Ringing in 2011 with a Top 10 list, and a Giveaway!

Happy New Year friends!  2010 has officially come to a close, and what a year it has been.  On the rollercoaster of life, this blog has been a consistent high point, and I get such happiness from sharing my love of food with each of you every day. Throughout this past year, I hope The Cilantropist has given you delicious recipes that helped you experience the simple joys of eating well and sharing good food with friends and family.  I have so many exciting ideas to share with you in 2011, and I can't wait to get started; I hope you will continue to pull up a comfy chair and follow along with me on my adventures.  

But first, lets take a little look back at 2010 and your favorite posts and recipes!  I chose the Top 10 based on pageviews, twitter, reader comments and emails; not surprisingly, many of the top posts were from Project Food Blog, where I made i my mission to put my very best food forward and improve the quality of my blog by leaps and bounds.  So, without further ado, here are the The Cilantropist's Top 10 post of 2011!    

1. The post where I shared my lunch menu for A Presidio Picnic, with Italian Pressed Sandwiches is by far the most viewed post on The Cilantropist.  The post includes a recipe for Sopressata and Provolone Italian Pressed Sandwiches, which I also made for a post-Project Food Blog Celebration, and is the most popular recipe with readers.  For the lunch, we also enjoyed Parmesan and Gruyere Cheese Straws from Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten, as well as Spiced Pear and Cranberry Pocket Pies.  The Pocket Pies were a huge hit as well, and I can't wait to make them this summer with peaches! 

White Chocolate Layer Cake with Apricot Filling and White Chocolate Buttercream

I know.  You can't believe it.  You think you might be dreaming, or maybe having some sort of weird deja vu experience because I am posting yet another recipe with apricots and peaches.  Can you stand it?  I hope so, because this cake is actually pretty dreamy, and is an awesome Celebration Cake.  Just scroll down a little bit and you can check out all the goodies that are packed into this dessert.  That doozy of a title pretty much tells it all, but aren't we all visual creatures?  (Men, I am not just talking about you.)

Oh yes, there is that silky, sweet White Chocolate Buttercream.

One delicious layer of White Chocolate Cake on top of another. Plus, apricot filling and more buttercream. *sigh*   

White Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Pots (Belated HHDD)

So I am going to keep this post relatively short and sweet... mostly because this is a small and sweet dessert.  (But also because I need to get my butt in gear and my car in drive to head out to Las Vegas for the weekend!)

And, truth be told, I can't really write too much for this post that hasn't already been written by someone else.  You see, last month Mardi of eat.live.travel.write hosted the Hay Hay it's Donna Day cooking event to honor Australian cookbook and magazine author Donna Hay.  Before I read her post, I really had no idea who Donna Hay was, or why anyone would want to host a blogging event about her food.  Well I read the history of the event provided by Mardi and Chez Us (here and here), and being naturally curious, I found some more information here.  (Have you had enough links yet?)   And truly, I think I love Donna Hay.  I feel like she is Rachel Ray's better half meets Real Simple.  Where have I been without her?  Were it not for the fact that I already receive a stack of cooking magazines in the mail every month, I surely would be subscribing.  

Anyway, back to the event: The thing is...the event is over.  Yes my friends, I missed the deadline to submit my entry, oh woe is me.  Mardi was even kind enough to be flexible with the deadline so that I could still submit this dessert, but with bridal showers, trifles, and plane rides, life just got in the way.    

The event ended up being wildly popular, but thats really no surprise.  I think all us bloggers were thinking, "Really, you are asking me to whip up a cheesecake pot in 10 minutes?  Is there some catch?  You say there isn't??  Hah!  Awesome."  Overall Mardi had twenty-four entries for her event, and the bloggers hailed from all over the globe.  You can view the round-up of all the entries, and then you can keep checking out my little cheesecake pots.

An Afternoon Bridal Shower: Lemon Berry White Chocolate Trifle

So I before I get on to the really important stuff (like bridal shower fun and delicious desserts) I thought I would preface this post with a little disclaimer: I think I been experiencing a bout of dessert compulsion.  As recently as just a few months ago, I was expending almost all of my culinary energy tossing together fresh salads, eating fish, and simmering healthy soups.  I would have said that I definitely prefer to cook rather than bake. Then love came to town (aka my boyfriend and his sweet tooth) and kicked my nutritious disciplined eating to the curb.  If you force me to choose, I would always pick my adorable Norwegian over vegetables, and when push comes to shove he really is a very healthy eater.  But somehow since he left last month, I haven't been able to stop making sweet treats!  I am getting lost in a tangent here; the point is, I have no plans to turn this into a dessert blog so don't be confused by the number of sugary posts from last month, or any cakes that I post in the next few weeks.

Now, on to the bridal shower!  

In case you are just tuning in, I went home to Cleveland, Ohio last weekend for a bridal shower and bachelorette party for one of my dearest college friends.  There are seven of us bridesmaids, and we all worked together to plan this elegant extravaganza, and in my humble opinion (although I think the other ladies present would agree) everything turned out to be truly perfect.  

The weather was amazing, with a clear blue cloudless sky and bright sunshine to greet us.  So many friends and family of the bride were able to attend, which made for a really friendly and lively afternoon.  Everywhere you looked, there were beautiful smiling faces of well-dressed women chatting together, either catching up on life with old friends or getting to know new friends.  And of course, we were all doting on the star of the day, the lovely bride.          

As I mentioned in my last post, the mother of one of the other bridesmaids was generous enough to host the shower at her home, and it turned out to be an ideal venue: plenty of room both outside and inside, and absolutely charming to boot.  They did an amazing job of decorating everything with intricately embroidered tablecloths, patterned paisley napkins, brightly colored flowers, and cherished family china.  We started the afternoon outside where Judy and her mother had set up tables so everyone could enjoy lunch, and we followed up with gifts, games, and dessert inside.