Of course I keep a spreadsheet of all the new recipes I’ve made this year. Oh, back-up - I record them in my planner first. Well, actually I make the menu for the week first, which then goes into the planner and from there into the archival spreadsheet. You get the picture.

I’ve logged 265 new recipes for the year thus far. I’m not surprised, but I am also a little surprised - I know I cook a lot, but have I really done that much? Time flies when you’re having fun!

At this point, my goal is to get to 300 before the year wraps up. May as well, right?

But to best move forward, we must keep an eye on the past. I had some friends choose numbers between 1-265, so here are the recipes logged at those numbers!

Wow, a perfect number for a perfect meal. The third thing I made in 2025 was pink cavatelli in a roasted garlic & tomato sauce out of Meryl Feinstein’s lovely Pasta Every Day. Cavatelli is my favorite pasta to make (so far), and making it pink for the first time was a fun gambit. One of the few repeats this year.

Another Milk Street banger. These soy sauce eggs were made without much thought, just to serve as an additional topping for our homemade miso ramen. They ended up carrying the whole dish with vivid flavors of soy sauce and star anise all wrapped up in a soft, creamy texture. Marinated eggs will always have a home in my fridge.

These part of an Ethiopian meal that included a traditional chicken stew, doro wat. The ginger in the greens was heavy - I would happily make these again but would back off the ginger a bit. We love ginger, but it seems even we have our limits. Otherwise, it was a nice change of pace for collard greens!

I definitely made a less-than-authentic cacio e pepe prior to trying this version from Milk Street, but this method of using only the original ingredients of cheese, pepper, and pasta water is certainly the most worthwhile way to make it. I put this on the menu because I had store-bought (gasp) macaroni I needed to use, and what resulted was a decadent, grown-up version of mac ‘n’ cheese. Excellent opportunity to fall in love with good peppercorns!

Whoops, totally incorrectly included this pic in the Scandinavian From Scratch edition - this Swedish cardamom bun is actually a Milk Street recipe. In my defense, I noted in the archive that they were very reminiscent of Accettola’s cinnamon knots! Swedish pearl sugar has come in handy a few times now.

31: key lime pound cake
☁️B☁️

Unfortunately, this was such a disappointment that I didn’t even remember to take a picture! I needed to provide a treat for a coworker’s birthday and knew she likes key lime, so I picked this recipe at random from the New York Times. It was only fine; I think I’ve just made such potent key lime treats in the past that this one simply didn’t have enough punch for my taste.