A project that I'd like to begin on: being more deliberate about my cooking so that it takes less time in the evenings. I started a bit of that this month, but I'm going to make this a bigger focus in February. Two successes, particularly the second soup:

• Chicken Braised With Potatoes and Pine Nuts
• Chicken and Rice Soup with Lemon

I'm also still looking for hit recipes for when we have guests over. This months attempt was Grilled Ginger-Lime Chicken Thighs with Harissa; these won't unseat the reigning champs of Greek-Style Chicken Kebabs or Panko Chicken.

My biggest discovery was roasted zucchini. I made this a few more times - immediately, roasted a few days after that, roasted with broccoli and carrots, roasted with broccoli.

Overall I made 46 things in January.

January 1

Oatmeal (Breakfast)

Scrambled Eggs (Breakfast)

Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels

January 2

Sushi Rolls (Kid's Lunch)

They turned out just OK, and no one really ate them. Not sure if I did anything different, it felt like it just wasn't a thing this time. The sesame seeds last time may have made a bigger difference than I thought (I guess I did do that different, I forgot to add sesame seeds).

Sheet-Pan Chicken With Zucchini and Basil (Dinner)

This was great. Really easy, everyone liked it. I served it with rice on the side.

I doubled the recipe, but I might double the zucchini again. It seems like it'd also be good with a lot of different veggies, plenty of room to play around.

January 4

Chicken Soup with Ditalini (Dinner)

Made poached chicken: How to Poach Chicken from The Kitchn

Used the whole bag (1lb) of pasta, and crisped a bunch of kale before adding it to the soup.

January 7

Panko Fried Chicken with Lemon (Dinner)

Zucchini (Side)

Roasted like in Sheet Pan Chicken with Zucchini and Basil, which I just made a few days ago.

January 9

Panic Carrots (Side)

Pasta and Pesto (Dinner)

Some great pasta (bucatini), pesto and pangrattato from Mill Valley Pasta Co.

January 10

Hard Shell Tacos (Dinner)

Mashed Potatoes (Side)

I originally wrote "standard" to describe this, but it doesn't seem I've made this in literally years. I'm not sure where I got this recipe, but it's quite simple:

• boil potatoes and garlic (separately) for 15 minutes, until the garlic has lost it's "fang" (?) and the potatoes are tender.
• mash those together with a lot of garlic and butter. Add more butter, you haven't added enough.

Some herbs would make this nicer but I didn't have any at hand.

Oatmeal (Breakfast)

Added a bit less water and kept the heat higher (just a hint below medium), I think it was better (my oatmeal's been coming out watery).

January 11

Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe (Dinner)

Zucchini (Side)

Roasted

January 12

Crispy Tofu with Cashews and Blistered Snap Peas (Dinner)

Dry Sauteed String Beans (Side)

January 14

Roasted Vegetables (Side)

Broccoli, zucchini, and carrots. The carrots took longer, I might put them in early (or leave them out entirely). Otherwise mixing these up was good! Nice contrast between the zucchini (softer) and broccoli (got crunchy).

Oven-Baked Ribs (Dinner)

January 15

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (Dinner)

Instead of stuffing all the stuffing into the mushrooms, I put the extra into oiled ramekins. These were great, maybe better than the mushrooms.

Maybe next time invert the recipe, and put cut (maybe cooked?) mushrooms into the topping mix in ramekins like this time?

Green Salad (Side)

Not enough flavor in the dressing.

January 16

Dad's Pancakes (Breakfast)

From Huckleberry, these are great! A nice change from the pancakes I've been making.

Pasta and Pesto (Dinner)

Casarecce (gluten-free, not my choice, but it was actually kind of nice and almost fluffy?) and arugula pesto from Mill Valley Pasta Co.

Sauteed Baby Bok Choy (Side)

This continues to deviate further from the recipe - this time, cut more like ribbons, turned out OK but I would have liked a bit more texture. Maybe with more heat?

January 17

Christmas sugar cookies, roll-out dough with simple glaze icing

I used this (again) as an activity for the kids with a friend over. Kept everyone occupied for a good while.

Grilled Ginger-Lime Chicken Thighs with Harissa (Dinner)

From Simply Zov, pg 228.

These were great, Harissa is probably the dominant flavor but I like Harissa so that was fine with me. I like the technique of grilling to get flavor and then finishing in the oven, it was pretty easy with good results.

This was probably the spiciest thing my kids have ever eaten, they're usually wusses. I took the skins off for them to reduce the heat a bit, and served this with rice and bread and olive oil. I told my kids to use the rice, bread & olive oil to manage the heat (if it's spicy, take a bit of something else) and they were pretty excited about that and ate a ton of food.

Overall a success. I was hoping for something as good as the Greek-Style Chicken (also from Zov's) which has become a staple of ours; I don't think this will get into the rotation as much as that has but I'll make it again.

Green Salad (Side)

January 18

Sauteed Cabbage (Side)

January 20

Baked Tofu With Peanut Sauce and Coconut-Lime Rice (Dinner)

A total flop! Not sure if I didn't do it right, but I think the flavors just weren't to my liking. Or anyone else's. Maybe it was the fish sauce in the peanut sauce, or it might have been something else - regardless, it wasn't good. The oven-baked tofu looked great but was just OK; maybe with a better sauce?

January 21

Corn (Side)

I tried grilling the corn (without its husk); it didn't cook long enough, and also the corn (from a flat pack, out of season) was pretty disappointing. I'd try it again with better corn.

Hamburgers (Dinner)

It's been a long time since I've made these! Just really simple, salt and pepper in the meat. Pretty good. I ran out of buns and bought some sweet Hawaiian rolls instead of way too many hamburger buns, and I'd do that again - better than buying too many hamburger buns and letting them go to waste. We just had dinner rolls the rest of the week.

January 23

Chicken Braised With Potatoes and Pine Nuts

This finished too late for dinner, so I scrambled for leftovers (some takeout from lunch and burgers from night-before-last).

But, I tasted this as it finished, and it was really great! Really nice broth. I'm hoping this lasts Monday & Tuesday nights. I didn't use fingerling potatoes, so my chunks of potatoes took a while longer to cook - once I realized that I took out the chicken, and let the potatoes go, but I didn't even wait long enough! Pay more attention next time, I guess.

Update: yes, this did last, and it was well-received! I reheated the chicken in the oven and the liquid on the stovetop. An excellent make-ahead meal.

Beans

Rancho Gordo Ayocote Negro. I cooked these with carrots, celery, garlic, and an onion.

It was mentioned that this would cook a bit longer than normal, and oh boy did it. My beans have mostly been taking 2 hours, and these took a solid 3.5, maybe a bit more. Kept me up a bit later on a Sunday night!

They turned out great, though. Had a bowl immediately.

January 24

Bagels with Cream Cheese (Kid's Lunch)

Quesadillas (Kid's Lunch)

January 25

Drunken Beans (Lunch)

Made with the Rancho Gordo Ayocote Negro (the full pound of beans with their cooking liquid), a full pound of bacon, and the recipe otherwise doubled. Turned out great.

Beans

Garbanzo beans prepared in the usual style for tomorrow night's pasta dish.

Green Salad (Side)

January 28

Fried Tagliatelle With Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes (Dinner)

Kids liked it, my wife didn't. Not too hard; I made beans the regular way and prepared the smoky tomatoes a couple of nights before, then assembled it.

I was surprised by how good this was the next day, microwaved - it was better than expected, but my expectations were low. It's better the night of.

Roasted Vegetables (Side)

Brocolli and zucchini roasted together. Turned out great!

January 30

Chicken and Rice Soup with Lemon

From Simply Zov, page 137.

Made this for the next few days, I'm hoping at least 2 if not 3.

Update day 2 (1/31): we ate 1.5 Weck jars of soup, with the butternut squash and some French bread. Still plenty left.

Update day 3 (2/1): we ate another 2 Weck jars of soup.

After that, there were 2 Weck jars left, and I used those for lunch on 2/2 and 2/3.

Pasta and Pesto (Dinner)

From MV Pasta Co

Quesadillas (Lunch)

Look at those cheese strings!

January 31

Roasted Squash (Side)

Butternut Squash

Bagels with Cream Cheese (Kid's Lunch)

Salami + Provolone Sandwich (Kid's Lunch)