There are two kinds of soups. One is pureed at the end and topped with crunchy garnish while the other borders on a stew. The soups on my list below are mostly stewy soups because when you’re making soup as a meal, you want it to be chunky and hearty.

Do you know the best thing about making soup? It’s relatively easy. You do a little prep, throw all the ingredients in a pot, and cook it until it’s done. It’s also reasonably simple. I have to show Julia Turshen’s soup formulas (below are from her site) for it to make sense.

Most soups follow the same formula. For hearty soups, it’s sauteed, add liquid, add ingredients, and simmer. For pureed soups, you blend it after simmering. (Here’s my plug to add an immersion blender to your kitchen arsenal. It’s much easier than transferring soup back and forth from a blender.)

Whether you want soup for the season or you’re looking for an easy recipe, there are so many soup recipes out there. The challenge I put together for myself was making a different soup recipe every week, which I did from October to February. 

Here are the 18 soup recipes I enjoyed!

1. Kale, White Bean, Chicken

A solid soup to start off with, this soup is made in one pot. I would argue one-pot cooking is the whole goal of making soup. This soup is one I’ve made before and one of the first we thought of when we started this weekly soup journey.

2. Spiced Lentil Soup

A friend recommended this soup and it is exploding with flavor! That makes sense because it has cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and cayenne pepper. This was my first time cooking with lentils!

3. Chicken Tortilla Soup

A few years ago, a friend made this soup for a dinner party and it was a hit. We’ve enjoyed this one annually.

4. Wild Rice Soup

It was my first time making this recipe and I really liked it. It’s creamy without milk and loaded with veggies and mushrooms.

5. Beef Stew

Soup or stew? To me, if the liquid can cover the ingredients, it counts as a soup, which makes the words soup and stew interchangeable in my opinion. They say it’s soup when the liquid is the primary ingredient but other than pureed soup, is liquid ever the primary ingredient? Don’t judge by my photos; I tend to get less juice and more bulky stuff when I ladle my soups. I feel you shaking your head at me.

6. Potato Leek Soup

This is one of my favorite soups. Back when we got a regular CSA, we got leeks and potatoes in the same box often. This recipe is vegan but we saute ground beef to make it a hearty dinner soup.

7. Italian Wedding Soup

Of all the soups I made, this one was a tiny bit more complicated, but it was worth it! This soup involved making my own meatballs, which was equally stressful and rewarding. This is one of my favorite soups because it is hearty and because orzo is one of my favorite ingredients.

8. Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup is an annual make! I like to make it a bit spicy and the most important part is the garnish – toasted pumpkin seeds and fried sage. My favorite variation of this recipe is in the Super Simple Half-Baked Harvest Cookbook. Remember when I cooked through the cookbook?

9. Caldo Verde

Most of our grocery shopping is done without a set list, which drives me a little crazy. I typically like to make bookmarked recipes. But you never know what you’ll find (or won’t find) at the grocery store, which makes flexibility and spontaneity a regular part of our shopping. So, when we spied beef shank on the shelf, this recipe was found, made, and enjoyed.

10. Tom Kha Gai

I made it nine weeks before falling back on my regular soup! This is my go-to soup recipe and I make it several times a year. It’s an easy and tasty way to cook chicken (because I’m always looking for those recipes) and the flavors are delicious. I’ve made it so many times I make the recipe up as I go or find a random recipe online to reference. My quick tip is using cayenne pepper in place of Thai chiles because getting those usually requires a dedicated trip to the Asian grocery store.

11. Cauliflower Soup

We brought the joy of soup to the holidays with this one. This soup was made to be a side dish to an extravagant holiday meal. This soup is hard to make look appetizing but it was good.

12. Zuppa Toscana

This recipe is based on the popular dish from Olive Garden, and though I never had it there, I can tell why it’s a hit. Honestly, put potatoes and kale in any soup and I’m there. We used ground beef instead of sausage in this soup, and this has made it to my go-to soup list.

13. Colombian Chicken Stew

Our friend recommended this soup after hearing about our weekly soup adventures. This is a very easy, meat and potatoes kind of soup.

14. Oxtail Stew

This recipe came out of the blue when I threw out the word oxtail, but we ended up making this one multiple times. It’s a rich soup and was quickly devoured. It’s a time-consuming recipe but worth it!

15. Kao Soi

Ah, weekly soup goes to another dinner party! The dinner party theme was Thai food, and this is one of my favorite Thai noodle soup dishes. It’s an intensive soup, which most Thai recipes can be, but the Thai Fresh Cookbook makes it easy. Kao Soi originated in Northern Thailand and is similar to yellow curry but with more depth. You eat it with flat egg noodles. If you see it on a menu, order it!

16. Coconut Curry Beef and Sweet Potato

This sounds like an interesting combination, right? It’s similar to beef stew but has the curry ingredient and uses sweet potato. This soup came about when we realized we had most of the ingredients already.

17. Chicken Pozole Verde

It took me this many weeks to think about Mexican soup. I’m not sure what sparked this recipe, but I was excited to cook with tomatillos and hominy for the first time. This recipe was so delicious! I used chicken thighs though because I don’t believe in chicken breasts.

18. West Lake Soup

I got the Woks of Life cookbook a few months ago in hopes of learning how to cook more Chinese dishes! I have memories of enjoying this soup at fancy events and big family meals. I’ve got to practice my egg drop technique though because my soup ended up with a few big egg globs.

The goal of making a different soup every week was one I looked forward to and only mildly stressed about. I liked that it was for a season instead of a year and it came at the perfect time. This winter was strange and the anticipation and enjoyment of a warm soup was a bit of sunshine. It’s likely that I (and maybe you) usually make a lot of soup in the winter anyways, so this challenge also made it feel like an accomplishment. The best part was I discovered many new favorite soup recipes that I’m sure will make their way into the rotation again!

What’s your favorite soup recipe?

Want to spend more time in my kitchen? Take a look at these posts:

• A Month of Dinners: What a Blogger Eats
• Best Baking Recipes I’ve Tried Lately
• Cooking Through the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook
• Simple Guide to Brewing Kombucha
• My Favorite Easy Whole30 Challenge Recipes

The post 18 Soup Recipes for Cold Weather appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Kombucha 101

Let’s start at the beginning. What is kombucha? Kombucha is a fermented tea. Using a SCOBY (more on this later), the sugary tea will create gasses and acid (bubbles). The end product is bubbly and mildly vinegary.

Kombucha is good for your gut and has a lot of probiotics. That means the bacteria in the drink can combine with your body’s bacteria to become stronger. Kombucha is also a good alternative to soda.

How Did We Start Brewing Kombucha?

Around the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020), we were getting groceries curbside (placing an order online and picking up). We were going through multiple bottles of kombucha a week, which was delicious but also a bit wasteful. In April, I connected with someone in Austin who was giving away SCOBYs. We quickly gathered supplies and started brewing!

We read a handful of articles and watched some videos, but we mostly took the cooking route (feel with your heart) versus the baking route (measure everything). Aside from the 14 cups of water, one cup of sugar, and seven tea bags, everything else is flexible. Yes, this means our best batches aren’t replicated but they get close/better and we try different flavors.

Brewing kombucha is a fairly easy and low-maintenance project, and we’ve brewed 265 bottles since we began! We’ve had one or two questionable batches, flavor-wise, but overall, we’ve drunk a lot of homemade kombuchas and enjoyed the process.

If you’re curious, I calculated that every batch of six bottles costs about $4, which is 66 cents a bottle. (This is calculating the cost of tea, sugar, and fruit.) We used to buy kombucha for about $2.80 a bottle. This is about a $12.80 savings every month while wasting fewer bottles.

How to Make Kombucha

First, you need a SCOBY. This stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It looks like a white, dense, and slimy pancake. The easiest way to start is by getting a SCOBY with a bit of kombucha juice from someone (send me a message if you’re in Austin!) or you can buy it off the internet. A new SCOBY grows at the top of a kombucha brew, so SCOBYs are always being produced.

For the first fermentation, you’ll also need a big jar, small cloth, rubber band, bottling jars, sugar, and tea. Some notes on these things:

• Here is an easy kit to get that includes jars, cloth, and rubber bands. You can also reuse a big pickle jar and use any type of cloth, about the size of a face washcloth.
• Black and green tea are best for brewing. Don’t use herbal or flavored teas.

The first fermentation (7-10 days) will give you kombucha. The second fermentation (3-7 days) will infuse flavor into your kombucha.

First Fermentation (7-10 days) – Make Kombucha

• Bring 14 cups of water to a boil. 
• Turn off the heat and dissolve 1 cup of sugar and add six or seven tea bags (or 10 grams of tea). Set a timer for 15 minutes.
• Remove the tea and let the tea cool. (I usually make the tea in the morning and it is cool by evening.)
• Add the tea to the big jar with the SCOBY and juices. Give it a stir. Place the cloth on top and secure it with a rubber band. Place the jar in a place at room temperature and without direct sunlight. (Ours is on the kitchen counter.)
• Check the kombucha in 7-10 days. You can usually smell it if it’s ready or you can give it a stir and take a sip.
• If you don’t want to infuse flavor, give your jar a swirl, bottle up your kombucha, and put it in the fridge. It’s ready to drink!

Second Fermentation (3-7 days) – Infuse Flavor

• Set out your jars (I usually have enough kombucha for six jars) and add your fruit. It can be juice or solid fruit. Use about a third cup of fruit. (I eyeball the fruit and it’s about a fourth of the bottle.)
• Screw the lid on tight and place in a room temperature, dark place for at least three days. You want the lid to be very tight.
• After three days, transfer a bottle to the fridge and when it’s cold, give it a try. This will let you know if all the bottles are ready for the fridge or if you want to let them ferment (for more bubbles) a little longer.

Quick Tips for Kombucha Brewing

• Brewing is a science experiment and differs from your unique SCOBY, how much fruit, etc. Keeping a kombucha journal will help you keep track. It can be as detailed or basic as you want it. Mine (see photo below) has the basic information to keep track of the time.
• Putting kombucha in the fridge will stop the fermentation process.
• Pop bottles were recommended but we found reusing kombucha bottles that you buy at the grocery is better. You’ll reduce waste and it’s easier to add fruit to these bottles with wider openings. Kombucha is more likely to explode out of pop bottles since you’re releasing pressure quickly at one time.
• To take the label off of kombucha bottles, add boiling water to the bottle to loosen the label adhesive. When you think you won’t burn your fingers (10-15 minutes), peel the label off. Scrub a mixture of baking soda and oil to remove the remaining stickiness on the outside.
• You can use fresh or frozen fruit in your kombucha. We found it tastes better with frozen fruit.
• Be sure to strain the fruit out before you drink it.
• My favorite kombucha flavor is pineapple ginger. Blueberry ginger and mango are also good flavors.

Kombucha continues to be one of my favorite beverages and I’m sure we’ll continue to brew many more bottles!

Here are some other posts about the fun I have in the kitchen:

• Best Baking Recipes I’ve Tried Lately
• Cooking Through the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook
• A Month of Dinners: What a Blogger Eats
• Farm-to-Table Challenge: 5 Things I Learned in a Year of Local Eating

The post Simple Guide to Brewing Kombucha appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Why Cook Through a Cookbook?

This was my third year cooking through a cookbook and like my previous two times, I was aiming for similar goals.

• Saving money by cooking at home more
• Trying new recipes and ingredients
• Getting more comfortable with cooking
• Making use of a cookbook

How did I do in round three? Keep reading to see!

Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook

Half Baked Harvest is a popular food blog by Tieghan Gerard, and Half Baked Harvest Super Simple is her second cookbook. This cookbook does have a lot of super simple recipes needing fewer ingredients and less time. The cookbook has about 137 recipes, give or take. Some recipes had accompaniment recipes like salsa or whipped butter that went along with the main attraction. If you’re not proficient in the kitchen and want to try some new recipes, I think this cookbook is a great place to start.

While this cookbook and cooking from a cookbook have their frustrations (more on that later), there are some winning recipes I tried and love having in my back pocket. Here are some recipes we made multiple times.

• Caesar Broccoli Salad – We love Caesar salad but it can be time-consuming. This dressing in this recipe uses tahini.
• Chicken Pot Pie – You can’t go wrong here! It’s a classic recipe that is always a crowd-pleaser.
• Chicken and Orzo – This recipe also has artichokes, olives, and feta, and it is so delicious! You’ll likely see me make this for a future dinner party.
• Butter Pecan Bars – These bars were so mouth-watering!

I ended up making 97 of the 137 recipes, about 70% of the cookbook! (I did 56% and 58% on the previous cookbook challenges.) There are more recipes from the cookbook I want to try and there were plenty of recipes I enjoyed, so I’m sure I’ll come back to it.

What I Learned From Cooking Through a Cookbook

Here are some of my notes from a year of cooking through this cookbook.

• The cookbook does a good job of recreating recipes with familiar ingredients. It might not be totally authentic, but the goal is to make something similar with the essential ingredients.
• Recipes will take longer than it says. A lot of this has to do with how slowly I chop and prepare. Recipes usually included chopped vegetables in the ingredients, which is why sometimes a recipe would take twice as long. Not a big deal; I just had to add in extra time to make sure dinner was ready on time!
• Are cookbooks for everyday cooking? Cookbooks include a lot of fancier recipes that can sometimes be complicated and expensive. How do the things you cook every day differ in budget and complexity?
• Why doesn’t this dish look like the photo? I said this a bunch while cooking these recipes. But that’s expected because cookbooks have professional photography with tricks that make the dishes look perfect!
• This cookbook has lots of recipes with cheese and gluten, which we typically don’t do a lot of.

What’s Next in the Kitchen?

Would I do it again? Yes! But maybe in a few years. It’s a huge task to cook through a cookbook. This year, I’ll be cooking from the cookbooks I have, trying more Chinese dishes, and hopefully cooking and baking for friends. I’m sure it will be another tasty year!

Do you have any cooking or baking goals this year?

The post Cooking Through the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

So, here are some of the things I’ve baked and loved.

Sourdough Everything

Yep, we jumped on that sourdough wagon. We got our sourdough starter from Easy Tiger and had a few months of sourdough baking. We mostly followed the Easy Tiger bread recipes. Our sourdough adventures ended because we realized we didn’t eat that much bread, but it was fun while it lasted! Many of our friends were also baking sourdough, so it was fun to share photos of our loaves and talk about baking tips.

Will made several loaves of sourdough and I’ll say, hot bread straight out of the oven is heavenly!

I was in charge of baking with the sourdough discard. Fry bread was one of the easiest and tastiest recipes. I also made rosemary crackers, herb rolls, biscuits, and blueberry muffins.

King Arthur Flour has a wealth of recipes on their website. I also considered making pretzels and cinnamon rolls. (This is another sourdough cinnamon roll recipe some of my friends loved.)

The Doubletree Signature Cookie

If you’ve ever stayed at a DoubleTree Hotel, you know about the free cookies they give to guests. Lucky for me, I work at a hotel near a DoubleTree, so they graciously send us cookies every once in a while. Well, they released the secret recipe a few months ago and I’ve made a few batches of this delicious cookie since.

These cookies are made with rolled oats, chocolate chips, and walnuts, but I think the secret ingredients are the pinch of cinnamon and the freshly squeezed lemon juice. I highly recommend making the full recipe (26 cookies) and having extra in the freezer whenever you crave some dessert.

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats

If you’ve ever been to a party I’ve hosted, you’ve probably had these rice crispy treats. I found this recipe when I was cooking through the first Smitten Kitchen cookbook and it’s been my go-to dessert recipe since. It’s quick, easy, and always a crowd-pleaser. You can find the recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog.

Confituras Biscuit

A local shop called Confituras is known for its jam and biscuits and they have a buttermilk biscuit kit so you can bake the biscuits at home. These biscuits were so good!

Recipes from Half Baked Harvest

I’ve been making my way through the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook this year and baked a few hits the last couple of months. I’ve found the recipes (or variations of it) on the Half Baked Harvest blog, so you can try them out.

I’m becoming sure that browning the butter makes baked goods tastier. In the cookbook is a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe with browned butter. This recipe on the blog is a variation.

I made the Cinnamon Roll Bread Rolls from the cookbook and the chai frosting is the best part! The recipe is also on the blog. As the name suggests, this recipe is more bready than cinnamon rolls, so be warned if you’re looking for a different type of recipe.

The Butter Pecan Bars from the cookbook were so good! Here’s a variation of the recipe on the blog.

I hope you have been baking some delicious things at your home too! It’s about to be prime baking season, so I hope some of these recipes will make it to your oven!

Have you found any favorite recipes? Share in a comment below!

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The post Best Baking Recipes I’ve Tried Lately appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

This project came from my curiosity to see how often we (Will and I) repeat meals, how often we eat out, and the types of things we eat. I already post monthly (on my Flavors of the Month posts) about the dishes and restaurants that were special but all the other things I eat should get some love. And maybe some of you are strangely curious too.

So, I took (or tried to remember to take) a photo of my dinner every night in January. Now you’ll know what a lifestyle and food blogger REALLY eats!

What I Ate in a Month

Here’s the play by play and I’ll give some notes after the list!

• 1, Wed: Homemade Khao Soi
• 2, Thurs: Leftover Homemade Khao Soi
• 3, Fri: Frozen DiGiorgnio’s Pizza – The second day back to work in the new year and we were not ready. Quick trip to the grocery store resulted in this.
• 4, Sat: Homemade Salad with Whatever Was in the Fridge – Spinach with grilled chicken, brie, and steamed beets
• 5, Sun: HEB Meal Simple Salmon

• 6, Mon: Homemade Beef Bourguinon
• 7, Tues: Work Holiday Party Buffet – It included guacamole, a mac and cheese bar, a cheese plate with some delicious truffled gouda, and bread pudding.
• 8, Wed: Dinner at Happy Chicks – I attended a class from 6-9 pm, so I grabbed this quick dinner after work.
• 9, Thurs: Moroccan Chickpea and Carrot Tangine
• 10, Fri: Raclette Night at Antonelli’s – All the info is in this post

• 11, Sat: Dinner at China Family Restaurant
• 12, Sun: Homemade Korean Beef with Mushrooms and Rice
• 13, Mon: Homemade Coconut Curry Meatball with Rice
• 14, Tues: Homemade Arugula Salad with Fennel Grilled Beef, Steamed Beets, and Brie
• 15, Wed: Homemade Grilled Chicken and Kale Salad

• 16, Thurs: Homemade Black Beans and Rice with Leftover Grilled Chicken and Kale Salad
• 17, Fri: Takeout Dinner from The Soup Peddler (Grilled Cheese and Soup) – We were going to go out to eat but Will was sick.
• 18, Sat: Dinner at Vaquero Taquero
• 19, Sun: Homemade Lamb Steak with Steamed Spinach
• 20, Mon: Leftover Lamb Steak with Steamed Spinach and Roasted Carrots, Cauliflower, and Sweet Potato

• 21, Tues: Homemade Poblano Chili
• 22, Wed: Leftover Chili
• 23, Thurs: Homemade Chicken with Orzo and Artichokes
• 24, Fri: Dinner at District Kitchen
• 25, Sat: Homemade Chickpea and Broccoli Yellow Curry

• 26, Sun: Leftover Curry with Steamed Bok Choy and Sauteed Mushrooms
• 27, Mon: Homemade Caesar Broccoli with Beef Steaks
• 28, Tues: Media Tasting at Last Straw – vegan appetizers and a cocktail
• 29, Wed: Homemade Cod with Orzo and Asparagus
• 30, Thurs: Media Tasting at East Austin Hotel
• 31, Fri: Dinner at Odd Duck

Details/Notes About What I Ate and Our Routine

First, I was bad at taking photos of any dinner that was not one from the cookbook or eating out and those were usually the times Will made dinner. Haha.

Cooking at Home and Leftovers

Other than starting my cook through a cookbook challenge, we didn’t try to eat a particular way, i.e. more meals at home or more vegetables. This is how we usually eat! Though I will say, it has been YEARS since I got a frozen pizza from the grocery store, so it’s funny that happened. 

We meal plan and grocery shop for the week on Sundays. This year, Will and I have been trying to split up nights we cook so that I share more of the cooking responsibilities. Cooking through a cookbook and using a cookbook with easy recipes is really helping with that. Plus, we can try different recipes. Months prior to this would not have had this much variety in recipes. We would usually have a rotation of spaghetti, steak, steamed vegetables, and quick salads.

We try not to eat leftovers more than once. If we double a recipe, it’s usually enough for one more meal, so that we’re not eating the same thing more than two nights in a row.  

Eating Out

We usually cook dinner Sunday through Thursday nights and eat out Friday and/or Saturday nights. (There were five times I ate out on a weeknight and Will made dinner at home. I typically eat out an average of three weeknights in a month for media tastings and/or friend outings.) After a long day at work, I just want to eat, relax, and get ready for the next work day, so being a homebody during the week (and spending as much time with Will and Kaira as possible) is ideal. 

We do sometimes eat out for lunch on the weekends, so we don’t only eat out once or twice a week. (For weekday lunches, I eat in my work cafeteria and Will usually brings leftovers for lunch.) See this month’s Flavors of the Month post for more information about the meals we ate out.

Here’s the quick breakdown of my month of dinners:

• Dinners Out: 10/31 meals
• Homemade Dinners: 19/31 meals
• Semi-Homemade Dinners (i.e. frozen or HEB Meal Simple): 2/31 meals
• Leftovers for Dinner: 4/31 meals
• Cookbook Recipes: 10/31 meals

What Do You Think?

Does that satisfy your curiosity?! Our meals seem really exciting because of the cookbook, and seeing our month of dinners like this makes me feel like such an adult. HA! You can tell a lot from someone’s routine, values, and point in life by what they eat for dinner. Most of my meals in college and right after college were chicken nuggets, steamed broccoli, and mac-and-cheese. In my mid-20s, I went out to eat a lot with friends and dates.

Want to eat more at home? Here are three quick tips.

• Choose easier and faster recipes. Recipes with fewer than 10 ingredients, one-pot or slow-cooker recipes, and recipes that take less than an hour make cooking at home much easier.
• Cook from a cookbook or a blog to meal plan from one source. Every week, I’m picking out three recipes from the cookbook I want to make. I try to find similarities in ingredients, so I don’t have excess.
• Meal plan, then grocery shop once. We do it all on Sunday, so that we’re set for the week. This gives us a solid plan and prevents last-minute grocery trips after work or an unexpected meal out.

How do you eat? (Food bloggers – you should try this project and send me a link to your post!) Do you repeat the same recipes every week? What are your go-to dishes? Do you want to cook at home more, and how do you do it?

The post A Month of Dinners: What a Blogger Eats appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Remember when I cooked through the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook in 2013 and the Smitten Kitchen Every Day Cookbook in 2018? Those were big challenges but also so fun! It helped me try some new recipes and ingredients. I’m bringing back this challenge in 2020!

I got the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook for my birthday (thanks, Janna!), and I’m really excited to dig in and cook all 138 (or as many as possible) recipes this year! In the past challenges, I made 56% and 58% of the recipes, but I think I can do better this year, especially since these recipes are super simple. In fact, I’ve already made two of the recipes and they were easy peasy. I’ll need to cook about 12 recipes a month to get through the cookbook this year.

Written by food blogger Tieghan Gerard, this cookbook has recipes for our Instant Pot, one-pot recipes, and recipes with less than 10 ingredients. Tieghan started her food blog Half Baked Harvest in 2012 and her beautiful photos, especially the ones with cake, drew me in. She’s making cooking even easier with this second cookbook and I’m looking forward to cooking through it. This cookbook has some Asian fusion recipes, which I know I’ll love, and plenty of dishes to bring to parties and to the office to share. I’m also hoping to host small dinner parties to spread the love of this cookbook.

Want to join in and cook through a cookbook? Which one will you do?
Or what cooking goals do you have for the new year?

You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

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A few years ago, I took on a year-long challenge of cooking as many recipes from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook as possible. I ended up cooking 59 out of 105 recipes and recapped that experience in this post. At that point in my life, I didn’t know much about cooking and cooking through the cookbook helped me learn about new ingredients, practice new techniques, and overall, become more confident in the kitchen. With my success with the first cookbook, I had been eyeing the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook – Smitten Kitchen Every Day – that recently released, and my secret Santa was so kind to include it in my gift at the end of the year.

A few months ago, Boyfriend announced he impulsively bought a Thai cookbook because he heard an interview about it on NPR. (My public relations background is yelling SEE! DIRECT ROI ON PR!) “Oh great,” I, the Debbie Downer, thought, “something that is only going to take up space.” But when it came in the mail, we excitedly looked through it, recognizing dishes we had enjoyed during our Thailand trip.

So, we have some new cookbooks. Now what?

Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice from Night + Market Cookbook

#CookbookChallenge This Year!

How many cookbooks do you have and how often do you use them? These days, I rely on blogs and food websites to give me recipes and ideas. Search for a recipe and you’ll likely find a handful, if not more, solid versions of the recipe. Cookbooks are beautiful to look at but for me, they collect dust more often than being used. I don’t like being wasteful and with these new cookbooks, I decided we go ALL IN, and that’s how my goal of cooking through Smitten Kitchen Every Day and Night + Market came about.

We’re going to try our best and make all 232 recipes by the end of this year.

If you’re doing the math in your head, that’s roughly 19 recipes a month and four recipes a week, a pretty tall task. There’s a slim chance we will truly make all the recipes but the fun is in the journey, right? We usually cook at home on weekdays, and there will be potlucks and co-workers who will devour sweet treats.

Nevertheless, we’ll have fun with these cookbooks. Smitten Kitchen Every Day has a strong variety of recipes, including recipes for every meal time and sections for cookies, tarts and pies, cakes, and puddings. Night + Market is all Thai recipes, though some feature other Asian flavors.

It’s an ambitious goal, I know, but in this journey, I know I’ll learn/re-learn a lot.

• I’ll experiment with new ingredients.
• I’ll make dishes of different cultures.
• I’ll try out new cooking techniques and processes.
• I’ll save money by cooking more at home instead of going out to eat.
• I’ll find favorite recipes I’ll come back to for years.
• I’ll share the experience with friends by hosting dinner parties or making things for gatherings.
• I’ll become more comfortable with cooking.
• I’ll have a boost of adventure and creativity!

It’s a commitment to cook through a cookbook, but when it comes to food, it feels more like a fun hobby than work. It also helps that Boyfriend is on board (or at least lovingly going along with my plans) for this adventure. Many times, we are cooking the recipes together or for timing reasons on weekdays, I prep them for him to execute. Cooking more at home AND bonding time – sounds like a win-win to me!

Blueberry Muffins from Smitten Kitchen Every Day

How I Keep Track of the Progress

My previous challenge included a Word Document list of all the recipes, and I crossed them out digitally, changing the number of recipes made manually.

This time around, I’m all about the SPREADSHEET. I have every recipe listed with a place to add the date I made it, the difficulty level, and any notes about the process or result. Most importantly, I’ve created it to automatically add up how many recipes I’ve made so far. #NerdAlert, I know, but it makes my organizational brain so happy.

Here’s a screenshot of the Smitten Kitchen Every Day spreadsheet. I added some arrows and notes for you.

Oh, I already know how nerdy this is. When I excitedly showed Boyfriend my creation his response was a slow “ok…whatever makes you happy.”

Want to Join in the Fun?

Our current count is 35 out of 232 recipes made! Moving along!

If you’re interested in joining the cookbook challenge, DO IT! Make it fun for you, whatever that looks like. Let me know what cookbook you’re cooking through, and I would love to keep up with your progress.

Double Coconut Meltaway Cookies from Smitten Kitchen Every Day

Have you ever tried cooking through a cookbook? Do you have any favorite cookbooks or where do you find new recipes?

P.S. A cookbook potluck is one party idea I still love. Have you ever tried it?

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Link to Half Baked Harvest Recipe

One of my favorite things to make is a galette. It has enough crust but not too much. It’s easier to throw together and more forgiving on the look. In fact, the “rustic” look is on purpose! You can go savory or sweet. They’re easy to slice up and serve. Judging by the photos from these recipes I’ve picked out, you will definitely get the wow factor when you bring one of these to your next dinner party.

Link to A Beautiful Mess Recipe

Celebrating Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or the holidays? Bringing one of these to your party is a great idea! Here are 10 favorite galette recipes you should definitely try. Will you go sweet or savory or both?!

Tomato, Caramelized Onion, and Gruyere Galette by Cupcakes and Cashmere

Roasted Tomato, Bacon and Goat Cheese Galette by Spoon and Ink

Strawberries and Champagne Galette with a Chocolate Crust by A Beautiful Mess

Carmelized Onion and Fig Galette with Goat Cheese by Vanilla and Bean

Buttered Mushroom, Fig, and Bacon Galette with Roasted Squash by Half Baked Harvest

Apple Mosaic Tart with Salted Caramel by Smitten Kitchen

Sweet Potato Galette with Caramelized Shallots by How Sweet It Is

Rustic Apple Tart with Whiskey Ginger Ice cream by From the Kitchen

Guilt-Free Cranberry Galette by Desserts with Benefits

Apple Cinnamon Galette by Fearless Captivations

Link to Smitten Kitchen Recipe

Have recommendations or links for your favorite galette? Be sure to comment below! I’m always on the look-out for a new recipe to try!

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Can you believe it’s officially Fall?! I can’t here in Texas; we’ve still got 90-degree weather over here! I hope it’s cooling down where you are. Even with the warm weather, I’ve been dreaming of and gathering fall recipes and ideas to celebrate the season. The last three months of the year always inspires the baker in me and it feels like the season of potlucks. Friendsgiving, anyone?

To celebrate Autumn, I’ve gathered 10 fall recipes with fall flavors, including some from my favorite Austin food bloggers, that I’m excited to try. Take a look:

• Cheesy Pretzel Twists by Sally’s Baking Addiction
• Simple Acorn Squash Miso Soup by Mary Makes Good
• Chocolate Lava Cake by DelishPlan
• Beer and Pretzel Cupcakes by Stetted
• Almond Brown Butter Rice Crispy Treats by Love and Lemons
• Pear, Riesling, and Ginger Sorbet by Serious Eats
• Caramel Apple Sheet Cake by Chef in Training
• Pumpkin Bread with Brown Butter Maple Icing by The Domestic Rebel
• Slow Cooker Apple Cider by Gimme Some Oven
• Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies by Chelsea’s Messy Apron

I’ve also created a Fall Bucket List I hope you’ll join me in accomplishing! I’m most excited about getting my fill of football, baking a pie (my go-to is pecan), and decorating pumpkins.

Comment below: what’s your favorite fall recipe or activity?

Check out my Autumn Inspiration Pinterest board for more recipes and décor ideas!

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With the wealth of recipes available on the Internet, using a cookbook wasn’t a regular activity for me. Many would agree, it’s much easier to find a recipe or use a combination of recipes online that fit your time limit, serving size, and available ingredients instead of making do with a recipe in front of you. What I didn’t expect when I started this goal of cooking through a cookbook was how rewarding it would be.

In November 2012, Deb Perelman of the blog Smitten Kitchen came to Austin for her new cookbook tour. My friend Rochelle, being a big fan of the blog, invited me to hear her speak and we ended up getting new, signed cookbooks. I’ve had cookbooks before but they are mostly focused on cupcakes and baking. They also collect dust on my bookshelf. With this new cookbook and the desire to expand my cooking skills, I set out to make all the recipes in 2013. Spoiler alert: to date, I’ve completed 59 out of 105 recipes. 

I’ve loved this fun and somewhat tedious journey. Here’s a run-down of what I think of the cookbook, cooking preparation, and recipes:

• The cookbook is filled with personal stories about each recipe told in Deb’s sassy and down-to-earth style, just like her blog. It’s entertaining and makes the recipes so much more meaningful.

• The beautiful photos are plentiful and inspirational. I love that it has a pretty cover when you take the dust jacket off.

• The recipes are easy to follow and execute, though I needed more time than I expected on several occasions. Having ingredients cut, measured, and ready to put together really speeds things up. When it comes to cooking, I’ve learned to give myself more time than I think I’ll need.

• Included in the back of the cookbook is a guide of tools Deb uses in the kitchen and it’s been very helpful knowing what could make time in the kitchen more efficient and stress-free. Two purchases I made and love are my food processor and electric scale.

• Since I’m more skilled in baking, I’ve enjoyed the dessert sections – which include pies, cookies, tarts, and cakes – the most.

• The hardest section for me is the salads. The salads are more adventurous than I’m familiar with since I enjoy fairly simple salads.

• Focusing on cooking from the cookbook made meal planning easier. It brought variety to meals, decreased the time to figure out what to make, and helped me not overbuy groceries. However, I did end up with a lot of leftovers from many meals and had trouble adjusting recipes for one. I loved making the recipes with or for friends though! Most of the things I made, especially the desserts, were a hit.

There are about 12 more recipes from the cookbook I want to make this year but as for the big goal of cooking through the whole cookbook, the pursuit has been taken off the list. I’ve dreaded some of the remaining recipes because my taste buds aren’t as adventurous or interested, so instead of investing time and money into something I’m not enthusiastic about, I’m going to savor all the recipes I’ve tried, loved and will come back to again and again. Hopefully one day I can say I’ve made all the recipes.

What’s your favorite cookbook or go-to recipe?

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