2010 Food Intention

As 2010 draws to a close I have to say I'm pretty proud of my 52 weeks of new recipes. Some weeks were hard to manage given schedules and my interest level, but others were very easy and extremely fruitful. There were some bombs and doozies, as well as some really delicious and repeatable finds.

My year's worth of new recipes is here. Highlights include:

Tomato, Corn, and Avocado Salad
Rosemary Lemon White Bean Dip****
Smothered Pork Chops**
Giant Sugar Cookies
Peanut Butter Brownies**
Artisan Bread**
Breakfast Pizza
Garlic Bread***
Cheese Fingers
Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad***
And the holy grail, Salted Brown Butter Crispie Treats*****

* roughly denotes the number of times I made each.

I learned a lot this year about food. There's so much science to cooking and the only way to really learn is try and try again. I read more instructional books, tackled things that scared me and found a rhythm for weekly cooking.
The reason to set an intention is to incorporate that action into your everyday life. My reason for cooking new recipes was to try new things and stay out of a cooking rut. Staying out of a cooking rut=keeps me interested and engaged. Like any habit (good or bad), it would be hard to stop looking for new recipes each month. That's why I'm going to keep going, but with more focus.

Rather than look for a variety of new recipes, I'm going to focus each month of new recipes for a certain food group or category. I've got baked goods covered, same with pork and pasta. I need to branch out. Here's what I'm thinking:

January-Soups
February-Vegetables
March-Beans
April-Nuts, oats and grains
May-Vegetables
June-Fruits
July-Fish
August-Salads
September-Breads
October-Fall vegetables
November-Side dishes
December-Low-fat, healthy, low sodium, high fiber, etc.