M. Suzanne Terry

A month or two ago, I was discussing things we like to cook with a couple of coworkers, and I told them, “One of my goals this year was to try 50 new recipes.” But the more I thought about it, the more I second-guessed myself. Was that the goal?

So I just looked it up. And it turns out that my goal was just to cook myself at least 50 meals. Not new ones – just actually cook 50 times instead of grabbing drive-through or having a bowl of cereal while the groceries in the produce drawer went bad. 

And I did it!

It seems like most of the year, I really did think trying new recipes was the task at hand. But whether I cooked new things, tried a new spin on an old thing, or just relished a tried-and-true favorite, I am happy to have made myself 50 home-cooked meals. It feels good to be back in the kitchen again on a regular basis.

I even color-coded them (who is surprised? No one) on the spreadsheet to indicate whether I thought they were…

• Great!
• Good
• Meh
• Awful

I had mostly good ratings, which makes sense. I know what I like, and I pick it on purpose. I’m excited that I had so many great ratings. I also have about twice as many recipes in other columns that I want to try, so this experiment just keeps on giving.

Some of my favorites:

• Sundried tomato alfredo on pasta with spinach and steak (pictured above) – I am going to say something controversial. Alfredo is not my favorite. I know – it seems like it would be. Cream sauce? Delicious. Cheese? Literally the best food. But almost every time I have alfredo, I am disappointed. Not this time. Turns out, I just need to dress it up a bit. This sauce came out kinda like those “marry me” sauces (i.e., marry me chicken, or the vegetarian version, marry me chickpeas), which 100% live up to the hype. Everything else fell right into place after that. 
• Ramen stir fry or buttered cabbage and noodles – I’m combining these two because they’re the same basic concept. Forget ramen as a soup. It’s now forever a stir fry ingredient to me. This kicks fried rice’s ass. Stir fry some veggies (in oil or if it’s cabbage, replace half the oil with butter – you won’t be sorry). Garlic, onion, ginger, etc. Soy sauce or your favorite stir-fry sauce. Then toss the cooked noodles in at the last minute and you’re done.
• Cranberry waffles – make basic waffles and throw dried cranberries (or blueberries…cherries would be nice, too) in the batter. Happy.
• Matthew Bound’s shortcut chicken and dumplings – almost as good as my low-and-slow ones. And it really only takes 30 minutes.
• Orzotto (or any of my pasta skillet meals, but with orzo) – make it just like risotto but with orzo. Amazing. 
• The easiest tomato soup – I have long struggled to find a creamy tomato soup recipe that I not only loved but didn’t make me want to lie down afterward on account-a the immense amount of dairy in it. Well, here it is. A can of diced tomatoes, a bucket of cottage cheese, onion soup packet, oregano, thyme, basil, and as much water as you need to make it the consistency you want. All of these ingredients were measured with love (i.e., to taste/preference). I used my immersion blender to smooth it out, but I think it would have worked better in the big blender/bullet. Next time. And there will definitely be a next time.
• Swamp potatoes – gross name, delicious meal. And super easy. I made mine in the crockpot but it would be just as easy (and maybe better if you crisped up the sausage a bit) on the stove. It smelled so good that one of my staff members followed me to my office to demand to know how to make it when I took the leftovers to work. It tastes as good as it smells.

There were a lot of other good meals this year, but those were the ones I will be making on a regular basis from now on. I’m pretty happy I misunderstood my own goal for so long. 

Did you discover new recipes you liked this year? Share, please!