I just keep adding to my to try file and when the mood hits to try something new I go thru and choose whatever looks good at the time.

Linda

I still have one evening a week set aside solely for trying new things out. I go through the pile of recipes over the weekend, and decide which one jumps out at me the most. This week (tonight), I am going to do Sue's Spanikopita! Hurray! I know it's "basic" Greek, but I wanted to compare apples to apples. I'm excited! Just setting aside the time ahead of time gives me the gumption to go out and get the ingredients, and then gear up in my mind. So much so I have, unintentionally, ended up with one night and one afternoon a week I try new recipes. Make it fun! Afterall, it is cooking :)

I'm also working my way through Sue's Greek recipes and I have a long list of soup recipes to try including an African Peanut Soup recipe - but not Carla's from Top Chef. I think there will be a new ham and broccoli quiche in the near future as well.

Teresa

Not really new recipes as much as types of food. I plan on making gnocchi soon and have been gathering recipes and techniques.

I don't have a plan but I have a plan for a plan.

I have so darn many recipes saved I just have to weed through them. I really do have to either make them or loose them!

Then there are my cooking magazines.....oy! What am I doing with them if I don't do anything with them!

Then there are Sue's recipes and all those d@mn blogs I keep falling into!

Choice was so much easier before the internet!

While I don't have a specific recipe to try, I'm gonna do some experimenting:

I'm getting a new stove with a rotisserie in it; it's big enough to do two chickens (actually, two turkeys, for that matter) at once. That will allow me to do some experiments while cooking two nearly identical birds at the same time: what difference does brining make? Draping strips of blanched bacon over the breast, which Julia recommended for spit roasting? Tucking fat of some sort under the breast skin?

Got my Thermapen all ready. Can't wait for the contractor to install the stuff.

And before the winter leaves, I'm gonna try my hand at either an Italian bollito misto or a French Pot au Feu, or both.

And if I can find a rooster, I'll do real coq au vin; if not, I'll try to find a guinea fowl to cook that way. (I read that you can use the legs and thighs of a free range turkey and it comes out similar to an authentic coq au vin.)

As a matter of fact, I do have a list. It's surprising that I have recipes for most of them because I tend not to collect recipes and is surprising it has so many baked goods on it because I'm not much of a baker.

Prune Stuffed Pork Roast
Bibimbap
Summer Torte
Pastel de Tres Leches
Ranger Cookies
Spaghetti All'Ubriaco
Salmon and Cucumber Salad
Corn Pudding
Ricotta Pie
Paella
Cheese Crackers
Quick Yeast Rolls

Jim

I probably cook several new recipes each week, just to break the monotony even though it's only 2 of us. I get tired of eating the same stuff over and over. I earmark recipes from people here on the forum and cooking magazines and Tastespotting and newspapers and cookbooks "new" to me.

That said, I want to wade into the waters of bread making. I'm not a baker. My Christmas cookies were a fiasco and I'll never bake cookies again. I'm not a big fan of cookies/sweets and what an expensive and time consuming pain in the rear those were! My heart and my palate really weren't in it.

But bread - oh my.

There's a lot to baking for someone who doesn't work with flour and sugar and leavening agents and yeast....many unfamiliar variables. Grainlady recommended a couple of books I intend to look for at my library the next time I get up there.

seagrass

Interesting when someone else states the same way you feel. I agree a bunch with Chase and seagrass I'm with you on the cookie baking...a lot of expense and only one recipe out of about 5 that I would consider doing again. I don't have a list, just stacks I have copied and cooking magazines. Then when y'all post those mouthwatering pictures...here I go again.

jude

I copied and pasted so many tempting recipes from this forum and blogs into my Google Docs recipe folder, that I don't have a list. I have a book! I hate getting in a rut so I am always looking for new recipes.

A quick tip: take a digital picture of recipes in magazines and cookbooks rather than copying. It's fast and often includes a picture of the dish.

Jim, let me know how the bibimbap turns out.

Short term list, yes. I'm gearing up for the Super Bowl and have a list of appetizers I'm DYING to try. My friends are gonna be soooooooooo impressed! LOL

Not all new recipes, but new things I want to learn and/or eat more of.

- More steamed and broiled fish.
- More vegetables, of all sorts.
- Baking bread.
- Here's a specific dish: Sizzling Rice Soup, like I used to have in restaurants before the dish, seemingly, disappeared.
- More dim sum. In particular, I want to get better at pleating (can't be worse) and dumplings.
- More duck. My dad is really good at duck.
- Sushi and sashimi. I need to find a good local fish source.
- More and better sauces.

I'd like to take some cooking classes too.
- Some sort of Carribean or South American cuisine, haven't picked it yet.
-

John,

For Caribbean cuisine, consider Cuban. It is a well developed cuisine and Cuban chefs are highly regarded throughout the region. My own limited experience confirms that it is very good.

Jim

Not a list--I have a three ring binder of 'to be tried' recipes. The ones that I realllly want to try soon get stashed in a pocket at the front of the binder. But what usually happens when I'm pondering 'what's for dinner' is that I wander in here & find something 'today' that I then make for that night's dinner.

That said, I did go to the binder the other day & tried a German Chocolate Pie recipe. It was good but wasn't what I was looking for. (Trying to replicate a German Chocolate Pie that I used to get at a restaurant in Oklahoma City, year ago.)

This past year, I've been attempting to try a new recipe each week that I have found online. Usually on another blog.

I've found some real winners.

It is my intention to continue doing that.

Ann

For about the last dozen years, instead of New Year's resolutions, I pick a couple of areas where I'd like to improve my skill level and knowledge. One is always food related. For 2010, it was steamed puddings and although I made quite a few and got the technique down pat, I was only lukewarm about their textures and it wasn't as interesting as other years. This year, it's going to be combining fruit with meat, poultry and seafood. I've been heading in that direction lately and want to try more. I suspect I may even be traveling back to Elizabethan times or other eras and countries.

I also pick one cookbook from which I'd like to try a bunch of its recipes that year. My 2011 selection is Everyday Food's Fresh Flavor Fast. By the end of the year, I probably will have made 10 to 20 recipes from that book. The recipes are very simple but some contain ingredients I rarely use and would like to eat more often.

Like others, I have a stack that high (and growing) of "to try" recipes. I currently have a stack of about five or six sitting by my grocery list. I intend to make all of those over the next few weeks, then replenish the pile. I keep the ones that turn out good in a binder in sheet protector sleeves to make again and I throw away the ones I didn't like, simoultaneously deleting them from my computer.

The only one I can remember off the top of my head from that short stack is a chedder cheese studded meatloaf which sounds quite good. Oh! and a Greek dish where you cook the tomatoes and onions and garlic and spices, then add 5 cups of broth and then the pasta. The pasta and sauce all cook together. I can't remember what it's called but I'm looking forward to trying that.

I also do want to make spanikopita, watching Sue's video made it look fairly simple. But I have to make sure there will be lots of people around who will want to eat it (think party) so that I don't gobble up the whole thing myself!

CdL, As you know from our phone conversation, I am doing a major clean out and organization of paper documents. While working on this project today, I can across a very old file of "to try" recipes. The file had yellowed newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, and hand written recipes from family and friends. I went through the file and was excited to see that most were recipes that I would try.

I'll share at a later date, but right now the priority is on the overwhelming piles of shred, file, scan, or trash. It's possible that cooking may not resume for a week!

Yeah, all the ones I haven't tried yet (I'm thinking they won't all happen in 2011...).

I have a ream of paper in the corner of my kitchen with printed recipes "to try". Then I come home and throw together some meat, veggies, starch for dinner. Sometimes on the weekend I'll try something new. I'm very disorganized about it, obviously!!

Johnliu: If you can get off work early enough before our Portland get together, check out H-Mart in Tigard! Awesome Korean grocery (huge) with lots of fresh sushi grade fish!
Fair warning: You could easily spend an hour or more in there!

Since I'm still abiding by Weight Watchers and maintaining my weight, any Mediteranian type dishes are appealing.
Low fat, low carb, high protein and lots of veggies. Yum.

Deanna