I cooked a lot this year. Look above-there I am, cooking! I made breakfasts for one, dinners for two, and brunches for ten. I didn’t get totally defeated by our CSA pick-ups. I explored Middle Eastern food. I ate a lot of leftovers and not sad desk lunches. This week, I scrolled through the last twelve months of posts and picked out the dishes that were not just good but really, really good.
In January, there was a crossover dessert-breakfast cookie that won a lot of fans:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Breakfast Bars
In the name of eating healthfully in January, I made this green chicken chili with barley and tons of veggies that was just so good.
Healthy Chicken Chili with Barley
In March, I lightened up a mac-and-cheese style treatment of some Israeli couscous with a lot of broccoli:
Broccoli & Parmesan Israeli Couscous
I made this one morning and packed it for lunch:
All the healthy and healthy-ish stuff went down the drain when I made Martha’s Giant Layered Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake…
That was until I discovered the dressing recipe used at Canlis, a restaurant in Chicago, via the Times. It was genius. I couldn’t get enough of it. And so then there were weeks upon weeks of romaine, radicchio, fennel, and carrots:
The Salad [Dressing] I Can’t Get Enough Of
I admitted to myself that inspiration can come from unlikely places, like the back of a Kraft cheese packet.
Whole Wheat BBQ Chicken Pockets
Steak & Quinoa Fried Rice with Eggplant and Green Beans
As usual, I kept on trying to win lunch. In this attempt, I combined a slaw with filling, protein-rich quinoa.
Spicy Red Cabbage & Quinoa Slaw
In summer, seafood dinners make me think of the beach even when we’re in Brooklyn. I was thrilled to finally show you one of my all-time favorite things to put in my mouth.
I started on soups really early, in August, and then I didn’t let up. There was:
Creamy Red Lentil Soup with Cheesy Pita Croutons,
and
Chicken Soba Soup with Miso & Spinach
Around the same time as soup season, I introduced you to family favorite Chicken Fritz, which makes the best-ever use of the chicken leftover from making stock. Chicken Fritz must be served with mashed potatoes.
In the condiment/snacks section, there were two particular standouts, the first from my peek into Middle Eastern cuisine which I now put on every morsel of bread I dip into olive oil.
…and the second an essential for any Maryland expats or the friends of people who miss those tables of crabs and cans of Natty Bo.
That’s the list. I’m excited to see what we cook up next. Happy new year!
