I’m not gonna lie to y’all - I am in the depths of mental recovery from my Thanksgiving kitchen marathon and from hosting our cookbook club’s chili cook-off (all the chilis were so good, we couldn’t select a single winner!) this weekend. That being the case, why don’t we reflect on the archive a bit more?

I once again bugged my friends (yes, Jordan, THIS AGAIN) to select numbers between 1-283, so here are the dishes logged at those selected numbers!

I was intrigued by this Milk Street recipe of tahini-roasted sweet potatoes, but I am generally unable to get sweet potato wedges to be perfectly crispy. I attempted this recipe twice and came up lacking both times. If I were to put on my troubleshooting cap, I would say it’s because 1) the wedges were too thick and/or 2) I should have split them between two baking sheets to ensure proper crisping. Technical execution aside, these warranted a B rating because the tahini levels in this perhaps ran up against our tahini threshold. If you really love sesame, these may be the taters for you!

Wali ya mboga is Swahili for “rice and vegetables," and this particular recipe is an East African and Indian mash-up reflecting author Zaynab Issa’s (Third Culture Cooking) culture. It’s pretty similar to a biryani and was as delicious as any I’ve come across. The acidic kachumber salad and salty, tangy yogurt served alongside created a wholly satisfying dish. We enjoyed this for lunch for a few blessed days!

I’ve tried many a pickled red onion recipe at this point, but this one out of Arabiyya by Reem Assil may by my go-to from now on. I worried that two full pint jars of these quick-pickled red onions would languish in the fridge for too long, but that was not at all the case since so many meals are improved by a sharp bite. They totally elevated the pictured shawarma mexiciyya, also from Arabiyya, to S-tier territory!

As I’ve been on this cooking journey, I’ve developed a hankering for dishes with contrasting textures. That’s why I was a bit nervous about enjoying koshari, Egypt’s national dish - there’s nary a crispy bite to be found in this pilaf of green Puy lentils, basmati, macaroni, and chickpeas. There are, however, caramelized onions and a baharat-spiced tomato sauce that get splashed over the pilaf to reveal why this dish is a national street food treasure. Though it was lacking texturally, it was tasty enough that we didn’t really notice!

These delightful little buns were so remarkable that they were the tentative dessert for our Thanksgiving until Arkansas possum pie with its pecan crust pulled ahead. Khaliat nahal translates to “beehive” in Arabic, appropriate considering the honey syrup that glazes the pillowy soft dough in its honeycomb arrangement. As if that isn’t enough, there’s also a bit of mascarpone tucked inside each bun. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing these again real soon…