Recipe Resolution Recap 2012

I ended up making 60 new recipes in 2012. That is a bit too many to list here so instead I am going to revisit them in a different format this year. Looking back I think covering them by meal category makes the most sense. So for a breakdown here are the types of recipes I made in 2012:

• 7 appetizer recipes such as avocado hummus, buffalo chicken meatballs
• 5 soups such as lemon chicken orzo, senate bean
• 3 salads such as ham salad, baked potato salad
• 10 side dishes such as braised lettuce, herb roasted fingerling potatoes
• 10 pasta dishes such as penne with leek, cabbage, and cheese, and pesto for gnocchi
• 10 entree dishes such as pork scaloppini, halibut in béchamel
• 7 desserts such as soft pumpkin cookies, banana brioche bread pudding
• 4 drinks such as sangria, basil lemonade
• 4 breakfast dishes such as pumpkin pancakes, green poached eggs

Looking back, the sources of these recipes were predominately Food Network related, either from searching the website or from the magazine and sometimes from seeing a show and then going to the website for that specific recipe. But I also pulled recipes from other magazines such as Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Martha Stewart Living, etc. whatever magazines passed along to me from others.  And on occasion when we decided we just wanted to do something new and had whatever ingredients available I would simply Google for recipes.  Over time I have come to learn what food celebrities provide recipes that in general either really work for me or just aren't that exciting or are maybe too convoluted.  As such if I am trolling through a site such as Food Network and find 20 some recipes for a particular dish I tend to focus in on my favorite chefs, especially ones where I have had success with their recipes already.  I think maybe I should do a blog at some point covering the highs and lows of cooking like your favorite celebrity cook/chef.

Of all the recipes tried in 2012 only three were “eeww no, what were they thinking” and maybe eight or nine were the “so-so" or "not worth the effort” type. There were many more “yums” of which quite a few have already made it into a somewhat regular rotation for weekly meals. Over the coming weeks I will blog by category going into further details about what actual recipes were made and what we thought of them.

 

My resolutions for 2013 are a bit different this year.  I still plan to continue trying new recipes but may or may not strive for one new one a week like I have the past couple of years.  This year my food themed resolution is to buy one new or different food item each month.  I always read in magazines about the best this or that so this year we will be doing our own evaluations as well as trying some new experiments in cooking.