Thanks 2012... you've been delicious.

A fraction of the 2012 action. © Ryan Schierling

2012 passed with such a quickness, and before we even realized it, our second calendar year here at Foie Gras Hot Dog had come to a close. 

It was an engaging, fun-filled year. We started off with a Today Show Home Chef challenge, winning enough votes to have our "papaquiles" served from the Today Show food trucks at SXSW.

We did a few things we shouldn't have. We made Oysters Jones, because in this economy, not everyone can have Oysters Rockefeller. The sequel to Bitchin' Bacon & Beef Bombs™ was... something from a low-rent neighborhood convenience store on The Island of Dr. Moreau? We still don't talk about that one much. And somehow, against all odds, I came up with Chicken-fried Chicken à la King Ranch Chicken.

Julie reverse-engineered the best ice cream sandwich on the planet - the It's-It - and then did Sopes con Platanos so well I could cry. She also made beautiful cakes for a dear friend's wedding in Seattle, and mastered the art of the Italian Meringue Buttercream. 

We don't eat out too much, but over in Montopolis, Yolanda Sanchez Cornejo served us the best Mexican food we've ever had, out of a trailer next to a laundrette. We also ate more chilaquiles than anyone in Austin proper this year, and were subsequently awarded the keys to the city. Well, not really, but if you need to know where the absolute best of the best chilaquiles are, come find us and we'll point you in the right direction (hint: see below). 

Enough with the retrospective – here are the five most popular Foie Gras Hot Dog posts from 2012, as determined by you, the readers. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who has made this delicious journey with us. We couldn't have, and wouldn't have, done it without you.

1. Popeye vs. Jack Lalanne. This piece rocketed to the top of the charts after Huffington Post published our recipe for pineapple-spinach agua fresca. "Sorry, healthy smoothie enthusiasts, unless I'm pouring an oatmeal stout into a blender with some ice cream, chocolate chip cookies and a shot of espresso, I don't want to have to chew what I'm drinking. But this green dynamo? All bets are off."

2. The State of Chilaquiles in Austin, Texas. We ate chilaquiles at more than 30 restaurants in Austin this year. We ate a great number of those chilaquiles more than once, some a good half-dozen times. This list, with photographs, was an absolute joy to compile. "We weren't looking for haute cuisine a la Mexicana, we just wanted an honest, reliable, simple Sunday morning comfort-food breakfast at a joint where everyone might eventually know us (and our broken Spanish)."

3. Papaquiles. This is the breakfast dish that got our name on the side of a food truck at SXSW, which had us grinning ear-to-ear. "'Papaquiles' is not actually a word. We made it up. That's alright, though, because this concoction bears only a passing resemblance to one of our other favorite breakfast dishes. You guessed it... chilaquiles."

(Top) Tell me about... the papaquiles. (Bottom) The original, proper papaquiles build. 

4. Nuteena sandwich. I like to call this the "impossible-salad sandwich" because you've never heard of it, and chances are, you're never going to make it. Wildly enough, this vegetarian product of Julie's childhood drew enough of an audience to place it solidly in our top five for the year. "Unknown to us at the time, Julie and I quite possibly used the last can of Nuteena in existence back in 2008."

5. That's it! The ultimate ice cream sandwich. Without a source for It's-It ice cream sandwiches, Julie resorted to fabricating her own San Francisco treat. "Precious and exclusive – it's the way some food items seem determined to remain. There's always that one food that is so regional, and so perfect, that when you find yourself located outside the reach of its geographic distribution area you come to crave it terribly."

How did we wrap up 2011? Funny you should ask...