The End of the Road

Believe it or not, #AYearOfSmittenKitchen is over. Am I happy? Maybe. :) Am I glad I did it? Definitely.

My goal with this project was to branch out in my cooking. I tend to fall back on the same handful of recipes when I plan my meals each week. It's what I'm comfortable with. And I definitely accomplished that goal. Sometimes I wasn't super excited to have to figure out what SK recipe was going to fit into my week. :) But it forced me to keep things interesting!

I wanted to wrap up this year of cooking 52 brand new recipes and getting out of my comfort zone in the process by answering some questions. Because it's been a long year! And 52 recipes is a lot of cooking!

Why Smitten Kitchen?
When I had this idea a year ago, to make a new recipe every week, I just thought I'd pick recipes from a variety of places. But the more I thought about how to narrow that down, the more I thought it would be cool for the whole year's worth of recipes to be from one source. I had been following Smitten Kitchen for a little while at that point, and I'd made a couple of her recipes, so it seemed like a good place to start!

Favorite recipe?
This is so hard. I loved a lot of things that I made this year! A few stand-outs, though, are Black Bottom Cupcakes, Cranberry-Walnut Chicken Salad, Baked Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage, and Chicken Chili.

Recipe I won't bother repeating?
There are a couple, but without a doubt, the Grilled Bacon BLTs. Not because they weren't DELICIOUS (and I did love that sriracha mayo!) but because of the grease fire that resulted in our grill the next time we used it. Hello, Maple Grove Fire Department!

Easiest Recipe?
Probably a toss up between Obsessively Good Avocado Cucumber Salad and Best Hot Fudge Sauce.

Most unique ingredient used?
For sure veal for Meatballs and Spaghetti. I'd never bought it before. And honestly, I probably never will again. :) It was expensive and unnecessary--the beef and pork are plenty in those meatballs.

Biggest flop?
Unfortunately, Apple Cranberry Crisp. I was REALLY looking forward to it, and I purposely saved it for Thanksgiving week. But the top crust was awful. I still want to redeem the recipe because I did love the apple-cranberry part. :)

Favorite dessert?
Besides the Black Bottom Cupcakes, I also really enjoyed the Cheesecake Marbled Brownies and the Chocolate Budino. Ooh, and Dulce de Leche Ice Cream!

Favorite pasa?
Besides Baked Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage, I really liked Spaghetti al Limone.

Recipes you've repeated?
There are lots! For sure the Double Chocolate Banana Bread and Pumpkin Bread. Those are practically staples in this house. :) I also used the Meatballs and Spaghetti recipe to make a new meatball recipe for my go-to (combination of SK and my old go-to). And I made The Best Hot Fudge Sauce for Christmas gifts this year!

Will you this for another year?
Short answer, nope! I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad it's done. :) However, I'm definitely not done making new recipes, from Smitten Kitchen or elsewhere. I just won't be blogging about them. I do want to cook more with Leah too, and she just got a Kids Gluten Free cookbook for Christmas, so that's our new project. ;)