Here goes my last review! It will be back to regular posting for the rest of the week.
The Husband’s favorite recipe was the Thai Sweet Hot Duck, hand’s down. I’m a little nervous to make it again for fear I will mess it up!
We might have it for Valentine’s Day though. We never go out, just eat a fancy dinner at home.
My favorite new recipe was the coconut veggie curry.
It was so comforting. I need to investigate more veggie options for my lunches.
The French onion grilled cheese sandwiches were also a surprise hit. Messy, but delicious.
I liked the marshmallow ice cream, but the Husband didn’t. We both liked the chocolate ice cream.
I did make two really good chocolate cupcakes, the blackberry ones and my birthday cupcakes.
I normally don’t really like chocolate cupcakes, but these recipes were really moist and delicious.
Of course, the dragon bundt cake was delicious and I was excited to use the pan. It wasn’t too bad to clean or get the cake out either.
Fancy liked all her treats. I couldn’t tell which one she liked the best. She does get so excited when I pull out the frozen sweet potato sticks. 🙂
Misses were the chicken risotto, a couple of stir fry experiments, and the cheese and mushroom souffle.
I used a total of 113 new cookbooks! My idea of sections went a little wonky because there were multiple recipes in each section that I wanted to try. Overall though, I did use new cookbooks and recipes in the spirit of the challenge. I have a bunch of cookbooks left to use.
There are a few cookbooks that I think I may need to just get rid of. The Microwave Chinese Cookbook scares both of us, so it will go. Basically, any cookbook that doesn’t make me want to cook with it should probably go. There’s no sense in holding on to them, if I won’t use them. It’ll make more room for new ones! 🙂
What I learned:
– Trust my instincts. I know how to cook and bake and if something doesn’t look right, it might not be.
– Up the spices! We like a lot of flavor. Part of this might be to measure things out for a little bit to make sure I’m eye measuring correctly.
– Have fun with it! Play with my food/recipes more.
– Try new things.
– Meal plan. Even if it’s enough meals planned for the week, but not assigned to the specific day.
– Involve the Husband. He can learn to do more of the prep and try new things as well. Plus, it would be fun to have some help.
Goals:
My goals aren’t that different from last year when I started the blog. I’m debating adding some more social media and trying to grow my readers, but it makes me a little nervous. We’ll see how I feel in a little bit.
So here are my overall goals for the year:
– Take pictures of everything food related. Figure out my photo editing.
– Meal plan consistently.
– Try new techniques.
– Have a Chopped themed dinner party, even though it’s slighty terrifying.
– Actually measure my own recipes, so I can recreate them.
That’s probably enough goals for the year. I don’t want to get too crazy with planning. Let me know if there’s anything else I should do differently, or more you’d like to see!
Stay tuned for a regular Wordless Wednesday post! Have a great day!
