The Best of 2013: Winter to Spring

2013 Roundup: January, February, March

I can't believe I never posted a recipe in 2013, but I did a lot of cooking and here's what I would cook again broken into the four seasons of the year.

January
This New Year's Day I diverged from the normal ham-rich collards and black eyed peas and instead made the Goan black-eyed peas from Ruta Kahate's 5 Spices, 50 Dishes, adding q bunch chopped collards and doubling the spices.

I had leftover peas, so I made the hot and cheesy Zannie's black eyed pea dip from the Pioneer Woman, which was delicious but a bit muddy to look at.

Serious Eats' shrimp scampi with artichokes is a quick and delicious pasta option for weeknight dinner or anytime you want dinner on the table in ~20 minutes.

The dandelion and pumpkin seed pesto from the Kitchn was a perfect use for my farm box dandelion greens.

Turkey keema needs to be on regular rotation -- so easy with ground turkey, and a complete meal with the addition of some brown basmati rice.

The napa cabbage salad with buttermilk dressing from Smitten Kitchen was so good I made it over and over again, and enjoyed it with fennel, too.

"Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup" with saffron yogurt from 101 Cookbooks -- yes, please.

The Spanish chorizo, prawn and clam stew from the SF Chronicle Cookbook, Vol. II is reason enough to keep this book on my shelf.

America's Test Kitchen's oven fries were a hit, and so easy to make.

Cook's Illustrated Lightened Scallop Potatoes were delicious -- somewhere between a light gratin and the real thing, but with lots of flavor.

This is the year I rediscovered ricotta salata, and loved it especially grated on broccoli di cicco sauteed with garlic and chile and tossed with lemon juice

Dinner a Love Story always comes through with family favorites, and their stromboli was the perfect thing to take along to a friend's to enjoy with a football game -- just don't stretch the pizza dough too wide or the roll will split when baking -- and be sure to line your baking pan with foil for easier clean up.

February
Smitten Kitchen's Buttermilk Roast Chicken thighs were a huge hit -- need to make these again and again.

Button Mushrooms a la Creme: David Tanis writes an excellent weekly column in the New York Times called City Kitchen. I bookmark most of his recipes, and they're usually keepers. This one is so simple, I made it over and over all winter.

A colorful and delicious salad of radicchio, shredded carrot and blue cheese with a tangerine vinaigrette.

Cook's Illustrated's red beans and rice, as well as their country potato leek soup, to which I added a celery rib, diced, and a dash of cayenne pepper.

There were two notable recipes that I would not repeat, both from Smitten Kitchen which is unusual since I generally love her recipes: the sausage lentil soup was simply bland, but the tantalizing clementine cake was disappointing in every way: odd flavor, unpleasant texture and not terribly enticing to look at.

March
My farm box included spigariello and I sauteed it with a lot of garlic and finished it with Meyer lemon juice -- so good I hope we get more in 2014.

We also got puntarelle a few times, the vegetable requires a fair amount of prep but is absolutely delicious with a lemon garlic anchovy vinaigrette, or sauteed with fish sauce and finished with lime juice.

I got better about prepping lunch items in 2013, and this miso lime vinaigrette was a winner on roasted vegetables.

Smitten Kitchen's egg salad with pickled celery is so good that I now maintain a jar of pickled celery in the fridge at all times.

This SW Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing is irresistible -- and the dressing itself is a condiment worth keeping around for easy, delicious lunches.