I need to add a few shelves to my badly laid out pantry. I also want to cook at least one major recipe/meal from my Turkish cookbook. And, finally, I got the ice cream maker I wanted from the holidays so when the weather warms up I'm going to experiment. I particularly want to make a hazelnut ice cream and a fresh plum ice cream!

For the new year, I'd like to see myself spending more time cooking well made food. Often times I get tempted making food the easy and fast way, so I resort to a lot of easy meals like noodles and quick pasta. I bought myself Thomas Keller's French Laundry over the holiday and it has really inspired me to dedicate more time in creating thoughtful dishes. Not necessarily with the white truffle or carviar, but I think his dedication and attitude towards cooking is really inspiring, with or without the premium ingridients.

I received a pressure cooker set for xmas (it was on my want list), and since our home schedule is going to be a little crazed for the next few months, I'm hoping to spend some quality time with both it and my slow cooker, improving my skills in getting dinner on the table quickly.

1. Organize the pantry!!
2. Make moussaka

Modest goals ;)

I want to get better at making a meal plan for the week and sticking to it, especially doing as much prep/cooking as possible on Sundays so I can have more time for schoolwork during the week.
I'd also like to do more homebrewing and pickling, though it's a challenge without a dishwasher to do the easy sterilizing for me.

I want to become a better baker. Once again, I foiled what I thought was a foolproof recipe despite my diligent attempt at its creation. A Dorie Greenspan recipe no less. I had read, and re-read the recipe before embarking and for good measure, read it again but yet the finished product, while tasty, was not how it was intended. I can cook savory meals all day long but baking a cake from scratch just isn't in my cards.

I would like to make Sundays my bread-baking day. That's the day I usually laze around in my pajamas and/or do household chores. If I could get in the habit, I could have a lovely fresh loaf every week!

1) break in my new dutch oven! can't wait!
2) get back to bread baking--I miss it
3) develop a repetoire of vegetarian, freeze-able casseroles that don't rely heavily on cheese and cream!

And rosebud, a few years ago I resolved to break the Cake Curse, and I did. I can now make a lovely cake. For me, it wasn't about reading the recipe--it was about timing and technique. If it's taking you forever to get your batter together and in the oven, you are looking at a pretty flat cake. Just takes practice and cake-loving friends.

I would like all the dishes in that photo, please. Adorable.

For real though...
1) Organize. Get wire shelving, move appliances from kitchen table to wire shelving, and enjoy finally having "counter" space.

2) More, and lighter, vegetable based meals - the few pounds I've gained in the last six months probably have something to do with cooking for a man who is more interested when there's a hint of chorizo or half a plate of starch added.

3) Less frozen food and eating out, as well - I often got home much later than I used to and was much busier over the last few months, the next few will probably be the same but i don't want temporary crutches to become permanent.

I throw out very little food as it is, but a guilt-ridden Catholic upbringing or an overscrupulous sense of foodie morality causes me to feel excruciatingly guilty about the little bits and pieces that do get tossed. So this year, as always, I vow to work on this. Salad greens are a huge offender here, so a recent post (I believe on this site) that talked up sauteeing elderly lettuce is already helping me out. (Tossed it with a little sesame oil, balsamic, and salt and pepper last night.)

Bad Mama Genny

1. Bake instead of buy bread.
2. Cook from scratch more.
3. Finally can something for godssakes.
4. Eat less.
5. Waste less produce.
6. Eat more green vegetables and less white bread and macaroni and cheese.

The eating less part is going to be the hardest, I think. I just love food so much! But I can't burn the calories fast enough to actually lose the couple extra pounds around my middle.

rosebud I have another suggestion for you- it might be your oven temperature. Cakes and pies and cookies are very finicky about temperature, while roasts and braises are not. My old apartment stove was off by about 40 degrees. An oven thermometer will run you about 12 dollars... its worth checking if you haven't already.

I am going to try to bring my lunches to work.
I work in a lunch wasteland of a building without so much as a kitchen sink or a vending machine with fruit in it. Surrounding me is a collection of miserable fast food joints. I now eat way too much fried chicken. If I bring my lunch it will at least be wholesome if not always healthy, but I'm starting off right, with black beans and rice (yum!).

My central kitchen resolution for the year is to do all my dishes before I go to bed at night. It's amazing how much better I feel to wake up to a nice, clean sink.

I finally bought a new beater blade for my Kitchen Aid mixer that has the silicone edges. I made a batch of cookies just to see if it worked....and, it did! It was so much better than turning the mixer off and scraping the bowl repeatedly. I can't believe I waited so long to buy it. So, I plan to use that a lot more.

I also want to make healthy dinners more often. My boyfriend is an extremely picky eater so I want to make more things that both of us like rather than me just eating what he likes all of the time!

This exact thing was on my mind today! I talked about such kitchen planning here: http://tar-tryin.tumblr.com/post/15248251819/a-break-in-the-chaos-and-kitchen-planning

Umm.to learn to bake macaroons,.:)

I'd like to start cooking with more interesting whole grains. In 2011, I started using more brown rice and barley, but also added some quinoa into my regular rotation. I have some mason jars of amaranth seeds, farro, and millet that haven't been touched yet...

I also roasted my first chicken in 2011. 2012 will be the year of learning how to butcher a chicken into pieces and how to carve a whole chicken after roasting.

I don't want to be scared of baking bread anymore. But we'll see... it's hard because I'm still living alone. Maybe I'll have to save the bread baking for 2013 :)

My plan is to remake my favorite recipes, one by one, to be healthier. I just tried quinoa flour to make pizza dough, for a high-protein take on a vegetarian pizza, and it turned out great. Next stop, developing a healthy breakfast cookie, something that tastes rich & chocolatey & decadent (but isn't).

I plan to become better friends with my food processor this year. I typically keep my cooking very simple with good olive oil, fresh grind pepper, good salt, and fresh herbs with what I do. However I want to explore sauces and marinades made with fresh produce and kick it up a notch without getting too fussy or wankery.

1. Buy new cutlery and crockery.
2. Try to eat more organic.

1. FINALLY get around to baking bread.

2. I also have a guilt thing about throwing out food, but need to get better at actually using it and not just feeling guilty when doing the throwing out. So, tips on creative leftovers are always appreciated!

I got some new cast iron pans for Christmas and want to learn how to use them well enough so I can (finally!) get rid of my awful Teflon.

I will have a whole new kitchen and pantry in about six weeks so I cannot wait to organise them and make use of all the new space :-)

Plus I want to try baking bread again (and not end up with a hockey puck!), learn to make macaroons and use more interesting ingredients in my daily meals.