Happy New Year, Bittens!
We are so excited to start cooking in 2015! But first let's take a quick look back at 2014.
In our ongoing quest to test-drive food magazine recipes, we tried out a lot of dishes last year. Some were good; some were duds. Here are the best things we made all year long, in chronological order. First up are our favorite food magazine recipes, followed by a few other favorites from last year.
The 10 Best Food Magazine Recipes from 2014...
1. Pork and Squash Stew with Chiles
Tender bites of pork in a savory broth with a warm, comforting heat. It's the perfect dish for winter -- and, as we wrote back in February, an ideal make-ahead dish.
2. Herbed Faux-tisserie Chicken and Potatoes
We have roasted a LOT of chickens in our day. This one is absolutely one of the top three ever.
3. New Orleans–Style BBQ Shrimp
Spicy and buttery and delicious. The next-best thing to actually going to New Orleans.
4. Edamame-Miso Tuna Salad Sandwiches
This is probably the one dish we've made the most since posting about it last year. The mix of miso, hot chile oil and edamame is a great new spin on tuna salad. We've made this (especially for lunch to take to work) more times than we can count.
5. Ayam Jeruk (Grilled Chicken and Toasted Coconut Salad)
We debated whether to include this dish in our year-end roundup, because we'd made so many substitutions in the recipe. But who cares? This dish was to die for, and we're sure it's even better if you can find fresh galangal. And shaved coconut. And candelnuts. And Asian shallots. And Balinese long peppers...
6. Asian Marinated Tomatoes
These tomatoes are really more of an accompaniment or a condiment than a stand-alone dish. But they're marvelous. If we may quote our own post from last summer: "Imagine if a bowl of salsa spent a semester abroad in Thailand, and got really into meditation and mystic Buddhism and lemongrass, and then came home and hopped up on your grilled chicken." Who doesn't want that??
7. Spiced Lamb Burgers
Nothing we made last year was as drool-worthy as these lamb burgers. As we said back in July, "The lamb is flavorful and full of wonderful spice from the coriander, cumin and cinnamon. The fat from the lamb melts into the pitas, soaking them with flavor and making them crispy and amazing." If you're not salivating at that, there may be something wrong with you.
8. Vietnamese Pork Chops with Pickled Watermelon
In August, we solidly declared this the "DISH. OF. THE. SUMMER." We stand by that. This salty/savory/sour/sweet/pungent/crispy/juicy dish is everything you want in a grilled entree.
9. The Barefoot Contessa's Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes
It's highly possible that no dish we've featured has ever elicited a greater response than these potatoes that we made for our Fakesgiving test-run of recipes. We heard from countless -- countless! -- friends and family and Bitten Word readers who made these for Thanksgiving. And just about everyone has told us these are the best mashed potatoes they've ever made.
10. Maple Syrup Pie with Crème Fraîche
This delicious pie was the crowd favorite at our Fakesgiving meal this past year. We could eat it morning, noon and night.
... Plus 5 More of Our Faves.
1. Southern Cocktail Week
Remember when we tried seven different cocktails in one night? We almost do too!
2. Traditional Swedish Gravlax with Mustard Sauce.
We had so much fun tracking down this recipe from our friend Ingela's mother Paula. Her secret? There's no such thing as too much dill.
3. Kil't Greens with Bacon Jam
Make the greens if you must. But this is really all about that killer bacon jam. We ate it on biscuits, as a sandwich condiment, mixed in with scrambled eggs, mixed in with pimento cheese. Oh yeah, and on greens.
4. Iced Almond-Macadamia Milk Latte
We made this several times last summer to add in to iced coffee. It's wonderful.
5. Cauliflower "Rice"
This is probably the simplest recipe on this whole list. But it's one of our favorite "discoveries" of last year. We make it all the time now. In fact, we're probably making some tonight.
How about you? Do you have a favorite thing you cooked in 2014?
