Happy 2015!

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2015 is wonderful for you all. It was a great year for Tara’s Multicultural Table. Total views for the year were 318,833- up from 181,801 in 2013. 861 was the average per day and the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Philippines, Netherlands, Singapore, and New Zealand were the countries with the most visitors (204 countries in total)! Thank you all so much for your support and I am excited to continue to share recipes from around the world in 2015.

Here are the most popular 2014 posts:

• Fried Ice Cream
• Fatayer bi Sabanekh
• Lego Crayons
• Australian Sausage Rolls
• Musaka (Serbian Potato Moussaka)
• Chinese Egg Rolls
• Honey White Chocolate Mousse
• Russian Mushroom and Potato Soup

And here are the most viewed posts in 2014 (most of the posts were actually from 2013):

• Parmesan Chicken Bites with Garlic Cheese Sauce
• White Pizza with Chicken and Fresh Herbs
• Sopa de Fideo (Mexican Noodle Soup)
• Sunomono (Japanese Vinegar Salad)
• Langues de Chat (French Cat Tongue Cookies)
• Kiymali Borek (Turkish Ground Beef and Phyllo Pie)

And here were my favorite recipes posted in 2014:

• Pan con Milanesa (Argentinian Sandwich with Breaded Veal Cutlet)
• Blood Orange Cream Cheese Filled Doughnuts
• Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits
• Nectarine Caprese with Honey Balsamic Reduction
• Grilled Pork Tenderloin Fajitas
• Fettuccine with Mushroom Cream Sauce
• Berry and Mascarpone Crostini
• Pork Belly Sliders
• Vanillekipferl (Austrian Vanilla Crescent Cookies)

There were quite a few recipes that never made it to the blog due to me never getting around to photographing them, preparing them when there was no lighting (and they wouldn’t look the same the next day), or something going wrong during the preparation. When I remembered, I took photos of the recipes that failed- but Chad usually reminded me that I wanted to take photos of the failures after I had dumped the contents into the trash.

This first failure was the closest to making me cry. I attempted to make a Japanese-style Zebra Cheesecake. I alternated adding 2 tablespoons of plain and chocolate batter to a springform pan for what felt like forever. I even narrowly averted disaster when Evan tried to throw a measuring cup into the pan and I barely caught it. Once baked, I was rushing to take care of Evan after he woke up from an impromptu nap and immediately placed the cheesecake on the counter instead of letting it cool in the oven with the door open. The cheesecake fell completely flat.

This bread was meant to become a recipe post last spring. La Mouna Oranaise is an Algerian Orange Sweet Bread popular during Easter. Something went wrong during the dough making process and the shape did not turn out at all. I probably should have added a lot more flour since the dough was so difficult to handle. It is supposed to be a more formed, braided bun, with a golden exterior. At least it still tasted delicious. I may attempt again at a later date.

I didn’t take a photo of the final product of these Candy Cane Bagels, but they were my most recent kitchen blooper. Since I try to avoid artificial coloring, I tried using natural beet juice coloring for the red of the candy canes. They look so pretty prior to baking, but all the color disappeared in the oven. The texture of the bread was also closer to a breadstick as opposed to a bagel. Oh well :/

I was excited about this Chorizo, Manchego, and Piquillo Pepper Pizza. I rolled out the dough, placed it on the peel, and arranged all the toppings. It wasn’t until I tried to slide the pizza into the oven that I realized my error. I had forgotten to sprinkle cornmeal over the peel before adding the dough. The pizza was completely stuck to the peel and I had managed to toss half of the toppings onto the hot stone. It was a huge mess. I took the stone out of the oven and scraped what I could back onto the pizza. I managed to unstick half the dough (but it did tear a bit) and folded it over to make a large calzone. We still ate it. It was delicious. Check out Zen Can Cook for the recipe and to see what the final product should actually look like.

 There were so many other kitchen bloopers during the past year, but I often got so frustrated that the final product ended in the trash before a photo was taken. Curdled ice cream from rushing through the custard process, lumpy cream cheese frosting from not letting the cream cheese sit at room temperature long enough, etc. Seems most of my bloopers this year were from rushing. Well, with each mistake I learn something and get a little better in the kitchen. Here is to hoping for a great year in the kitchen in 2015!