New Year cooking resolutions

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Do you have any cooking related New Year resolutions? Maybe a resolve to cook 'healthier' meals or perhaps to eat vegan or vegetarian food more often. Maybe you intend to be more experimental and cook some types of cuisine that you have never tried before?
 
I usually don't make resolutions, because I don't like to open my life to guaranteed disappointment later on. :laugh:

However, in the spirit of the question, I would say if I had to make a food-related one, it would be to throw away less food. We throw away a lot (and I mean a lot) of food, both in prepared leftovers and buying ingredients and either not using them all up, or forgetting to use them at all.
 
We throw away a lot (and I mean a lot) of food, both in prepared leftovers and buying ingredients and either not using them all up, or forgetting to use them at all.

An excellent resolution. A good cook should not need to throw away food. You will probably save money in the process. Maybe once a week make a list of the ingredients left over and treat it as an invention test? I did just that yesterday at my friend's house - a piece of monkfish from the freezer (been there too long!), a few broad beans from the freezer (fava beans), shells and heads of prawns which were to be thrown out, 1/2 an onion, 3 past their best baby tomatoes, a few pieces of cauliflower and a few potatoes.

Result - monkfish in a mild fish curry sauce, made with prawn shells, onion, wine, tomato and some spices with potato and cauliflower cooked in turmeric water (lovely yellow), and emerald green (skinned) broad beans. Wish I had a decent photo...

My personal resolution is to use all the contents of my 2 freezers. There is far too much stuff in them and I reckon if I just shop for fresh vegetables then the freezer should provide at least three weeks of meals. So I'm going to save money too.
 
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I usually don't make resolutions, because I don't like to open my life to guaranteed disappointment later on. :laugh:
Same here....why set yourself up for failure? :p:

Its not a resolution really, but we have decided that we need to mix things up a bit so we've resurrected an old habit of getting a cookbook out and leafing through until we find a new recipe that sounds interesting. We start next week with a Nigella recipe for jerk chicken with rice and peas :okay: I love searching for recipes on the internet, but its not always great when you're looking for inspiration....most of the time you actually need to have an idea first so you know what to search for.

However, in the spirit of the question, I would say if I had to make a food-related one, it would be to throw away less food. We throw away a lot (and I mean a lot) of food, both in prepared leftovers and buying ingredients and either not using them all up, or forgetting to use them at all.
That's a great aim to have - we should all be a bit more aware of how much we waste, its not just applicable to food either. We actually throw away very little food - leftovers go in the freezer if there aren't any immediate plans for them and we don't do huge shopping trips so tend not to have lots of fresh stuff hanging around for ages. The only things we very occasionally throw away are salad or veg that are past saving (if they're just past their best then we'll try to find a way to use them where it doesn't matter too much).
 
My personal resolution is to use all the contents of my 2 freezers. There is far too much stuff in them and I reckon if I just shop for fresh vegetables then the freezer should provide at least three weeks of meals. So I'm going to save money too.
We occasionally do that too.....its great way to get inventive, and like you say, you save money too :okay: We'll probably start doing similar about March time as we'll want to make sure we have room for the goodies we'll bring back from holiday in May.
 
Its not a resolution really, but we have decided that we need to mix things up a bit so we've resurrected an old habit of getting a cookbook out and leafing through until we find a new recipe that sounds interesting. We start next week with a Nigella recipe for jerk chicken with rice and peas
That's exactly what the (revised) cookery book challenge is now. Any of your cookery books, and any new recipe from them. We were discussing an optional theme (not all of us have loads of cookery books or themed books to use hence it being optional).

Round 9 launches soon to run for January.
 
Every year we vow to do better about not throwing food out, which is usually leftovers that neither one of us wants, although sometimes fresh veges that get left too long.

The freezer thing too. We've GOT to get ours emptied some and arranged/organized better.
 
I like to set up goals rather than resolutions, and they don't have to start on January 1. Goals are things one has in mind and don't need to be met (well, except at work, from which I am retired...) Things I hope to accomplish within a given and appropriate time frame.

For instance, I'm planning on starting up quail-raising here by late spring early summer. I am organizing the steps I need to take, and other than planning, and setting things in a preliminary motion, nothing will happen until the snow / ice / freezing temps go away.

I'm all with wasting less food. Indeed this morning I tucked a lot of the leftover veggies from the Vietnamese spring rolls I made for a get together Saturday into an omelet, mostly the more fragile ones. The veggies also promise to make a good salad. Or, two.

I also need to defrost the freezer, best done sometime this week or next, when outdoor temps are below freezing and I can tuck everything into the two coolers, and plunk them outdoors. That's a goal, not a resolution, but simply a need here.

I'm really in the mood to expand my appreciation of Greek cuisine. To that end, I want to make: 1) an authentic Greek salad, 2) Greek moussaka, both vegetarian and meat-based. 3) spanakopita!!!! my very favorite Greek dish with Phyllo. No I don't want to learn how to make phyllo, but simply use it properly to make this dish. (At least, now.) 4) that Greek egg, lemon and orzo (with chicken) soup for which I'd have to look up the spelling.

I really want to figure out how to make Chinese soup dumplings. The soup part and the pork ball inside won't be too complicated, but the dumpling will be - especially making it so that the soup won't spill out while steaming. And making the dumpling skin taste "right". I've gotten picky about that taste since having worked with co-workers from China who'd bring home cooked food in. Restaurants don't always get this "right". This was actually a goal I'd hoped to accomplish last year, but I was too busy sorting out and selling my old house to deal with that.

I'm going to be making Eggs Benedict Florentine. Probably on Portobello caps rather than on bread. Just learned about a potentially "foolproof" method of making Hollandaise from scratch - the store-bought stuff rips up my intestines if I use more than a tablespoon or so. Plus this stuff tastes a ton better!

These are goals that excite me. Seriously. Resolutions sound, well, painful. Even though I really need to ditch about 25 pounds of personal body weight - I plan to do this by largely enjoyable methods. I did it back while I was in the work force - rather than eating the cafeteria food there, I'd 9 out of 10 times every two weeks bring in my own tasty, semi-Paleo meals, which defeated the majority of the cafeteria food taste-wise. Unfortunately here I'm not yet moving around as much as I had to on the job. So... I'll find things I want to do, and such, on my farm. When it is warmer and safer to walk or saunter around outdoors, I'll be doing that - seeing things and moving about that way is far more rewarding than some gym with bad pumped-in "music".
 
Greek moussaka, both vegetarian and meat-based

I'm making one toady - still using up bits and pieces from my friend's cupboard/fridge. In this case puy & red lentils, an aubergine, tomato sauce, miso paste, ricotta and an egg.
I really want to figure out how to make Chinese soup dumplings. The soup part and the pork ball inside won't be too complicated, but the dumpling will be - especially making it so that the soup won't spill out while steaming.

Both medtran49 & I have made these. There was a dumpling Cookalong a while back.
 
I'm making one toady - still using up bits and pieces from my friend's cupboard/fridge. In this case puy & red lentils, an aubergine, tomato sauce, miso paste, ricotta and an egg.


Both medtran49 & I have made these. There was a dumpling Cookalong a while back.

I will have to search on those soup dumpling posts!

PS, what'a "toady"?
 
I am adding another personal challenge in. This is potential, depending on how the next Cookery cook book challenge is set up here. I have three colonial (as in US colonies) and one medieval cookbook here, and I hope to cook at least one recipe from one of those books. Y'know, Retro beyond Retro.... !
 
I don't make resolutions, I know pretty much what is going on in my life and the world. Maybe I should cut back my drinking, but I enjoy it too much. Lol.
Food wise, just learn a few more types of food.

Russ
 
However, in the spirit of the question, I would say if I had to make a food-related one, it would be to throw away less food. We throw away a lot (and I mean a lot) of food, both in prepared leftovers and buying ingredients and either not using them all up, or forgetting to use them at all.

That has been a long-running goal of mine -- less wasted food. I've gotten pretty good at avoiding impulse buys, which leads to a lot of wasted food. My only problem now is that I get sent out of town with barely a day's notice, and that sometimes happens the day after I buy groceries. I sometimes come home to "science projects" in the fridge.

Other than continuing that goal, I can't think of any 2020 "resolutions" I want to take on.

CD
 
My long running intention is to get better at labeling what I freeze. We've had a couple of interesting surprises this last year and several have not worked out at all resulting in food being thrown. We don't throw out much at all, so I'm not too worried about that aspect. But I must, must get better at labeling and not trying to remember what was in what container. It only works for so long (6 months) and it's easy to muddle up some of our meals!
 
My New Year Cooking resolution is to get a new pasta maker and make more homemade pasta. I made it time ago, then I stopped because I had no more a pasta maker... need to recover, I have some many ideas in my mind!
And making more bread too...I’ve found out some special flours like peas flour......
 
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