Best of 2008 Part I: Some stats about this blog

Another year has come and gone, and it boggles the mind at how much time I have devoted to this blog. But with the end of the year comes that yearning desire to sum up the past 366 days, in food and blog posts. In general, I've noticed that I started writing a whole lot more about what I cooked after that exhausting Beltway Snacking series concluded (more on that soon). And how can I eat out much these days? I just don't have the money!

I've decided to start with a post that sums up the last year in The Baltimore Snacker...

Number of blog posts in 2008 - 372

Number of restaurants/festivals/markets/etc. blogged about in 2008 (including "Beltway Snacking" ones I just took note of, to visit later) - 372 (not a typo)

Number of videos linked to in 2008 (including duplicates) - 90

Number of times I have linked to Sandra Lee's infamous "Kwanzaa Cake" video in 2008 - 2

Number of silly costumes worn by Sandra in 2008's Halloween episode of Semi-Homemade - 4, and let us never speak of her Marie Antoinette get-up ever again.

Oh okay, just once


Number of blogger round tables I have been party to in 2008 - 1 (Great Tastes Expo)

Number of other 2008 "blogger events" I have written about - 3 (Julie's blogger brunch, Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts' visit to the Bawlmer Book Festival - okay, not really a "blogger event" but I'm listing it anyway - and that awesome Miracle Fruit Party!)

Number of Restaurant Weeks I have taken part in during 2008 - 4, including one in New York and one in Washington

Number of recipes I've written about in 2008 - 34

Number of recipes that didn't quite work out in 2008 - 4 - People, don't substitute pumpkin purée for oil and eggs. It's just not very good.

Number of food-related New Year's Resolutions I made in 2008 - 1, to use a different one of my cookbooks each week of the year

Number of food-related New Year's Resolutions I kept in 2008 - 0

Number of television shows subject to my live-blogging experiment in 2008 - 4 (Top Chefs 4 & 5, Next Food Network Star 4, and a one-shot synopsis of Big Daddy's House)

Farthest I have traveled for a blog post in 2008 - Den Haag's Babbelen Brasserij, Netherlands - eight hours away by plane, plus another hour away from Amsterdam (the next farthest I traveled) by train

Least far I have traveled (not counting my own kitchen) in 2008 - Greg's Bagels in Belvedere Square - 30 minutes away from home on foot, or about five to ten minutes by car

And some useful new terms I either coined or think I did in 2008 (granted, they may have popped up independently elsewhere) -

cheftestant - noun; cheftestants (plural) - competitor on a cooking reality program. Jill was the latest cheftestant kicked off of Top Chef 5, due to that objectionable ostrich egg quiche.
UPDATE - Minx lets me know that she used the term in '07 - about a year before I did by my estimation - but she can't take credit for the term either. That goes to Bravo or the FN. Oh well!

Chick-Fil-Aniac - noun; Chick-Fil-Aniacs (plural) - a person who is so obsessed with Chick-Fil-A that he or she flocks to as many new openings of Chick-Fil-A's around the country as possible. There were dozens of Chick-Fil-Aniacs flocked around the new Lansdowne Chick-Fil-A.

Coming next - My favorite places to eat of 2008