40 New Recipes: Month 1

At the beginning of the year, I made a resolution to make 40 new recipes in 2020. I have so many cookbooks (I love them!), but I never cook from them – until this year!

Each month I am going to share the recipes that I made. I hope it will inspire you to try some new recipes, or cook from your own cookbooks. What was unexpected for me was how interested and excited about this resolution my kids have been.

I made eight new recipes in January. Several were really outstanding and I am excited to tell you about them. Some links in this post are affiliate links.

Jessica’s January New Recipes

Recipe 1, made 12/29: Chrissy Teigen’s Blueberry Cream Cheese Pancakes: We really liked these pancakes, though we made them without cream cheese because my kids would have fussed about it.
Cookbook: Crissy Teigen’s Cravings Hungry for More

Recipe 2, made 12/29: Chrissy Teigen’s French Onion Soup: This will likely be one of my favorite recipes of the year. Yes, I am claiming that on month one. It was tedious (took about 2 hours), but wow was it worth it. The recipe made five crocks of soup, so keep that in mind if you choose to make it for a group.
Cookbook: Crissy Teigen’s Cravings Hungry for More

Recipe 3, made 1/4: Martha Stewarts Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies: Elias is my cookie lover, so I let him pick any cookie in the cookbook. The requirement was that it had to involve chocolate or chocolate chips, because that is what I had on hand.
Cookbook: Martha Stewart’s Cookies (I got this cookbook for 50 cents at my local used bookstore and this is one of the first times I have ever used it!)

Recipe 4: Orzo Pilaf from the Publix Orzo box: We had a box of Orzo in the pantry, and I followed the simple recipe to make pilaf. It was crazy easy and yummy. Honestly, it was so easy, I wasn’t sure I could count it as a recipe, but I am since it was something new that I hadn’t made and I followed a recipe, so there! 🙂 I’ll definitely make it again.

Recipe #5: Beef Burgundy from Holy cow, this was amazing. I can’t stop talking about it and sending the recipe to other people. This will also be a strong contender for one of the year’s favorites. If you make one recipe from my list this month, make this one.
Cookbook: The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook

Recipe #6: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies – this recipe includes brown butter, which takes the cookies over the top. The perfect consistency, I think this might be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. The recipe made 2 dozen cookies, which were devoured by my family within two days. I made the recipe again later in the week and doubled it. Totally the way to go. A follower on instagram mentioned that the cookie dough freezes great too. I added flakes of salt to the dough before putting the cookies in the oven, which was a perfect addition.
Cookbook: The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook

Recipe #7: Chicken with Tarragon and White Wine: This recipe was a bust. They can’t all be great. The chicken was tender and tasted good, but the sauce, which is supposed to be the star was absolutely terrible. Won’t ever make it again. The thing that confuses me is that the recipe called for 1/2 cup mustard, which is what I think made the sauce terrible. This online version doesn’t call for mustard at all… I wonder if the cookbook had a mistake?

Recipe #8: Wafflemaker Hash Browns: I’ve been eager to try this recipe since first flagging it at the beginning of the year. Basically its hash browns, butter, cheese and ham, mixed together and cooked on a waffle iron. Unfortunately, only half my family liked them. My kids are so weird. Who doesn’t like cheese and potatoes!? I made some without cheese and they didn’t crisp/form nearly as well as the ones with cheese.
Cookbook: Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It

February Plans

My goal is to make three new dinner recipes this month + maybe a few desserts. I also just received my first ButcherBox, which I am really excited about. ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef, free-range, organic chicken, heritage breed pork, and wild caught Alaskan salmon directly to your door. All ButcherBox meat is humanely raised and never given antibiotics or added hormones ever. So many people I know say it is the best meat they have ever had, so I am really excited to try it. Click here if you want to check out ButcherBox for your family.