I’m one of those people who likes to make several new year’s resolutions, so that at the end of the year I know I’ll be able to cross of at least some of them. I made some food- and blog-related resolutions two years ago, but last year I apparently didn’t bother to make any. Oops. This year, the first blog resolution that comes to mind is that I will learn how to make and post a custom header. I’ve wanted one for the longest time but don’t even know where to start. But it can’t be that hard, right? It seems like everyone else in the world has one. My other blog resolution is to post at least twice a week. I don’t have the best track record for posting consistency, so we’ll see how that one goes.
For food-related goals, one that I have set for myself is to cook from my cookbooks more. Specifically, that each week I will try one new recipe from one of my cookbooks. Sometimes we fall into food ruts at dinnertime, and usually if I want to try something new, I’ll search for the recipe online. So rather than deciding what I want to try first and then finding a recipe, I’m going to turn to my cookbooks for both inspiration and instruction. I don’t have a whole lot of cookbooks, but the ones I do have are practical and fun. Here’s the list:
- Jamie’s America, Jamie Oliver
- Estonian Tastes and Traditions, Karin Annus Kärner
- 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds, Rachael Ray
- 1000 Italian Recipes, Michele Scicolone
- Poole tunni road, Pille Enden, Raili Mikk (an Estonian book of half-hour dishes)
- Totally Cocktails, Maria Costantino (I am totally counting the cocktail book as a cookbook!
)
Then I have two books on entertaining that include recipes:
- Eesti perepeod (Estonian Family Celebrations), Harri Ilves, Lia Virkus, and Tiina Väljaste
- I Like You: Entertaining Under the Influence, Amy Sedaris
And a few memoirs that include recipes:
- Mediterranean Summer, David Shalleck
- A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg
I’m hoping that this “project” will help to expand my repertoire and prevent us from getting boring in terms of what we make at home. I’m off to a good start– the past two weeks I’ve tried recipes from my new Jamie Oliver book, and this weekend I might try to make an easy bean soup from the Estonian half-hour meals book. I might not update about my new cookbook recipe every week, but I’ll definitely share if I discover something outstanding.
The cooking from one of your cookbooks at least once a week is a very good goal, after all why have the books if you aren’t going to use them? I have so many books in different categories that I don’t really use, I should start using them more.
Absolutely! A few of my cookbooks have been sadly neglected the past year or so. Having books in a wide variety of categories is great because you not only learn new recipes, but also the techniques and flavor combinations that are unique to that kind of food.