With This Week, The Blog is 1 1/2 Years Old

It's hard to believe that I am writing my 78th week of "Cabana Boy Cooks" blog.  I've been having fun doing this for the last year and a half.  I hope that all of you that are following my blog have enjoyed it too.

My hope has been that this food blog has helped all of you in some way.  Whether it was getting you into the kitchen just to start cooking, opened you to new ideas or different ways of thinking about cooking.

I've heard from many of you during this year and a half.  In a lot of different ways too.  I thank you for all the support, questions and suggestions.  Please keep them coming because that lets me know there really is interest in what I'm trying to provide with the blog.

Over the course of this blog I have already posted more recipes than I have in my cookbook More Than Your First Cookbook.  Including the two recipes this week in the blog the total comes to 140 different recipes so far.  The cookbook only has 125 recipes.

I'm sure most of you have not tried all of them yet.  Looking at the recipe page of the blog, it would be difficult to where to start in trying all the different recipes.  I'm sure that all of you that have tried some recipes have picked a few favorites.  I'm going to mention a few that followers and I have picked as favorites.  To help you out I'm linking all of the mentioned recipes so if you click on it, it will take you straight to the recipe.

One of my friends and her family make my Pan Fried Chicken almost weekly. I've heard nothing but great reviews on my Spicy Cream Corn.  The same holds true for the Harvest Grains Salad (V).  A couple of dessert recipes that have been popular at book signings or other events are Fran’s Bars (V) and Easy Cheesecake Recipe (V).

I know I have some favorites and will share them with you too.  I love soup and my most favorite on the blog is the Chicken Wild Rice Soup.  For salads I'd have to say the most refreshing I think is the
Mandarin Orange Pudding (V).  For sandwiches, I'm a burger man and the Mushroom & Swiss Stuffed Burger is great.  The Butterfly Coconut Shrimp and Crab Casserole (My Favorite) are my top main dishes.  The two side dishes are great holiday items to serve.  They are the potato dish called Beacom Special (V) and another casserole dish named Savory Spinach & Artichoke Stuffing (V).  I'm not huge on dessert (God forgive me) but come holiday time I've got to have My Favorite Thumb Print Cookie (V).  Under my "Odds & Ends" heading, I die for the 

Garlic Bread (V) and Crab Cakes.

Today's blog puts 15 of the most popular recipes at easy hand for you.  If one of your favorites didn't make the list, just let me know and we'll give it a shout-out in a future blog.  Thanks again for all your support and help with a project that I love doing.  Happy Cooking!