A look back at Beyond Umami’s Food Resolutions for 2017 and into 2018!

Happy 2018 everyone! So I am a tad late on doing a re-cap and my post for Food Resolutions for 2018! So, let’s start with taking a look back at some of my blog posts from 2017. In 2017, I (with Dan’s help) started doing some videos. We don’t have much in terms of space in our kitchen (hello 1950’s house with the smallest kitchen!) nor do we have all the equipment but we made do with what we had. We learned so much and will likely do more videos. In the meantime if you haven’t seen either the Buckwheat Crepe or the Amazingly Crispy yet Gluten Free Waffle video recipe please go check out the recipe and the videos! I have hyperlinked all the recipes from the above pictures below as well. It is a good mix of recipes with an Instant Pot recipe, a cookbook review, the start of my neighbourhood gem posts and macarons of course!

1. Vitamix Blender Cream Pie (Gluten Free)
2. Gluten Free Buckwheat Crepe 
3. Amazingly Crispy Yet Gluten Free Rice Flour Waffles 
4. Neighbourhood Gems – ACME Meat Market and a Recipe for Reverse Seared Lamb Chop
5. Mochi Matcha Cake
6. Instant Pot Pressure Cooked Pulled Pork
7. Cosmic Macarons
8. Cookbook Review – Korean Food Made Simple
9. 5 Steps to Spatchcock Chicken with a Crispy Skin
   

I also started up Stanley the sourdough starter again in the latter half of 2017 – he is aptly name Stanley the Starter the III. I did manage to make my first loaf of sourdough with him under Dan’s careful instructions but haven’t been able to make a successful one since. I think I may have to start again with a new starter as it has not been good for bread but has been great for making sourdough cinnamon bus – like the ones in my blog post with the FEAST cookbook.

Again, Dan and I haven’t been able to even get into our French Laundry cookbook. It also makes it way harder when Dan and I aren’t even in the same city. So these next few months until August continues to be a different type of journey for both of us.

Lastly, Instant Pot Recipes. I have definitely played around more with my instant pot and even made an Instant Pot Pressure Cooked Risotto as my first post for 2018! Seriously, if you haven’t made this and have a pressure cooker or Instant Pot make this recipe!!! You may reconsider, like me, whether or not you want to stand in front of your stove stirring to make risotto.

I am looking forward to 2018 and hope that I can continue to work on my Food Resolutions. Mainly making a successful bread with my sourdough starter, more instant pot recipes, macarons and just blogging what I’ve tried in my kitchen to share with you all!

What a year 2016 has been! I went through my blog and pulled out the top 9 recipes from 2016! I’ve hyperlinked them all below so you can get to them easily.  

1. Earl Grey Macarons – My Earl Grey Macaron Recipe Take 2!
2. Strawberry Macarons
3. Gluten Free Cheese Soufflé
4. French Madeleines at Home
5. Dan’s Ramen Recipe – Version 8 – Yup, this is one of Dan’s real passions in life! 
6. Mushroom Arancini
7. Salted Caramel Macarons
8. Easy One Pot Fudgy Brownies
9. Peanut Butter Macarons 

Now, before we look at Food Resolutions for 2017 let’s look back at my Food Resolutions for 2016. One of my resolutions was to bake from the Duchess Cookbook. I feel I took a good shot at it (as my instagram pictures and a few blog posts will show you), though there is certainly more recipes to try out for 2017. Another one of my resolutions was to learn to bake bread. Though I did start to learn (we even had a starter named Stanley), much of my learning to bake bread had to take a back burner for the time being as I found out in the middle of 2016 that I actually have a gluten sensitivity. So, while I will still bake and create recipes with gluten in it (especially when trying new cookbook recipes) we have started to experiment more with gluten free flours and alternatives to flour in our cooking and baking. However, the good news is that macarons are most certainly gluten free (as they are made with almond flour), and as such I will continue to be creating, baking and blogging about macarons in 2017. 

Wow! It is already a week into 2016 and it feels like time is flying by already! Before it goes by any faster I wanted to share with you some Food Resolutions that I have made. So, what are Food Resolutions? To me, food resolutions are food goals but more particular because they are goals that encourage me to explore creating different types of food. Perhaps even food that I have dabbled in already but not fully! 


Here are my personal food resolutions:

• Learn how to bake bread: If you follow me on my other social media accounts such as twitter or instagram you may have noticed that Dan, my husband, has definitely excelled in that area. I have also contributed by buying him the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Tartine and most recently Tartine Book No. 3. However, I feel that it is now high time for me to learn how to do this myself! 
• Cook through the Duchess Bake Shop Cookbook. I am fully aware that this may take me more than a year, but I am excited to try my hand at baking every single recipe in their cookbook! I am also thinking that I will need to alternate through different category types (e.g. Cookies, Pies, Tarts etc..) rather than recipes sequentially in order to not be making just pies or tarts for weeks at a time. Although I am sure that will be tasty, some variety will be necessary! 
• Macarons: Don’t worry, I have not forgotten about macarons! I do hope to try creating more different types of macarons this year. If you have any suggestions on which flavours you would like to see up on the blog leave a comment below!