I had a chance to look back on my 2011 Cooking Goals.

Dear God I was ambitious.

I have pasted my NYE 2011 goals post below and crossed out all that I have accomplished. We’ll see how many more I can get in before the year’s end!

Last year’s post:

As we move into the new year, I wanted to lay out some cooking goals I have for myself. Most of these involve trying new dishes whether it’s new dishes I have never had but associate with being a ‘good cook’ or just stuff I have been curious about.
You will notice a lot of ‘from scratch’ in my goal list. One of my major over-arching goals for the year is to continue cutting out processed foods from my diet.

Goals
1. Make fish once a week. 
2. Make Coq au Vin.
3. Make Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child.
4. Make homemade macaroni and cheese. 

5. Make a real ragut sauce.
6. Have a formal dinner party. 

7. Learn more about wine pairing.
8. Visit a winery.
9. Attend a wine tasting.
10. Make ‘real’ scalloped potatoes.
11. Cook lamb. 

12. Cook/Roast a whole chicken.


13. Make an angel food cake from scratch.
14. Conquer my fears of making bread- no bread machine, just me and active yeast. 
15. Make pasta from scratch.
16. Master the art of making a double layer cake from scratch so that I can have an old reliable way of doing it.


17. Try making different rolls and biscuits until I find one that I can claim as a trademark. 
18. Continue with ‘the plan’ or, if you haven’t been following, having a plan for every week.
19. Start cooking with dried beans, not canned.
20. Convince Manatee that goat cheese is awesome OR find a cheese that Manatee and I both love. 

 

Looking back on 2011:

Overall, I am pleased with our progress. We have eliminated a lot of processed foods from our diet. We’re not perfect yet, but we are moving in the right direction. No more cereal, hot apple cider, or soda (for the most part).

Some of these goals, like cooking lamb and eating fish once a week, I am going to discard. I have no desire to make lamb. Eating fish once a week was a noble idea, but Manatee and I have decided that we are just not good at cooking it. Scallops, yes, as a rare treat, but in general, we go out for our seafood.

I will probably also walk away from having a go-to biscuit or roll. We are trying to cut bread out of our diet and the rare times we have it (as a treat), I really like making a rustic bread.

Some of these goals, I still want to accomplish before the year is up. With 23 days left, we will see how I do and what goals will need to move on to next year’s list.

How did you do on your 2011 goals? What are some goals you are considering for 2012?