2021 in the kitchen: improve, revisit, conquer, BREAD.

Two years ago I started a “cook all the way through all my cookbooks” challenge, and I did, er, most of it. 

Honestly, as a professional non-finisher of plans (see: the entire rest of this blog) I did the best job of any self-set challenge I have ever done. But I’m still on the hook for feeding my husband dinner every night, and also did I mention that I’ve discovered new blogs and cookbooks that I love, to say nothing of the fact that sometimes staring down the incredible process America’s Test Kitchen can create out of a grilled cheese sandwich makes me want to wilt into my bed with a box of crackers. Given all of that, I needed something fresh to chase.

Perhaps, despite my fervent longing to be someone who has done such-and-such a thing every morning for forty years, this is just how I am. 

So it’s just gonna be this: A List of Recipes That Have Been Bugging Me, Either Because I Messed It Up Before, Or Took Too Many Shortcuts, Or Because I’ve Literally Been Trying for Fifty-Two Weeks to Work It Into a Meal Plan and Chickening Out. Or, more briefly, Recipes to Improve, Revisit and Conquer in 2021, And Also Bread. I’ve made a few already because the year is a few weeks old, so those have my opinions baked right in (heh). 

Here they are.

5 Ingredient Freezer Biscuits – Budget Bytes

This one always stymies me because it needs an ENTIRE PINT of heavy cream, but the thought of a freshly baked biscuit in the morning with no work sounds like such a nice little treat to oneself or one’s husband, that it’s going on the list. 

Apple Cider Caramels – Smitten Kitchen

I burned the cider syrup on my first go-round, but the smell was amazing. Also I think I would be a hero at work. 

Artichoke Shakshuka from One Pan & Done by Molly Gilbert

The main thing with this one is that I bought store-brand artichokes in a can for it, and man are they chewy. Husband loves artichokes, so it’s been bugging me.

Baked Tortellini with White Beans, Kale & Tomato Sauce from One Pan & Done

I just sort of hashed this together with tortellini and ravioli when I was home alone a couple years ago. But it deserves better than that. 

Basic Challah from Molly on the Range by Molly Yeh

I’m not Jewish, and I’m too much of a Mountain West hick to really know anything about their food traditions, but apparently challah is really good bread. 2021 is the year of bread around here. 

Blackberry Cream Cheese Crumb Cake – Sally’s Baking Addiction

I drooled over this on my Pinterest board for years, made it once and it came out totally flat and awful. I gotta get it back to where all my dreams were.

Blueberry Pie from America’s Test Kitchen: 100 Recipes

I made the Betty Crocker version a few years ago. And also I still struggle with pie crust. But I want to get this down, and try their tricks that made my pie crust master mom raise her eyebrows.

Broiled Beef and Broccoli from One Pan & Done

I’ve learned some things about meat since I attempted this last, so I’m gonna tackle it again. 

Broiled Berries & Cream from One Pan & Done

I’ve also learned how you actually make your own creme fraiche, so we’re gonna see how this goes.

Broiled Watermelon with Balsamic & Feta from One Pan & Done

Two summers in a row I’ve vowed to make this, and two summers in a row I haven’t followed through. My husband LOVES watermelon but can’t eat much of it because it makes him itch. We’re not sure what his allergy is to, but I’ve always had a hunch if you cooked the watermelon, it would be fine (cooked fruit doesn’t bother him generally). And every year I fail, because this recipe is so food bloggery and not at all his thing and I chicken out, or because I cannot imagine what to do with the leftover watermelon, and then I found Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for watermelon mojitos and now I know, so I’M GONNA DO IT.

Brownie Candy Cups from One Pan & Done

I actually just made these after no one came to our door on Halloween to eat the Reese’s for us, and somehow they were a gigantic puddly flop that never quite baked.

Cauliflower Soup with Bacon – SimplyStacie

I tried to make this in college once, but I was too darn cheap to buy the skim milk I actually drank AND the whole milk AND heavy cream called for (and too much the novice to realize that I could have cobbled something together from two out of three of those), so it was a flop. I actually already made this for us a few weeks ago and it was a winner. I have other cauliflower soup recipes, but this is the easiest one.

Cheese Souffle from America’s Test Kitchen 100

Elegantly eating cheese for dinner is right up my alley, and eating cheese for dinner is right up my husband’s alley. 

Chicken Parmesan from Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert

I think my husband would love this, and also it seems to be the kind of thing that you should just know how to do.

Chocolate Rosemary Shortbread Tart from One Pan & Done

I made this once before and I’ve learned so much since, especially about rosemary, that I want to give it another shot.

Ciabatta from America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook

Bread year, what can I say. I’ve already tried this once and it was good, but, erm, misshapen. (It looked like a caterpillar.) 

Country Egg Scramble from the Betty Crocker New Cookbook, 1996

I made this at the beginning of my cookbook attempts and can’t remember exactly how it went, but when I tried again a few weeks ago it was delicious. My heathen husband suggested it would be good with fried rice, but he also once asked me to put leftover pasta primavera (with carrots! and peas! in alfredo sauce!) in a tortilla, so don’t listen to him.

Cucumber Lemonade – Smitten Kitchen

I made this for my birthday this past summer and it was so tart our faces nearly fell off. It sounds so refreshing I just have to get it right. 

Dad’s Favorite Oatmeal Scotchies

I haven’t made cookies with butterscotch chips in them in years, but my dad loves them and I want to nail them down. 

Easiest Fridge Dill Pickles – Smitten Kitchen

Trying to earn points with my father-in-law, or really most of the rest of my family on both sides, who all eat pickles and think I’m weird.

Easy No-Knead Brioche Bread – The Cafe Sucre Farine

Mastering bread.

English Muffin Toasting Bread – King Arthur Flour

I actually have made this a couple times and it always comes out squat and sinks in the middle. Sam loves it though, so I gotta get it right and sandwich ready.

Fluffy Omelet from America’s Test Kitchen 100

This is literally one of the first recipes in that Test Kitchen 100 book that inspired me in the first place, and it’s been taunting me for two years.

Fluffy Yellow Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting from America’s Test Kitchen 100

I did not know that yellow cake was to most people ‘birthday’ cake, because I thought you got to pick what kind of cake you wanted for your birthday. (Yes, my mom is awesome.) My dad requests “yellow cake with sour cream chocolate frosting” every.single.year for his birthday, and after 23 years this made sense to me. When my husband turned 26 in our first year of marriage, I spent literally all evening of his birthday working on this recipe. Did I mention his bedtime is usually around 8:30? I finally finished at 10 p.m. and he had patiently stayed up for a bite of this cake. Did I also mention that I burned the chocolate trying to melt it for the frosting? Anyway, it’s on my list to figure this out and maybe audition a couple other versions of something similar, for my dad, my husband and anyone else who likes yellow cake on their birthday. (Note that my husband is not actually one of those people. He prefers rice pudding, which thankfully I have DOWN.)

French Chicken Stew from One Pan & Done

This recipe is the (only) reason that one of our liquor store employees recognizes my face. The ONLY, I say. Anyway, I made that poor underpaid kid run all over the store because he thought he’d seen a smaller bottle of Burgundy wine than the mammoth I ended up bringing home. Come to find out, Burgundy in home cook-ese really just means good red wine, and this immense Barefoot bottle that actually said BURGUNDY on it was, in fact, gross. (Caveat that I am not a red wine person.) Anyway, couple that with my decreasing but still present anxiety over bone-in meat and this recipe was a dud. I am determined to master it. With better wine.

Glazed Butter Cookies from America’s Test Kitchen 100

Made these for this past Christmas, but they didn’t supplant my family’s much beloved Annie Hall’s Butter Cookies as made popular by Susan Branch. We’ll give them one more shot before we return to Annie.

Grandma Irene’s Chicken Noodle Soup

Having more or less figured out, if not mastered, my own version of my family’s Christmas Eve soup, I now want to tackle my husband’s family’s.

Grandma Lucy’s Macaroni Salad

It’s very important to my husband that someone will be able to make this for him at any time throughout the rest of his life. I’m on it.

Grandma Nana’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Spritz Cookies

Two recipes from my Swedish great-grandma that I want to get good at. 

Green Beans with Bacon and Almonds

My family have served canned green beans with slivered almonds mixed in at Thanksgiving my entire life. Sam’s family like theirs with bacon. I’ve felt confident that I could make a delicious version with both.

Green Chicken Chili from One Pan & Done

I made this a couple years ago and it has 11 cups liquid and 2 immense onions to only 3 cans beans and 3 cups chicken, and we never felt that was quite right.

Greens & Goat Tart from One Pan & Done

In the years when my husband kept threatening to bring home a goat, I thought we’d probably better find out if he liked goat cheese first. I can’t remember what we found, but it turns out I like it very much. So I gotta try this.

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Cheddar and Shallot from America’s Test Kitchen 100

OK, so maybe this is what I get for using Food Club brand cheese, but when I gave these their second shot a few weeks ago, I genuinely did not feel like the Test Kitchen approach made anything better. I will take the mustard-butter mixture on the outside of the bread though, that was good.

Hearty Lentil Soup with Lardons from One Pan & Done

This was really bland, and it’s been hinted to me that a good lentil soup is a hallmark of adulthood, so I really want to master it, or figure out why it didn’t work, or salt it better, or something.

Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread – Budget Bytes

I made this a couple years ago before I really had bread figured out and I want to give it another shot.

Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Galette – Budget Bytes

I made this during our pandemic summer and I wasn’t super impressed despite yearning after it for years. Rather like the Blackberry Cream Cheese Crumb Cake, I gotta get this one up to speed. Maybe I had a bad batch of cream cheese.

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream – Sally’s Baking Addiction

I made this for my own birthday cake. When I make cakes they consistently come out sort of squat, and also mine were all almost the same size, but not exactly, leading to an oddly slumped cake, and…I just want to get better at cakes, okay?

Lemon Meringue Pie from Betty Crocker 1996

…and also lemon desserts in general. Did I mention I love lemons? I made lemon meringue pie bars from Smitten Kitchen the other day (which are also going to need some revisiting and conquering) and making meringue was so fun and easy I floated out of the kitchen on clouds of egg white and sugar. Er, yeah.

Lingonberry Macaroons from the Swedish Cakes and Cookies Cookbook

Making macaroons sounds really awesome.

Mussels with White Wine, Garlic & Chorizo from One Pan & Done

My Basque husband loves chorizo, and this recipe boasts garlic toast, which is a surefire way to lure me in. I don’t know how I feel about shellfish, but it feels like one of those things you should try at least once.

Navy Bean Soup with Sausage and Spinach – Budget Bytes

I made this in college, but nearly made myself ill by not cooking the beans properly. I need to try again.

No-Knead Ciabatta – Budget Bytes

I’m a sucker for no-knead anything.

Parmesan Cream Crackers – Smitten Kitchen

I tried these this past summer, but didn’t roll them thin enough to be crackery. But they were delicious.

Parmesan Garlic Pretzel Bites – Budget Bytes

I’m sorry, are you not drooling?

Pasta Caprese from America’s Test Kitchen 100

Theoretically, this dish should be my kryptonite (pasta! fresh mozzarella! tomatoes! basil!) but when I made it this summer I took too many shortcuts and something was off. I’ll try again on not-a-weeknight. 

Peter Reinhart’s Bagels – Smitten Kitchen

I tried to make bagels in my campus apartment kitchen many years ago. They were good, in that they were, you know, bread, but I would like to crack the code.

Pork Schnitzel from America’s Test Kitchen 100

I’ve tried this Test Kitchen recipe a couple times, and every time the coating gets cooked before the pork is cooked.

Radish & Ricotta Frittata from One Pan & Done

I’ve recently discovered where the good ricotta is in our grocery store, so this deserves another shot. 

Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread – Smitten Kitchen

I love this recipe in theory, but in practice it fell short for me (probably because I did not chill it long enough and it fell apart when I tried to cut it, so we’ll try it with more patience). 

Sausages with Charred Onions & Tzatziki from One Pan & Done

I made this for an easy dinner a couple summers ago and sort of shortcutted/failed on how tzatziki should be assembled.

Simple Chicken Cassoulet from One Pan & Done

One of the first recipes I tried in my cookbook challenge. I know so much more now!

Simple, Essential Bolognese – Smitten Kitchen

Seems like One Of Those Things You Should Know How To Cook, and also seems delicious.

Spaetzle from Betty Crocker 1996

Ugh, you don’t want to know how I shaped these last time I made them. It was awful. I didn’t even tell my mom the German teacher, I think they would have taken away her license.

Spaghetti with Pecorino & Pepper from America’s Test Kitchen 100

Spaghetti + cheese, I think you mean Sam’s Ideal Meal, but I’ve never been able to make this Test Kitchen recipe work. Gonna try a Smitten Kitchen trick and see what happens.

Tomato Galette with Savory Oat Crumble from One Pan & Done

I love Molly Gilbert a lot, but Savory Oat Crumble is one of the worst phrases I have ever heard in my life. I can see how this would work well in summer with fresh, beautiful tomatoes, or something. So I’ll give it that.

Unfried Mozzarella Marinara from One Pan & Done

I don’t know how, but I burned breadcrumbs in less than ten minutes for this recipe. If you don’t have a go-to recipe that works for cheesy dipping, are you really a cook?

Warm Kale Caesar with Chicken from One Pan & Done

I remember this being okay, but I want it to be delicious.

Weeknight Roast Chicken from America’s Test Kitchen 100

Made this last weekend, totally nailed it, just saying.

White Cheddar Mac and Cheese with Chicken and Broccoli – Budget Bytes

Pasta, cheese, green vegetable, protein, I’m sorry, is this the perfect weeknight meal? HOW DID I MESS IT UP? And yet I did. So this is on the list.