As a lover of cooking and food and a language arts teacher, I have an obsession with cookbooks and food magazines. I subscribe to several, but my favorite is probably Bon Appétit. I look forward to my issue arriving in my mailbox every month, sitting on my couch and looking at all of the delicious looking and cool, kind of trendy recipes, folding over the pages of each dish I’d like to make and…tossing it on my coffee table only to stuff it in a drawer a month later.

At the end of 2019 I realized that I almost NEVER make any of the dishes I see in any of my monthly subscriptions, and I couldn’t think of a single reason why. So I didn’t “technically” set any new years resolutions for 2020. I always fail at resolutions anyway and it always bums me out. And usually, I set a resolution for something I really don’t want to do. Like at all. I don’t want to train for a half marathon, or devote myself to never letting a load of laundry sit in the basement for a week or swear to stop eating sugar. So this year, instead of focusing on something that I “cant” “shouldn’t” or “don’t want to” do, I decided to do something that I really, really do want to do. I want to cook more. I always want to cook more. Cooking and reading are two of my favorite hobbies and its like my perfect storm when they come together. So for 2020, I have decided that I am going to make at least one recipe from Bon Appétit every month. I definitely cook more than once a month, but it’s pretty much always my old weeknight “stand bys” that I make for myself. I rarely get the chance to indulge in a bit of a project recipe, outside of a special occasion, but this year I am going to make the cooking itself the special occasion.

As I was thinking about some of my favorite moments of 2019, I realized how much I loved the final season of Game of Thrones. Yes, I liked the show, yes I thought the endings of several of the storylines were stupid or left unfinished, but most of all, I liked how for about six weeks in a row, one of my brothers would come over on a Sunday night, I’d cook a pretty fabulous dinner, and we’d watch that week’s episode. This little ritual made regular old Sundays feel fun and special and a little sentimental. And those simple Sunday nights when I luxuriated in having nothing to do but slow roast tomatoes for three hours or make homemade pizza crust were some of the happiest of my year. I hope to recreate that feeling this year, once a month with Bon Appétit- and I’m off to a decent start!

Two weekends ago, I cracked open my January issue of Bon Appétit, and had my parents and little brother over for Alison Roman’s Brisket, Claire Saffitz’s Winter Crunch Salad and a big, huge chocolate coconut pie (not from Bon Appétit, from Sister Pie- an amazing cookbook by an amazing bakery right here in Detroit). It was magical. I braised the brisket for four hours while I made chocolate ganache for the top of my pie and listened to Taylor Swift. My house smelled amazing, my family came over, had a few cocktails and gushed the appropriate amount about how delicious the meal was. Afterwords, we even got my mom to dance a little to Simon and Garfunkel in my living room and caught it on snapchat to share with the sibs who weren’t there.

So one month down, and eleven to go. I’m very excited and I’m already looking forward to February- I plan to have my little sister over this time, and I can’t wait to share it all here (hopefully it keeps me on track!)

Wish me luck in my delicious endeavor!