I was thinking that I should try to cook 100 new dishes this year. Originally I was thinking I’d try out one new recipe a week, but realized I had already tried out way more than that, so I uppsed the number. Here’s what I’ve made so far (both new and familiar dishes).
Week 1:
The Old:
You know what, I just can’t remember. I think there was something involving chicken, and definitely some mushroom risotto (which is one of my favorite dishes right now). Evan was sick this week, so everything was a little off.
And the New:
We had a lot of apples left over from Christmas, and this recipe (or recipes similar) came up a bunch when searching for “Baked Apple” on Pinterest.
Roast Duck –
This is the first time that I’ve tried roasting a duck. It turned out really good, and there was a TON of duck fat left over, which is exciting. I also used the carcass for a really yummy spiced duck stock. I’m kinda hoping to grab another duck from Lucky’s…maybe they’ll have some left next week.
Ghee –
I’m actually a little ashamed at myself that I’ve never made ghee before, for all the butter I hoard and all the Ayurvedic medicine I reference. Instead of telling the milk man not to deliver butter (because I already had a full, unopened box) I figured I could make some ghee instead. Now, technically you’re not supposed to use salted butter, but during the cooking process, if you taste the milk solids (with your fingers…or a spoon…or by spreading it all over bread) it’s CRAZY salty, so I’m under the impression the salt (all or mostly) came out with the milk solids. Seriously though, I’m not sure why “clarified butter foam” isn’t a super hipster foodie thing right now…it gets skimmed off or thrown away anyway. I’m glad I had some bread in the house…it was awesome with the milk solids on top. That said, I’m pretty sure eating a pound of butter’s worth of milk solids probably negates any health benefits from the pound of butter’s worth of ghee produced.
Week 2:
The Old:
White Chicken Enchiladas –
These. These are so, SOOOOO good. I highly recommend getting fancy with the cheese…get the Tillamook Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar if you can find it. It’s also awesome if you can get freshly roasted green chilies, and I like to throw in a few habaneros as well.
I made another batch of the Apple Baked Oatmeal, but with blueberries instead. It was also good.
I roasted some hazelnuts to get them ready to make another batch of Hazelnut liqueur…we made some for Christmas and then gave it all away. This batch is for us!
And the New:
Sour Cream Noodle Bake –
Which Evan actually liked! HA! Not only does this have (obviously) sour cream, which I typically have to disguise pretty heavily in meals, it also has cottage cheese…two foods that are generally on Evan’s “no thank you” list.
Classic Pork Meatballs –
Since I’m unable to eat beef, I wanted to find a recipe I liked that I can use anytime I need to make meatballs. I like this one a lot, but depending on the application, I probably wouldn’t add garlic in all the time. It made enough for three separate meals. I cooked one-third as Swedish meatballs over noodles (this is where I wasn’t a big fan of the garlic in the meatballs) and one-third using a duck broth gravy over rice. I have the last third sitting in the freezer in a ziploc.
I’ll post what I ate this week once the week is actually over…my grocery week starts every Wednesday, so this is only the second day of the week!
