Announcing...52 New Weeks of New Food 2013

Hot on the heels of my Year in Review, announcing...my 2013 list of new foods! I already have three under my belt, and I think I'll be able to add 49 more before the end of the year.

Here's to new recipes, old friends, great wine and beautiful new traditions!

1.       Creamed Onions

2.       Gut a fish/Salt fish

3.       Bread from scratch

4.       Souflee

5.       Mom’s Crab Quiche

6.       Pasta from Scratch

7.       Flourless Chocolate Cake

8.       Rutabega recipe

9.       Homemade pizza

10.   Sweet and sour tofu

11.   Mushroom tartlets

12.   Cream of mushroom soup

13.   Salisbury steak

14.   Colcannon

15.   Shepherd’s Pie

16.   Enchiladas Suizas with Green Chile Sauce

17.   Mole sauce

18.   Gnudi

19.   White wine sangria

20.   French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons

21.   Scarpetta Tomato and Basil Sauce

22.   Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

23.   Gravy

24.   Scotch Eggs

25.   Tamale

26.   Black Cod Recipe from Yellowstone

27.   Wild game pot roast (from a butcher)

28.   Maple fudge

29.   Cream of Leek Soup

30.   BLT Cheesecake

31.   Onion Tart

32.   PB Cup pie

33.   Feta Salad Dressing

34.   Chicken and Brown Rice with Spinach and Baby Portobello Casserole

35.   Carnitas

36.   Thai Chicken and Basil

37.   Irish Beef Hand Pies

38.   Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Walnut Mushroom Cream

39.   Pasta with Mushrooms in Pumpkin Gorgonzola Sauce

40.   Southwest Pasta with Bacon

41.   Pepperoni Pasta Bake

42.   Butternut Squash Risotto

43.   Prune cake

44.   Carbonara

45.   Mushroom Ragu

46.   Shrimp Creole

47.   Sesame Lime Tuna

48.   Sherried Tomato Soup

49.   Sweet Corn Soup with Crab

50.   Scalloped Pumpkin and Spinach

51.   Broccoli Blue Cheese Bake

52.   Mashed Turnips with Parmesan

2012 Year in Review

[To put my PR hat on for a minute:]

Every year, we do a year end review for our clients. We create elaborate decks to review our progress, brag a bit, and look back at what we set out to do. Why not do it for my blog?

I think 2012 was the year that cooking turned from a fun hobby to a true passion. I had my list of foods I wanted to cook during the year, almost all of which were challenging and new. I wanted to push my culinary boundaries and further refine my tastes and flavors. I think I succeeded!

Of the 52 foods I set out to make, I made 31 of them. A bit over half, BUT I don't consider that bad! Here's why: when I made the list (my very first one!), I picked dishes with really out there techniques or really interesting ingredients. (I think I was having wineand watching Chopped when I made it, actually.) Some of them just weren't smart (for instance, I HATE chicken wings. Why did I put them on there?), and others I just ran out of times to make them (you can only have so many dinner parties!).

One of the most interesting things was that some recipes I didn't want to make or change. My dad always makes our Easter babka and my Grandma always makes it at Easter. We always have golumbke (stuffed cabbage), but my mom's family always makes them. Making these things myself means they're not as special anymore, that I can have them anytime I want. I wasn't ready for that! Thanksgiving rutagega is always made with lemon and butter, it didn't need a recipe makeover. I'm sad I even added that!

So as I continue scouring my best blogs, recipe books, family recipes and reinvent restaurant dishes, I'm coming up with a great, more manageable list of 2013. Some will be hard, others will mean something to me or those I love and still others will be recipes I just can't wait to try.

I can't wait to share them with you!