Last updated on November 23rd, 2021 at 04:50 pm
It’s been a whole year of this crazy adventure. So I’ll be reviewing my top recipes of year one.
I want to thank everyone who has tried out a recipe, visited the site, followed, liked, commented, and everything in between. Support has been wonderful and it is amazing to see others enjoying my recipes.
I’ve had a lot of fun cooking and experimenting. I still have lots to learn both in the kitchen and when posting online. But I cannot believe that it has been a year since my very first post on how to make a roux.
One year and 77 recipes – about 1.5 new recipes a week. Since that is a fair amount of recipes to sift through, I thought I’d make a list of the top ten recipes of year one.
There’s no real method to this madness. But I’ll be judging it based on my own feelings, along with including some of the most popular and most visited recipes. So, here it goes in no particular order:
#1 – Easy Brown Butter Sage Sauce
This is far and away my most popular recipe. Like, seven times as many views as second place.
All because somehow it got popular on Pinterest (note – go follow me there if you’re on Pinterest a lot!). I wish I knew why everyone loves it so much, but I’ll take it.
It truly is a simple recipe with only 3 ingredients. With a nutty, sage-filled, delicate flavor, it is best paired with something that won’t overshadow the butter. Plus, those crunchy leaves. Mmmmmm. Don’t even think about tossing the leaves out once the butter is cooked.
#2 – Perfectly Flaky Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
These buttermilk biscuits are in my top ten recipes of year one mostly because I am proud that I made them.
I have long said that I cook, but I don’t bake. Cooking to me feels comfortable and easy because you can almost always save a dish by tasting it as you go along and adding or changing as needed.
For baking, you have little control once you put it into the oven. It will either turn out, or it won’t. So I was over the moon when I opened the oven and saw these perfect little layered flaky biscuits.
#3 – Pesto Pizza Pasta Salad
I’m a sucker for alliteration, even if I’m the one who came up with it. And this recipe is just too fun to say. Try saying it ten times real fast. Pesto pizza pasta salad, petsto pizta pasta salad, pezto…
Plus it feels kind of unique and fun. And last spring it was popular for a minute on Pinterest as well, bringing in some new viewers to the site.
#4 – Buttery Salted Caramel Sauce
That picture just makes me happy. And makes me want to whip together a batch of this caramel. This one is just a personal favorite of my own. Ever since I found the basis for the recipe in a waffle and pancake cookbook years ago.
Gooey, salty, caramel. Great for topping everything from desserts to breakfasts, including ice cream, pancakes, waffles, banana bread, and more.
Just try to make it when other people will also be around. Because otherwise, a straight spoonful of caramel may be too tempting.
#5 – Hot Honey Biscuit Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
Oozing with flavor, I’m a sucker for buffalo chicken. Especially in sandwich form. So, I paired it with biscuits and hot honey for a tasty combo.
For the longest time, this was also my top performer on Google search. Though it did require some pretty specific search terms, it would show up as the top result. It was recently overtaken by my fried baja shrimp burrito.
#6 – Marinated Steak Kabobs with Chimichurri
Originally inspired by another food blogger’s recipe, this became our go-to family recipe for Easter. Since one of the biggest things I love about food (besides the taste…) is sharing it with others, I love the memories of sharing this with family.
Plus, the chimichurri sauce is to die for. Truly the best way to describe it is simply fresh. Bursting with fresh herbs, it both complements and contrasts the steak and other kabob ingredients.
#7 – Fried Potato and Onion Strings
This recipe is actually a decent amount of work. But frying things will of course taste delicious. Thin potato and onion are the perfect things to batter and fry.
When I first started Do You Roux, a lot of family and friends came out to visit my initial post. Then the views dropped off a bit… so How to Make a Roux remained my top post for a long time. This fried potato and onion string recipe was the first one to surpass it in views to become my most viewed recipe. It has since been overtaken itself (see above), but it was a nice boost to see this one perform well at the time.
#8 – Family Thanksgiving Punch
Honestly, I mostly just love how the images for this one turned out. The colors, the mood. Mmm.
Plus it is a delicious party punch that comes from my wife’s family. Lots of fruit juices combine for a punch that… packs a punch. And the sherbet included as a floating treat adds even more flavor to the drink.
#9 – One-Pot Dutch Oven Garlic Roasted Whole Chicken Meal
This is a very tasty meal, but it is hard to photograph right. Honestly, I still don’t really like most photos I have of it.
Fun fact – I also had the chicken upside down for most of the cooking on accident, and I took photos of it that way. Then I realized and saw how bad those looked. So I flipped it over, tossed some seasoning (mostly smoked paprika) on top, and put it in the oven a bit longer. Then I took more photos. And it turned out ok. I guess the people of Pinterest agreed since it got fairly popular there – though maybe they mostly just like the fact that it is a one-pot meal.
#10 – Easy Instant Ramen Omelet
A ramen omelet is a childhood favorite and one that I learned to make fairly early because of its simplicity. A simple and cheap meal – but one that I’ve now realized can be dressed up a little bit.
Originally we would only make it with the ramen, seasoning packet, egg, and cheese. Now I dress it up with garlic chili sauce, green onion, soy sauce, sliced carrots, pickled red onion, and more.
So there you have it, my top 10 recipes of year one.
