Each year, I like to come up with a New Year resolution that encourages me to learn more or pursue my hobbies. In previous years I’ve pledged to watch through the AFI Top 100, learn how to cook my favorite takeout meals, and do more photo shoots with friends. This year, I’m pledging to try at least 52 new recipes.
Each week when I make my meal plan, I try to include a new recipe. I have a running list in my to do app of new recipes I find that I want to try, and this is a great way to get through some of them. It gives me an excuse to try new things, keep our meals varied, and to absorb and learn more about how to craft a great recipe. I’ll post links to the recipes I try along with any thoughts and recommended adjustments. Bolded recipes are ones I loved and would make again.
Some weeks may have more than one and there may be some weeks that are skipped. At times, I may be developing my own recipes for upcoming books/posts and won’t be able to include them here. But for the most part, I hope to include the recipes I try along with my thoughts. If you have a similar resolution, this may help you find some fun recipes to try!
Keep checking back throughout the year to see new recipes added. And if you have a fave cookbook, food blogger, or recipe you think I should check out, let me know in the comments!
January 4: Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies from Milk Bar. I’m taking Monthly’s Creative Baking with Christina Tosi class and it’s amazing. Our first challenge was to make these cookies. They’re delicious, but ended up a bit flat/caramelized/ugly looking. The cornflake crunch*, however, is highly recommended for snacking, topping ice cream, and adding into any cookie recipe.
January 2: Vanilla Chai Mug Cake*. I wanted to make a tea-infused cake for a virtual Bridgerton watch party I had with some friends and this hit the spot! Delicious and moist. My only complaint is that it made a small amount. I’d double or triple the recipe in the future. (May have to play with cooking times a bit in that case.)
January 1: Panda Express Orange Chicken and Express Chow Mein from Damn Delicious. I wanted to try my hand at making some takeout faves, and these were both fine, but not as good as takeout (and made for a very messy kitchen). The orange chicken was a bit too orangey and the sauce was a bit too thin, but I loved the flour/cornstarch mixture for coating the chicken. Will definitely use that again! The Chow Mein was good and will be an easy base recipe to add to in the future. I think I added too many noodles so it wasn’t as flavorful. I’d make more sauce in the future. (I also added in some peas and mushrooms I had on hand and used a bag of coleslaw mix as an easy way to get the shredded cabbage and carrots.)
December 30th (Bonus, but it was so delicious, I want to include it): Beef Stifado*. This is going to become a go-to winter stew. The cinnamon and other spices also makes it feel very Christmassy. I’d love to make this a traditional Christmas Eve dinner! I used frozen pearl onions instead of shallots (it was just easier to find) and just put them in at the end (no browning). Still delicious, and the smaller onions made it easy to get one with a little bit of beef in the same spoonful.
The post Every Recipe I Tried in 2021 first appeared on The Geeky Hostess.