Best of 2009

Following our wedding in 2008 I started posting to our personal friends/family website (Chronicles of the Chrises) the recipes that I was making.  The purpose was merely to share photo, news, and recipes with our friends and family and hopefully have them contribute some of their favorite recipes as well.  While the whole sharing back thing didn't seem to work out, people did tell me about how they tried the recipes I was posting and enjoyed them.  After some inspiration following various cooking blogs, I decided why not start my own on blogger so that the whole world can see "what's cooking" (the name of the tab in Chronicles of the Chrises). 

And thus, during the middle of November 2009 just before Thanksgiving, Christine's Kitchen Chronicles was born and I added all the other recipes (backdating them) from Chronicles of the Chrises.  I maintained the site but my husband Chris was not convinced that anyone in this big world wide web was looking at it.  So, at the beginning of December, Chris taught me how to use Google Analytics to track hits to my site. 

In the approximately ONE AND 1/2 MONTHS that I started the site and began tracking hits, there have been 395 unique visitors, 558 visits, and 1,137 page views to this website.  I've had visitors from the US, Canada, Germany, UK, Qatar (where is that anyway?!), Hungary, Spain, Isle of Man (again, where is that?!), Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines!  For that, I thank you all and I hope that the site continues to gain readership (tell your friends!). 

Since it seems there ARE people out there (Google doesn't lie!) please leave me a message and talk to me.  What recipes have you tried from my site and enjoyed?  Did you have a personal favorite in 2009 not already listed here?  Is there a recipe you'd like to see me make?  Help me continue making this a better experience for you and help to prove to my husband that I truly do have readers out there!

As usual, inspiration has driven me to make a "Best of 2009" entry even though this wasn't a full year and we're already a full week into the new decade.  (By the way, do you say "Two thousand and ten" or "Twenty ten"?...I personally go for the latter).  Out of 69 recipes in 2009, you'll find reader and personal favorites below.  Better late than never, right?  ENJOY!

Top 2009 Googled Results:

1. Cha Cha's White Chicken Chili
2. Finn Nisu Bread+
3. Cheesecake Cupcakes

Top 2009 Reader Favorites*:

1. Christmas Sandwich Cremes
2. Iced Sugar Cookies+
3. Assorted Truffles+**
4. Spinach Sausage and Cheese Manicotti**
5. Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie+**

2009 Additional Personal Favorites:
  

1. Loaded Baked Potato Soup
2. Penne a la Vodka
3. Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
4. Chicken Pot Pie
5. Jamie's Minestrone
6. Momma N's Chili
7. Sweet Potato Souffle
8. Honey Lime Grilled Chicken
9. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
10. Christine's Fried Rice

NOTES:
+Denotes original photography.  Please provide credit to Christine's Kitchen Chronicles if you choose to use any of these photos.  Many photo credits to their original respective owners from which these recipes were reposted.  I'm working on photographing my own food but some of these were posted before I truly understood food blog repost ettiquite.
* Based on Google analytics data beginning 12/6/09...so, to be fair, it's not a true best of this year but hopefully next year there will be better data!
** Denotes that these are also personal favorites