I said I wanted to make biscuits, but I didn't get around to it. HOWEVER, y'all posted a ton of great-sounding biscuit recipes this month! I'm not going to get to these this weekend, but March is looking beautiful for biscuit-making.

New Recipes I tried:

Molly Wizenberg's Sweet Potato Biscuits w/Ham, Mustard and Honey--good

Black Bean Chili from The Greens Cookbook--soooo good

Chicken Piccata from the Barefoot Contessa At Home Cookbook--easy, with great bright lemon flavor

Red Velvet Cupcakes w/Cream Cheese Frosting from Joy the Baker (based on a recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)--best red velvet cupcakes I've had--loved that the frosting had a hint of cinnamon and wasn't too sweet

Potato and Bacon Gratin from Sunday Suppers at Lucques Cookbook--so rich and so delicious!

Ossobuco, saffron risotto, and shrimp bisque.

I had done the risotto before, minus the saffron, but the ossobuco and bisque were new adventures.

I was a good valentine.

Yogurt in the Crock Pot!! Woo Hoo, I've made it twice, with stupendous results!! Talk about saving money!! I chose to add 1/4 C. dry (NOT instant) milk powder when I added 1/2 C. yogurt starter, and I let it "rest" for 6 hours, not 8.
I strained it through my Donvier yogurt cheese 'maker', which is just a square plastic container with mesh screening in the bottom to eliminate the whey. Came out as good as Fage! I use it with my butternut squash puree, and anything else requiring sour cream, as well as fruit dishes.

Two goals I met this month were roasting my first chicken and cooking fennel! This weekend I'm planning to tackle one more: making homemade tortillas with the cast iron comal I got for Christmas!

i've been slacking lately, but finally made these earl grey cookies for a home-bound friend last week: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-earl-grey-tea-cookies-013268 they were good - buy not tea-y enough for me - will probably double the amount of tea next time.

i plan to be cooking and baking up a storm once i finish the cure.

-Pioneer Woman's Breakfast Burritos

-Pioneer Woman's Braised Short Ribs

-Polenta -- never made it before, what the what?

-Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmigiana

-Molten Chocolate Lava Cake from TastyKitchen -- though it was a bit too rich for me.

-The famed Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk -- though I flubbed this one. I'm going to try it again next week.

I finally got on the bread-making bandwagon by (successfully) making no-knead multi-grain peasant bread.

I also baked Smitten Kitchen's peanut butter cookies, which were adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. This will be my go-to cookie recipe from here on out - simply phenomenal results.

I tried that gorgeous lemon-scented pull-apart coffee cake that was posted here not that long ago. It's amazing and definitely staying in my repetoir.

And it's not a new recipe, per se, but I am still reveling in the fact that I can successfully roast a chicken now! *Snoopy dance*

Nothing much new this month overall, though. Too much other stuff going on. Maybe March.

• No-knead bread (x4 variations)
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles - DIVINE!
• Chicken tetrazzini - my own made up recipe based on various white sauces I've made before
• Linguini from scratch using the pasta maker I've had up in a cabinet for many years!

This weekend I plan to try the homemade tortillas. I can't wait to see what new topics and recipes show up here to inspire!

Chocolate mousse! (Note to self: Orangette's whole recipe of chocolate mousse for only two people means that you each eat a LEEETLE too much cream... Darn delicious, though.)

i'm in TOTAL agreement with cmcinnyc and i cannot WAIT to try the easy homemade biscuits that you posted recently...casacullen hubby is going to be ONE HAPPY man tomorrow morning...it's gonna be a great way to kick off the weekend and finish off the last few days of feb 2010! cheers and TGIF! - casacullen
http://www.casacullen.com/

I tried many new recipes this month, and all healthy! yay!

My favorite recipe was mini baked omelet cups here:
http://rachelsrecipebox.blogspot.com/

so healthy and versatile, they make my morning breakfast routine sooo much easier too!

You've got to try them!

I made the chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and the molten lava cakes from the Pioneer Woman's site this month. The lava cakes were INCREDIBLE, the truffle recipe was good but could have easily been halved. Also made a ribeye steak per thekitchn's instructions for Valentine's Day and it came out great!

In the Sunday paper, Parade magazine, the chicken and peppers in vinegar sauce. It was very good and simple and I did it in a crockpot.

Roasted garlic and potato soup, made with homemade veggie broth.

I have the turkey bones from the holidays in the crockpot, making stock.

Hubby did Steve Rickland's chicken wings with a homemade BBQ sauce.

It's been a good month for food

Many reruns of old favorites, but tried Food mag's shortbread crust pecan choc bars - so messy, but heaven.
Also a disastrous Irish soda bread - I always think it's done before it actually is. Oh well, I'm Italian, that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.

One favorite new recipe I made this month was Mark Bittman's cassoulet, made with dried beans, sausage, cabbage, and other good stuff! Delicious and fed us for days.

http://www.markbittman.com/recipes/cassoulet-with-lots-of-vegetables

Risotto with beets! I learned in Cooking Class and then recreated on my own:
http://coldcerealandtoast.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/beetrisotto/
Very satisfying and comforting on a cold day... which were plentiful in Philadelphia this month!

This year I'm documenting all of my "kitchen firsts" on my blog, as well as posting other recipes, many of which are new as well. Some highlights of February: Mexican chocolate souffles, dandelion green salad with prosciutto, bleu cheese and candied walnuts, and pearl barley with mushrooms, cauliflower and pancetta.
http://theweekendgourmande.wordpress.com/tag/kitchen-firsts/

I tried:

* Mark Bittman's Spinach Lasagna, from his blog post this week

* Butternut Squash Barley Risotto, from the Modern Vegetarian (posted here: http://wp.me/pI6Ms-d5)

* Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake (posted here: http://wp.me/pI6Ms-bs)

* And, of course, the No-Knead Bread posted here at The Kitchn! I blogged it here: http://wp.me/pI6Ms-du

Bagels! It's something i've been interested in doing for a while, but I finally tried it after being inspired by a friend who makes them weekly!

I finally got the chicken soup right- Martha Stewart's recipe on her website from Sarah, her food editor. Great recipe.

I made homemade chicken phở (phở gà). It was a little time consuming, but the hubby is sick and I think the spicy broth helped move his cold along a little. I used the recipe here:
http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2007/06/chicken_pho_noo.html

I also tried a salmon chowder from Epicurious that was so amazingly easy and yet also super tasty it is definitely a keeper:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Salmon-and-Corn-Chowder-with-Pancetta-and-Leeks-106195

Finally... granola. I tried a composite of a bunch of the recipes on this site and while the granola was tasty, it didn't get the chunks that I love about commercial granola. Back to the drawing board on that one.

so i just picked up one of mark bittman's cookbooks and it looks like i need to delve in, to keep up! so many fab recipes mentioned...yummers! i'm already slacking this weekend...thought i'd be on board with the biscuits but BAM...no cream! darn :( plan b, i guess! what a great and insightful ? indeed...i've already checked out numerous recipe links inserted in this post!!

Mark Bitman's stir-fried asparragus. I finally know how to make them without ruining them.

Snobby Joes from Post Punk Kitchen. These were great.

Lentils and bulgar from Martha Stewart Living. Not that great.

February was a productive month in the kitchen for me:

-new recipe for lemon bars

-Pecan AND traditional Sables from Dorie Greenspan

-Parmesan Crackers, Sausage Risotto, and stuffed mushrooms all from Smitten Kitchen

- Cheerio hearts, cookie dough balls, and baked apples from The Kitchn

-Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

- Walnut Bars

- 2 new recipes for granola bars (I've been wanting to do this for so long!)

- a fluffier buttercream and vanilla cake recipe (as well as carrot cupcakes and a fluffier cream cheese frosting!)

- potato pancakes

- figgy fruit salad

- vanilla and cream cheese cake pops

- a purse cake at the Cakegirls bakery!

Now I just need to finish blogging all of them: http://teaspoonofvanilla.wordpress.com

Though I didn't make any of the recipes I was going to (Soft Pretzels were among them....), I had people over for lunch/dinner every weekend in February, so I tried several new dishes:

- The Big Sure Bakery Citrus Tart - the most amazing piece of cake I've ever had, taste- and look-wise (though not so good to take pictures of ... ), the leftover pastry is great for making thumb-print cookies filled with leftover citrus jam, too;
- Risotto with beer, fennel sausage and stracchino (italian creamy tangy soft cheese) - comfort winter food at it's best;
- homemade tagliatelle-pasta made with chestnut flour
- walnut sauce for wholewheat pasta from 101 Cookbooks - a sure keeper!
- Crespelle crepes filled with mushrooms and gorgonzola bechamel, topped with more bechamel and some pistacchios and broiled until golden - OMG!

This month, I want to make homemade cocoa pasta to eat with gorgonzola sauce...

Joy's Amazing Cabbage Casserole

Brown Sugar Chicken,
Marguerita Chicken,
both from Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking by Stephanie O'Dea

Dutch Mill's Sugar Cream Pie

David Chang's Crack Pie

Stephanie O'Day's recipes were delicious and go in the Keepers folder, the rest were "eh" and went in the circular file...

Am making Ms. O'Day's Coconut Beef for tonight's dinner with the bf - can't wait! God Bless the slow cooker!

Yes, that's right. I didn't like the famous Crack Pie that everyone raves about.

I didn't care for the oatmeal crust at all and don't need healthy foods interfering with my decadent dessert-time...

and the filling wasn't all that great either.

I much prefer my pecan pie without the nuts. It gets baked in a shortbread crust and then topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Now that's the surest way to Sugar Shock Addiction!

Last month was my first time making a raw dessert. I made this:
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/02/little-slice-of-chocolate-heaven.html
I ended up making it three times in two weeks. The first time was to test it, second was for a dinner party and last was because I had to share it with my chocoholic friends. It blew everyone's mind and now I have been asked to make it in tart form for a wedding this summer!

I made yogurt and paneer!