Discover An Oregon Cottage’s Most Loved: Top Recipes, DIY Projects, and Gardening Tips of 2018

Delve into the best of 2018 from An Oregon Cottage, featuring cherished recipes, essential food preservation techniques, an unexpected DIY success, and a highly effective gardening tip that continues to thrive. Explore reader favorites that blend practicality with simple, natural living.

Here at An Oregon Cottage, it’s a cherished annual tradition to reflect on the past year and identify the most popular articles that resonated most deeply with our community. This insightful practice allows us to trace trends and revisit evergreen content, offering a fascinating glimpse into what truly captures your interest (you can even explore all our annual popular lists dating back to 2010 here – it’s truly remarkable to observe which recipes and projects consistently remain among the favorites year after year).

Compiling these annual lists is incredibly valuable to me, as it provides a clear understanding of the content that truly connects with you, my wonderful readers. This feedback is instrumental in guiding my focus for future content creation, ensuring I continue to deliver what you find most helpful and inspiring for your homes and lives. Furthermore, I’ve heard from many of you that these compilation posts serve as a delightful way to catch up on articles you might have missed or to rediscover beloved tips and recipes you wish to revisit.

While in previous years I often separated popular recipes from DIY and gardening projects into distinct lists, this year I’ve opted for a streamlined approach. For 2018, I’m presenting a single, unified list of your absolute favorites, regardless of their category. This simplification makes it even easier to browse through the top content. And, because it’s always hard to narrow down when there’s so much great content you all love, I’m sharing the top 15 entries instead of the usual top 10!

To meticulously gather this comprehensive list, I delved into my Google Analytics data, meticulously tracking the most visited articles and recipes published on the site throughout 2018. This method ensures that the list is based purely on reader engagement, highlighting not just new content, but also timeless “oldies-but-goodies” that continue to attract attention alongside fresh posts from 2018. As you browse, I’d love to hear your thoughts – did any of your personal favorites make the cut? Were there any surprises?

I certainly encountered a couple of unexpected entries, which I’ll gladly share at the end of this list. But first, let’s dive into your top selections from the site, presented in order from the most popular down to number fifteen. Get ready to discover new favorites or reconnect with beloved classics!

Your Top 15 Favorite Recipes, DIY & Gardening Projects of 2018

1. Perfectly Salted DIY Roasted Almonds. These homemade roasted almonds are a constant presence in our kitchen, and it’s clear they’ve become a staple in many of your homes too! This recipe is a genuine revelation, demonstrating two key things: first, just how incredibly easy it is to roast your own nuts (a technique that can be adapted for various types of nuts), and second, the absolutely AMAZING flavor you achieve. Seriously, if you haven’t tried making your own, you won’t believe the difference in taste and texture compared to store-bought varieties. It’s a simple, healthy snack that tastes infinitely better when made from scratch.

2. How to Freeze Corn Three Ways. This invaluable food preserving tutorial, originally published several years ago, experienced a massive surge in popularity during the recent harvest season. It even surpassed our long-standing top 5 favorite, freezing green beans! This comprehensive guide walks you through three distinct methods for freezing corn – blanched, unblanched, and whole – meticulously detailing the pros and cons of each approach. It’s the ultimate resource for anyone looking to preserve their summer bounty efficiently and effectively for year-round enjoyment, ensuring you have delicious corn whenever you crave it.

3. 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Tutorial. This truly is our family’s go-to staple bread, offering a perfect balance of softness and wholesome goodness. It brings me immense joy to see it consistently rank as one of your top choices. Beyond its delicious taste and health benefits, it’s a remarkably easy bread to make, with countless readers reporting successful results. If you’re looking to bake healthy, flavorful sandwich bread from scratch, this tutorial provides clear, simple steps that empower even novice bakers to achieve bakery-quality loaves every time, making it a cornerstone of any natural, homemade kitchen.

4. Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Onion-Dijon Sauce. I distinctly recall creating this recipe on a whim, initially wondering if a cabbage recipe would even find an audience. To my delightful surprise, it absolutely exploded in popularity and has remained one of my top-performing recipes every single year since its publication. This dish has a magical way of transforming humble cabbage into a surprisingly flavorful and elegant side, especially when paired with the rich, tangy Onion-Dijon Sauce. It’s a testament to how simple ingredients can create extraordinary results, proving that even skeptics can fall in love with roasted cabbage.

5. Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread. With the ever-growing enthusiasm for sourdough baking (our comprehensive guide on how to grow, keep, and use sourdough starter also consistently ranks in my top 50 posts!), it’s hardly a surprise that this recipe has soared in popularity. This particular sourdough bread has now surpassed my regular easy artisan bread recipe, upon which it was originally modeled, on this list. While the original remains incredibly simple, the allure of baking with sourdough and achieving that characteristic tangy flavor and rustic crust has clearly captured the hearts of many home bakers. It’s a wonderfully rewarding experience to create such a beautiful loaf from scratch.

6. Truly Soft 100% Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls. This recipe offers another delicious revelation of flavor and texture, proving that you can achieve incredibly soft and tender rolls using only whole wheat flour. These rolls have become a beloved holiday tradition and a family favorite in our home. The crucial secret to their success lies in resisting the urge to add too much flour, even if the dough seems a bit sticky (watching the accompanying video here will provide a perfect visual guide). Once you master this delicate balance, you’ll be well on your way to enjoying healthy, homemade rolls that taste absolutely divine, elevating any meal from ordinary to extraordinary.

7. Freezing Basil Leaves 6 Ways: Which Is Best? This project felt almost like a scientific experiment, driven by my determination to find the absolute best way to preserve basil beyond just pesto (because let’s be honest, even the most avid pesto lover can only consume so much in a year, and happy basil plants produce an abundance!). The delightful outcome was discovering that the simplest freezing method also happened to be the most effective. There’s a special satisfaction in finding an easy, practical solution for preserving the garden’s bounty, especially when it saves time and delivers superior results. This guide ensures you can enjoy fresh basil flavor long after the growing season ends.

8. Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe – You’ll Never Go Back to Canned. It brings me immense joy to see this recipe finally make the list this year! This is truly a fantastic recipe, outstanding both in its rich flavor and the impressive speed with which it can be prepared. It’s been a part of the blog since its very first year, way back in 2009. However, for years it suffered from small, poorly lit photos that hindered its shareability on social media. After updating it with fresh, vibrant photos and republishing the recipe in February of 2018, a significantly larger audience is now discovering and enjoying this beloved family favorite soup. It’s a prime example of how a timeless recipe can find new life and appreciation with a little refresh!

9. Homemade Garlic-Mint Garden Insect Spray. This natural insect spray has consistently appeared in the top DIY and Gardening lists since its initial publication, and for excellent reason – it genuinely WORKS! It’s remarkably effective for repelling various insects that are deterred by strong scents. This past year, I even discovered its surprising efficacy in keeping deer away from shrubs! I’ve received numerous testimonials from readers sharing even more success stories, and I plan to update you all on these findings very soon. This homemade solution is nothing short of amazing, offering a simple, eco-friendly way to protect your garden. (For more details, a dedicated FAQ page answers common questions and shares additional reader success stories.)

10. Easy Way to Freeze Green Beans Without Blanching. This article, a long-standing favorite since its publication, has actually settled into its lowest position on the yearly favorites list this year. Its popularity, however, has always been clear. Because it deviates from traditional blanching methods, I knew this post would either be widely embraced or heavily debated. But since this “no-blanching” approach is the only way we get frozen green beans that our family genuinely enjoys eating, I harbored hope that others would share our preference for crispness and ease – and indeed, they have! It’s a simple, effective method that yields superior texture.

11. Homemade Vinaigrette Salad Dressing 4 Ways. This recipe, another one from the very first year of the blog, is a true staple in our household. When I revisited the original recipe a few years ago, adding fresh photos and detailed instructions for the various flavor variations I had always mentioned, it quickly soared in popularity! I’m always so pleased when this happens, especially with this particular recipe. It was the game-changer that completely liberated me from the habit of buying expensive, often sugar-laden bottled dressings. Learning to make these versatile vinaigrettes from scratch is a simple step towards healthier and more frugal eating.

12. DIY Tufted French Mattress Cushion Tutorial. Take a look at that charming bench! That’s the French-styled bench Brian ingeniously crafted from two old, broken chairs, and it has been a consistently popular DIY project since its inception. This year, however, it was surprisingly outranked by the DIY French mattress cushion I created to adorn it. I wasn’t entirely sure how many people would be interested in making their own tufted cushions, but it seems there’s a significant audience for unique, handmade home decor. This project not only adds comfort and style but also showcases the beauty of upcycling materials like painter’s drop cloth into something truly special.

13. Sweet & Spicy Canned Onion Marmalade. This is one of those preserving recipes that you personally adore but aren’t quite sure if others will appreciate it as much (similar to our Addictive Tomato Chutney – which, sadly, has never made this list!). It’s a genuinely delicious condiment that perfectly complements meats, poultry, and seafood, and it makes an absolutely fantastic appetizer when served over goat cheese or cream cheese with crackers. Clearly, many others have discovered its incredible versatility and flavor too, making it a surprisingly popular choice for those seeking unique and gourmet homemade preserves.

14. Easiest Fermented Pickled Vegetables. Wow, I am incredibly happy to see this brand-new recipe for 2018 grace our popular list! This was one of the very first creations I embarked upon as part of my deep dive into the fascinating world of fermenting and understanding gut health. It’s wonderfully reassuring to see that so many of you are also taking proactive steps to nurture your gut health. Of course, it certainly helps that this path to wellness can be paved with such delicious, tangy fermented pickled vegetables, making healthy eating both easy and incredibly enjoyable!

15. Easy Garlic Dill Pickles. This recipe represents a modern-traditional approach to pickling (meaning it uses vinegar, rather than fermentation) and has been my preferred method for preserving cucumbers into pickles for many years. These are specifically refrigerator pickles because I’ve always found canned cucumber pickles to be too soft for my liking; I much prefer the satisfying crispness that a refrigerated pickle offers. Moreover, can we talk about how incredibly “quick and easy” this recipe is? It’s a foolproof way to enjoy perfectly crunchy, flavorful dill pickles without the extensive process of traditional canning.

And there you have it – the diverse and delightful top 15 recipes, DIY projects, and gardening tips that captured your attention and clicks on An Oregon Cottage in 2018! Were there any surprises among this year’s most popular selections for you? Perhaps a project you’ve always meant to try, or a recipe you rediscovered?

Here’s to a truly wonderful and inspiring 2019 for all of us, filled with even more fantastic recipes, practical preserving techniques, engaging DIY projects, and rewarding gardening endeavors! May your year be abundant with creativity, delicious food, and a thriving home.

My deepest gratitude goes out to all of you, my dear friends, for visiting An Oregon Cottage, for utilizing these recipes and projects, and for “voting” with your valuable clicks. This journey simply wouldn’t be possible without your incredible support and engagement – and truthfully, I wouldn’t want to do it without you!

If there’s anything specific you’d love to see more of in the coming year, please know that you can always reach out via email or leave your suggestions in the comments below. I am always listening and will do my absolute best to help bring those ideas to life. Blessings to you all!