Top Ten Recipes for 2016

These recipes are the most popular reader favorites for 2016. 

Here they are! Karen's Kitchen Stories Top 10 most popular recipes for 2016! These were your favorite recipes, and I thank you so much for visiting, commenting, critiquing, and following Karen's Kitchen Stories. I can't believe it's been another year!

The Last Word Cocktail

The Last Word Cocktail is reputed to be an old-timey cocktail, originating in Detroit, and dating back to pre-Prohibition. All I know is, it's pretty tasty. 

Evidently, The Last Word Cocktail, after languishing in obscurity for about 80 years or so, enjoyed a sudden resurgence when a Seattle bartender recreated it and began serving it around 2006. According to folklore, he discovered the cocktail in a book that was written in 1951.

Smoked Gouda Cheese Spread

This Smoked Gouda Cheese Spread is a wonderful appetizer spread on crackers, mini toasts, and crudités. It's perfect for cocktail and bowl game parties. 

I love this Smoked Gouda Cheese Spread on garlic melba toast or Carr's Table Water Crackers, but any good cracker will do.

Shanghai-Style Shrimp, Sweet and Sour Cabbage, and Slow Stir-Fried Red Peppers | Wok Wednesdays

For the months of November and December, the Wok Wednesdays group made three recipes from the book The Breath of a Wok. The recipes include Sweet and Sour Cabbage, Shanghai-Style Shrimp, and Slow Stir-Fried Red Peppers. 

This dish is Florence Lin's Slow Stir-Fried Red Peppers. This recipe is so simple, and so delicious. Other than oil and a little bit of salt and sugar, there is just one ingredient, red bell peppers.

Countdown to 2017: Best Appetizers and Snacks

The following are my favorite appetizers and snacks from 2016. 

I can't believe that 2016 is coming to a close. I know, it's just a date, but still, time seems to be flying by.

Cheddar Muffins

These Cheddar Muffins could really be delicious cheesy bread masquerading as muffins... or maybe cheddar biscuits disguised as muffins. 

These cheddar muffins are loaded with cheese and flavored with shallots, just a bit of cornmeal, Dijon mustard, freshly ground black pepper, and Tabasco sauce. They have just the right amount of kick.

Espresso Chocolate Sablés

These Espresso Chocolate Sablés are filled with the rich flavor of coffee and chocolate, and have a wonderful crumbly texture. 

Sablés you ask?  A sablé is the French shortbread! It's just fancier because of the name... and maybe a little more grown up.

Salted Chocolate Pecan Caramel Bars

These Salted Chocolate Pecan Caramel Bars are incredibly decadent and sophisticated at the same time. 

These salted chocolate pecan caramel bars consist of a delicious deep chocolate shortbread cookie base, topped with a salted chocolate caramel, and then sprinkled with toasted pecans.

Sourdough Golden Beet Braided Bread

This Sourdough Golden Beet Braided Bread incorporates a puree of raw golden beets into the dough.

This Sourdough Golden Beet Braided Bread was chosen by Cathy of Bread Experience for the monthly Bread Baking Babes bake-along. Each month, one of us introduces a new recipe, and the rest of us make it our own.

Alaskan Seafood Bubbly Bake

This Seafood Bubbly Bake, with halibut, crab, scallops, and shrimp, is so creamy and flavorful. 

This Alaskan Seafood Bubbly Bake is now one of my favorite recipes on this blog. This says a lot, because I luuurve all of the recipes I've posted here (well, maybe some of the baguettes and that darn pain de beaucaire have caused some frustration, but they were still tasty).

St. Lucia Buns | Lussebullar

St. Lucia Buns are a Swedish holiday tradition, symbolizing the winter solstice. Today, December 13 is St. Lucia Day in Sweden. It is also known as the Festival of Light, and ushers in the holiday season in the country. 

In its honor, I've made these St. Lucia buns, the official bread of this holiday. The buns are scented with saffron, which also gives them their lovely yellow color.

Mini Ciabatta Loaves

These Mini Ciabatta Loaves are deeply flavored from the dark brown and shatteringly thin crust. 

The dough for these mini ciabatta loaves is 92 percent hydration, which results in one of the lightest, airiest, and moistest loaves of bread. When you take them out of the oven, they sit there and crackle and sing for you for about five minutes! If you are a bread geek, you know exactly what I mean.

Bread Box Round Up for December 2016

Welcome to The Bread Box Round Up, a collection of wonderful loaves, rolls, and flatbreads from food bloggers who bake bread!

I am so grateful for the bloggers who have shared their posts this year!

Save or Splurge? Recommended Gifts for Your Favorite Cook or Baker

When I first got into cooking and bread baking (not very long ago), I started collecting kitchen tools, gadgets, cookbooks, pots and pans, small electrics, and various other things one might find at Sur la Table or Williams Sonoma. Remodeling our 1960s kitchen and the completion of my master's degree collided.