year. It’s so much fun to review all of the things that I have cooked, baked, and blogged throughout the year – and then it’s even more fun to see if your favorites match with ours. Without further introduction, here are the top 10 recipes that made it to the list for 2014.
#10: Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes - It’s really hard to not *like* Sloppy Joes. It’s hearty, a total comfort-food, and when it’s cooked in the slow cooker – it makes such a winning combo that’s hard not to like. It’s also one of those great dish to serve at parties (everyone can prep their own burgers) since you can easily double the amount. Yet without doubling the amount, it still makes enough for small family, because it is great as leftover, and can be frozen.
#9: Oven Baked Blueberry Pancakes – This is another new pancake recipe that I was really glad that I tried. I constantly feel like a short-order cook, working at a very busy diner (a.k.a: my own house). Making the pancake batter in a pan gives me a time to prepare the pancake all in one, and then I get to sit down with my family as soon as I finish cooking this. It’s great without blueberries and can be made with other fruits as well – so it’s hard not to love this recipe.
#8: Fresh Apricot Ice Cream – While we all really loved this ice-cream at our household, Apricot ice cream isn’t exactly a very common flavor that everyone tends to be drawn to, so I was glad that this recipe made it to the Top 10. It’s creamy, bursting out in apricot flavors, and just a perfect way to enjoy fresh sweet apricots when it’s in season. It basically tastes like you’re biting into a frozen apricot. Thinking about this ice-cream makes yearns for warm summer nights with flip-flops.
#7: Fresh Apple Cinnamon Scones – This is one of those scones that makes your house instantly feels like home, and smells like Fall. The apple bits along with the cinnamon chips are nestled between the soft tender layers of crumbs, covered in crusty skin full of sanding sugar. It tastes best immediately after it comes out of the oven, but it is yummy and tastes like apple cake once it’s reheated. Either version of this scone still makes my heart sing.
#6: Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting – Cupcakes! Oh, cupcakes! I dream about cupcakes all the time. Every single time I get stressed out, which is about all the time now, I dream of whipping up a batch of cupcakes. You probably ask, why not cakes, right? Well, one cupcake is all that I need to satisfy my emotional cravings and occasional sweet tooth. So I load them up in my cupcake carrier, and take them to work to share the love. This one is my new favorite yet. A beautiful spiced cupcakes with lots of pumpkin flavors and the fall spices that I love, but tender crumbs and just enough moistness to remind me that it’s a treat. And that Salted Caramel Buttercream basically just brings a new meaning to frosting.
#5: Egg Salad Sandwiches with Bacon and Sriracha – Everyone at my house loves bacons. Whenever I don’t know what to make for breakfast or even quick supper, I whip up eggs and bacons for my family, and then I eat mine with avocados. When my daughter didn’t really want to eat anything that I made for her, she would eat bacons. I have probably eaten enough bacons in my life that if I didn’t eat any more bacons for the rest of my life, I’d be okay with it. While I really prefer simple egg salads, I really loved the addition of both bacon bits and Sriracha sauce in my egg salads, it gives it enough bite and edginess that you wouldn’t get in your everyday egg salads.
#4: Flour Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies – I love homemade chocolate chip cookies. And since I love everything else that I made from Joanna’s book, I knew that I had to see what she would do to improve a classic cookie that everyone loves. The addition of bread flour was sort of a genius. It gives the cookie a slight add of stability without jeopardizing its classic core: soft in the middle, with all of the beautiful crispiness in the outside: my perfect cookie. I can’t go back to my old chocolate chip cookies.
#3: Chinese Orange Chicken – This orange chicken was everyone’s favorite as well. It’s hard to beat crispy chicken bites slathered with sweet orange sauce. Once you figure out how to make this easy chicken dish at home, you won’t be needing your carry out menu anymore.
#2: Slow Cooker Weeknight Beef Chili - Everyone has their own Chili recipe; and this has became mine. At the end of the day, Chili is one of those dishes that just tastes better when it has simple ingredients and slow-cooked all day. Everyone, I mean, everyone -can benefit from having several reliable slow-cooker recipes. It’s the best friend of any household with two working parents; and reliable delicious recipe like this is one the many reasons that I’m still able to prepare home cooked meals for my family for most nights.
#1: P.F Chang Mongolian’s Beef – This recipe, wasn’t only, our personal favorite – it was also the most pinned, shared, and clicked on in 2014. This is one of those recipes that turns people into cooking more at home: it’s the very example of how home-cooked meals can be delicious and easily rivals some of your upscale restaurants. If you still haven’t given this a try – do so in 2015, and you’ll know why!
I didn’t really start compiling the top recipes for each year that I had blogged until the last four three years, but here are some of the past years’ reviews for a little throw-back actions :)
2013 Top Recipes in Review
2012 Top Recipes in Review
2011 Top Recipes in Review
Last but not last, thank YOU for your readership in 2014, and I look forward to 2015! Happy New Year.