Many of you will have seen the Seven Links initiative started by Tripbase but sweeping the blogosphere in general. It’s a great way to forge blog links (like a modern twist on the chain letter) and friendships across t’internet. It’s also a lovely reason to look back over your own archives and enjoy your achievements and interest. A bit like when you stumble across that box of letters and childhood nostalgia stored away when you should be tidying up…

Obviously North/South Food is a collaboration between me and my big brother, but while he was living up in the Languedoc I went ahead and selected my seven favourites to make up for not being on holiday. His might vary. We’ll try not to squabble so much we require a suitcase between us again like when we were kids!

Our most beautiful post: Forearmed and Fore-ribbed: Christmas Beef I love this one for the sheer beauty of that piece of beef, especially when accessorised with Mister North’s Yorkshire Puddings and those gorgeous Hassleback potatoes. The photos are fabulous. But the post is perfect for being a meal that our whole family shared.

Our most popular post: Marmalade Cake. The world is full of marmalade obsessives apparently and their lust for the Seville stuff (and my baking mishaps) mean that we now come higher on a Google search for ‘marmalade cake Nigel Slater’ than the man himself. It’s well worth a look if you’re a coarse cut fan yourself, although I preferred marmalade in ice cream myself.

Our most controversial post: Bloodlust six black pudding for breakfast. This one separated readers into two camps. Some thought offal was awful while the others pointed out there are more than six sorts of black pudding and offered to help taste them for us. Everyone admired our stamina though (and Mister North’s flagmaking skills!)

Our most helpful post: Duck or Strange Love. This one explains the mysteries of sous vide in the home and made everyone want to buy a slow cooker. It also made me love duck even more than I thought I could…

Our most suprisingly successful post: Veda Bread Ice Cream. This one was a surprise because it was mainly non Northern Irish people reading and lusting after this ice cream treat, despite not having grown up eating this amazing malt bread and being unable to get hold of it in England. This is how good Veda bread is. It makes people obsess over it.

Our most under-rated post: Posh Squash Nosh. Individual portion of soft squash filled with soft melting truffled brie seemed to pass people by at New Year. I presume you were on your broccoli and brown rice kick at that point because I don’t know how else you resisted this perfectly portioned treat.

The post I’m most proud of: Christmas Chestnut Doughnuts. So many personal achievements here. Successfully using yeast. Not setting the house on fire with burning oil. Using an icing syringe without sniggering. Increasing the calorie count of a doughnut even more. Making doughnuts an American declared the best they have ever eaten. Yep, I was pretty pleased with this one!

It’s been quite a treat looking back over the past 18 months of blogging at North/South Food and seeing why many of my pairs of trousers don’t fit just as well anymore. We were very kindly invited to take part in this by The Little Loaf. I’d like to extend our invite to some other great bloggers who keep me on my toes with their quality posts, passion for food and general loveliness.

Other Northern food fans:

Miss Cay

Lay The Table

The Greedy Girl

A former Northerner, now in London:

Marmaduke Scarlet

And last but not least:

The Vintage Cookbook Trials