It’s Friday. Finally. This week was long for me. I’m not really sure why. But at least now I can look forward to the weekend ahead and spending some time in the kitchen. Over the last week I’ve taken some organizing and planning steps to help me stay more on track with the blog and cooking/baking. Now it’s time to put them into practice!

So, in order to start things off, I’ve decided to make a few Ina Garten recipes. I was slightly behind my personal goal of getting 25 recipes done by the end of 2020. I currently stand at having completed 22. A 3-recipe difference isn’t too big a deal for me and I feel I should be able to catch up quickly, especially since I have some days off from work coming up and I plan to spend most of them in the kitchen. Also, I currently do not have a goal set for 2021. All in good time.

Anyway…

This week on the blog I started adding pages that will eventually become the Master Recipe Index. The goal is to eventually link the recipes I make and review on the proper page so that you can see what I thought of the recipe, what worked or didn’t work, etc. I hope it’s useful for you. Or at least fun! It will be come time before I have all the recipes listed and linked, but I hope to get it done over the next couple weeks.

Weekend Cooking/Baking Plans

I decided to be a little ambitious with the cooking plans for this weekend. I will be making a full meal with dessert! (Is is definitely going to help me bridge my 3-recipe gap!) I think that you will like what I am planning to cook and you may even find it a bit overwhelming. It will definitely be overwhelming for my waller! We’ll see how it goes!

I’ve noticed that I’ve kind of been neglecting the appetizer or starters sections of the cookbooks, so I am hoping to have a recipe from there soon!

But for now, here is the recipe line-up for this weekend:

• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas (Modern Comfort Food) will be the main dish.
• Confetti Corn (Back to Basics) will be the vegetable (see the Mexican-inspired theme?)

There will be no starch or carb since the chicken dish is quite rich and also has tortillas.

But I didn’t forget about dessert…

Pumpkin Mousse Parfait (At Home) which means I have to also make Ultimate Ginger Cookies (At Home) since they are an ingredient in the parfait recipe. I may modify the Parfait recipe a bit and omit the rum, I’m going to try using just plain water instead. I also may serve the Parfait as more of a trifle as opposed to individual portions. Stay tuned!

I really like the menu and think it will be very satisfying for me and my family. Plus, most of the recipes comes from a different book, which helps me spread out the recipes more evenly. I’m not a fan of just cooking from one book at one time. That’s part of the reason why I chose not to just focus on a single cookbook all at once.

Now, I’m off to getting my very long (and probably expensive!) grocery list in order. I’m feeling a tad overwhelmed, but I’ve always wanted to spend a day in the kitchen. But, by the end of today, I’m sure I’ll think otherwise.

Happy Cooking!