Best of the Month April 2014

A recap of my most popular recipes from last month (April 2014)

I've found out that any recipe containing chocolate will get almost three times the views of other posts.  April is my husbands birthday month so I made his usual chocolate cheese cake with some alterations.  As expected it received the most views and +1s this month.

Overall I think my blog is doing well.  I have some regular viewers and my google plus page is doing well with almost 1,000 followers.  My twitter, facebook, pinterest, and tumbler accounts are steadily gaining more followers (I'm starting to feel like a cult leader with all these followers ;-) ) too.

I installed rich pins for my blog so when my recipes are pinned you see my favicon and site name with each pin as well as the ingredients and web page.  I love the look of these pins and I'm slowly going through older posts and marking them up.  I'm also gradually updating some of my older posts.  I'm still co hosting Great Idea Thursdays every Wednesday to Sunday and we have more linkers than ever and that also contributes to my recipe views.  Still linking to other link parties weekly and trying to comment on other posts.  So things are looking good and I'm slowly but steadily being seen.  I don't expect fame but I love when my recipes inspire others.

My best of April:

Dark Mocha Cheese Cake

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A dark chocolate cheesecake with coffee flavor.  425 views and 100 +1s.

Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry

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A healthy stir fry made with shrimp, vegetables, and lots of garlic (update 4/7/14 from original 1/21/13).  182 views and 33 +1s.

Mushroom Spinach Tomato Pasta

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Linguine noodles in a light white wine and garlic sauce tossed with mushrooms, spinach and grape tomatoes.  151 views and 18 +1s.

Clam Linguine

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Clams cooked in white wine sauce then tossed with linguine.  A delicious dinner that may look fancy but is really quite simple.  140 views and 113 +1s.

Veal Scalopini

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Thin veal cutlets served with tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach in a white wine sauce.  139 views and 16 +1s.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Enjoy.

Linked to:  See Ya in the Gumbo, Much Ado, Merry Monday, Two Cup, Teach Me, LouLou Girls, Tasty Tuesday, Brag About it, Whimsy Wednesday, Wednesday Roundup, Eat Create Party, Freedom Friday, Pretty Pintastic, Best of the Weekend, Saturday Night Fever, Share it Sunday

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Mushroom Spinach Tomato Pasta

Linguine noodles in a light white wine and garlic sauce tossed with mushrooms, spinach and grape tomatoes.

Pasta is an easy go to recipe when I don't really feel like spending too much time or thought on dinner.  I always have some kind of pasta in my pantry and if I don't it's sold at the corner store (that is only 1 block away). White wine sauce is a very simple sauce for pasta that tastes great and doesn't require much time and few ingredients.  Yes, opening a jar/can of pasta sauce is probably easier but I don't like to use store bought pasta sauce and I don't can my own...and sometimes I don't want a tomato based sauce.  I love white wine sauce because it is flavorful and light (it doesn't sit heavy in your stomach it may or may not be any lighter in calories than other sauces but I like to think it is).  My basic white wine sauce is made of olive oil, shallots, garlic, and dry white wine (my favorite is Pinot Grigio) then I just toss in whatever I happen to have on hand.  In this case it was mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes.  This dinner takes less than 30 minutes (the longest part for me is waiting for my ancient electric stove to boil water...I rent so I can't just get my dream stove).

Mushroom Spinach Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp minced shallots
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup vegetable broth or water, optional
1/2 cup halved grape tomatoes
1 large handful baby spinach
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 pack linguine, cooked al dente
Parmesan
salt
pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add shallots, garlic and mushrooms.

Cook until fragrant add the broth/water if the pan gets to dry then add the tomatoes.  Let the tomatoes begin to blister and soften slightly then add the spinach, wine and salt to taste.

Continue cooking until the wine reduces by about half and add the cooked pasta.  Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Toss and serve with parmesan and fresh cracked pepper.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Enjoy.

Linked to: Eat Create Party, Freedom Fridays, Best of the Weekend, Show Stopper, Saturday Night Fever, See Ya in the Gumbo, Much Ado, The Yuck Stops Here. Two Cup Tuesday, LouLouGirls, Brag About It, Whimsy Wednesday, Full Plate


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