34 replies to this topic

[FrogPrincesse]

We've had a topic on food resolutions for the past few years now.

2012 New Year Food Resolutions
Resolutions for 2011
Resolutions for 2010
Food Resolutions for 2009
Food Resolutions for 2008
Culinary Resolutions for 2007
Culinary Resolutions for 2006
It's resolution time!

Last year my goals were to learn to make cupcakes for my daughter (check), macarons (check), pulled pork (check) and a few others things that I now need to move to my 2013 list: sourdough bread, confitures, caramels, and vinegar.
I am adding to my list that I would like to make more tiki drinks and continue my experimentation with cocktails in general.

What are your culinary goals for 2013?

[SobaAddict70]

1. Teach myself how to make fresh pasta.
2. Bake more often -- bread, pies, fruit desserts of all kinds, cookies.
3. Learn how to make butter.
4. Learn how to make my own sea salt and flavored salts (citrus salt, celery salt). Make homemade Old Bay seasoning.
5. Start canning and preserving.
6. Cook Indian food more often.
7. Start learning how to cook Chinese.

#1 might be as early as this upcoming weekend.

[Tri2Cook]

The past couple years have been filled with cooking at work 6 days/week and that's pretty much it. I rarely cook at home, I never experiment and explore anymore. I'm in a work situation that doesn't allow for creativity and isn't particularly challenging but jobs, especially jobs that'll keep the bills paid, in the cooking industry aren't in great supply where I live so I do what I have to do. I want to try to get the fun back... I hope I do it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

1. Eat more goat and lamb
2. Start wood oven baking (this will probably mean I have to build a wood oven)
3. Teach myself fresh pasta
4. Stretch more in the salt kitchen. My dinners have become utterly, boringly routine, and that needs to change. Food without fun is just calories.

[FrogPrincesse]

It's good to read everybody's resolutions, please keep them coming.

How could I forget my favorite... Learn more about Candies and Confections at the 2013 Workshop and meet some of my eG colleagues! This should be a lot of fun and I am very much looking forward to it.

[ScottyBoy]

Eat out more.

You're a chef.

For god's sake spend some money on yourself and go to these places people talk about.

So silly of me.

[LindaK]

I have several, but the distance between #1 and the others is legion.

#1 Overcome fear of cooking with tofu. There, I've confessed. I really like tofu, often crave it. Months ago I bought Andrea Nguyen's Asian Tofu to hold my hand and I've read through it a few times. Every so often I pick up a block of tofu (there's one in my fridge now) and it sits there until it looks scary. Throw out, repeat.

My guess is that I'll master canneles, improve my curries, and make a terrine or two before I have any tofu progress to share. Still, it's a new year, I know I can do it.

[patrickamory]

Really learn to get the most from the pressure cooker.
Start making more Chinese dishes, and from different regions.
Make the ultimate chole - equal to the Pakistani cabdriver steamtable places in NYC.
Start making homemade yogurt.

[toolprincess]

1. Make fried chicken
2. Try to recreate my fathers BBQ sauce
3. Work on my Brunswick stew
4. Cook and eat at home more
5. Try more recipes from my collection of cookbooks

[patrickamory]

re: fried chicken. let me recommend Laurie Colwin's approach from Home Cooking. you do need to buy a cast-iron chicken fryer.

[C. sapidus]

1. Buy some new cookbooks
2. Cook from new cookbooks

Modest goals, true, but I would like to try something new. Maybe Jacques Pepin or John Besh, either of which would be new for me. I would like cookbooks with a mix of weeknight and weekend recipes, because weekends are in short supply.

I seek new, memorable meals to share with the family.

[ScottyBoy]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

[Darienne]

Great fun! And embarrassment. Went back and read my earlier resolutions. Of course I didn't fill them all.

We ate okra...and didn't like it...served by our daughter's BF from Grenada who is a heck of a cook. I just don't like slimy food.

I did cook lots more Mexican dishes. Good. I did not master phyllo dough. Used it, but didn't master it AT ALL!. I visited Toronto's Hispanic market. Once. I don't like going into big cities anymore and as luck would have it, our local stores are carrying more Hispanic foods every month. Fresh tortillas are still missing and will no doubt remain so.

No, alas, I never made my herb garden. And I never taught my neighbor how to use chocolate. She got pneumonia before Christmas so that date was postponed. Phoned her yesterday and set a new date.

That's it. I'm not promising anything. Good luck to you all!

[SylviaLovegren]

Try new things! I cook all the time -- for family, not for profit -- but have gotten into a real rut. And most stuff I make takes 30-45 min to go from zero to sitting down at the table. Surely, in these thousands of cookbooks I own, in the recipes I read online, there's gotta be something worth trying.

egullet is certainly full of intriguing ideas -- the Manitoulin blog alone could be the inspiration for culinary fun and adventure!

[Darienne]

OK. Later the same day. I've been thinking it over and I do have a resolution. I am going to reorganize my kitchen. We now have a dining room and DH has become resigned to building a shallow-ish closet on one wall and into will go all my stuff. I hope. My kitchen stuff is now in the following: the kitchen, the dining room, my old studio, the garage, and the cellar (yes, cellar, not basement...this farmhouse is over 100 years old). I think that's it. And I hate it. Big time.

But then is that more his resolution than mine??? But I'm making a start at it today.

[Judy Wilson]

Hi guys!

We are going to help people make "try Modernist cooking" their New Year's resolution on our blog. For the next 3 months, we'll hold your hand and walk you through some easy to moderate recipes, as well as explain the science behind them. You can find more info here: http://modernistcuis...ernist-cooking/

Personally, my New Year's resolution is to keep my kitchen more organized. Tomorrow I'm going to clean out my baking cupboard to start.

Judy

[ScottyBoy]

Yes organization...being a one man constant cooking catering army, it's difficult sometimes.

[toolprincess]

re: fried chicken. let me recommend Laurie Colwin's approach from Home Cooking. you do need to buy a cast-iron chicken fryer.

Thank you!

[patrickamory]

Oh yes, I've also planned to make homemade masa in my wetgrinder. Just need to order the corn.

I need to make more Mexican in general.

(Darienne, I urge you to give okra one more try - the Indian way. They don't cut it and keep it dry, they don't boil it and the result is not slimy. It was a revelation to me - it might be for you?)

[The J]

My first was to finally join egullet, instead of just lurking. I guess I can cross that one off the list!

Other resolutions:
- Cook and bake more from the cookbooks I own
- Learn to make pasta
- Learn to make corn tortillas
- Try new restaurants at all levels (fast food through fine dining)
- Incorporate more vegetables into meals
- "Perfect" my pizza dough recipe
- Eat more vegan dinners: the main reason I want to do this is because I feel like it will force me to be more creative

[Katie Meadow]

Learn how to make really good tamales. This might have been my resolution last year and the year before. Luckily I can't remember and I'm going with it as a new goal.

[chefmd]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

Plus one on that. Just finished listing all my cookbooks on eatyourbooks.com and that should help.

[patrickamory]

Welcome to eGullet, The J!

[Tri2Cook]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

Yeah, I'll agree with that one. I've got books I've never used that've sat around so long I'll have to wait for what's in them to come back into style again before I can use them. Actually, what would be awesome is if eGullet had a page where we could buy/sell/trade books amongst ourselves.

[heidih]

I noticed I did not bother for 2012. My 2011 list still needs attention with regard to these items:

In 2011:
I will explore the world of sustainable fatty fishes
I will explore the nooks and crannies of sustainable shellfish
I will explore the vast variety of grains such as quinoa and amaranth

I ate salmon and sardines but did not explore whole grilled fish and fell on the shellfish. Completely fell on the grains - I ate some prepared quinoa in a pre-prepared salad and that was it.

In addition to the older items I want to explore dried shrimp, various fermented products like soybeans and shrimp paste, and keep up a delight in trying new things.

[heidih]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

Yeah, I'll agree with that one. I've got books I've never used that've sat around so long I'll have to wait for what's in them to come back into style again before I can use them. Actually, what would be awesome is if eGullet had a page where we could buy/sell/trade books amongst ourselves.

We have this topic for distributing/sharing cookbooks for free

[DiggingDogFarm]

I'm carbohydrate intolerant, unfortunately.
Biggest food goal for 2013 is to formulate a decent low-carbohydrate sandwich bread, if that's even possible.


~Martin

[Mjx]

I'm carbohydrate intolerant, unfortunately.
Biggest food goal for 2013 is to formulate a decent low-carbohydrate sandwich bread, if that's even possible.


~Martin

If you come up with something, I'd love to hear about it. I have this same issue, and unfortunately, 'starch' is more or less my favourite food group.

In terms of resolutions, I really need to get out of the rut I'm in. Thanks to my sister and my boyfriend, I have some new equipment (including an iSi whipper, silicone baking sheets, vacuum sealer), which I'm currently planning on using at least one of per week.

[Tri2Cook]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

Yeah, I'll agree with that one. I've got books I've never used that've sat around so long I'll have to wait for what's in them to come back into style again before I can use them. Actually, what would be awesome is if eGullet had a page where we could buy/sell/trade books amongst ourselves.

We have this topic for distributing/sharing cookbooks for free

I know about that one and it's a good topic but I was thinking more along the lines of a books classifieds type thing. I realize it's probably not a good option for the forums because of the potential headaches involved but they have similar pages on the cycling and kayaking forums I visit and it's kinda nice. They basically have the classifieds disclaimered with "this is between users and we don't care and don't want to hear about it if you're not happy with your transactions" but I've never had a problem buying or selling on them. Anyway, it was more wishful thinking than anything I actually expected. Maybe I'll resolve to go through my books and see what I can find to put on the free cookbooks topic in case anybody can use them. Thanks!

[LT Wong]

Cook from cookbooks I already own...

This is so true. I really have got to do this more often.