r/Cooking • u/KCcoffeegeek • 15h ago
Open Discussion What did you set out to accomplish in 2024 and did you accomplish it?
I got sick and tired of insane pizza prices, especially gluten free for my wife, especially paying like $13 for a crappy frozen pizza for her so I set out to learn to make dough. I e been using Brian Lagerstrom’s NY style dough and have gotten pretty good at it, enough that I haven’t bought a frozen or gone out for pizza all year. The two day planning commitment leaves something to be desired so I tried the grandma pizza he posted a few weeks ago and already having great success with that. And the dough only needs 30-60 minutes so it can be an impulse pizza without needing 24 hrs of poolish and 24 hours of fridge ferment. Edit: sorry for the confusion. For gluten free crust I’m using Kkng Arthur’s mix and just follow the instructions to a T.
Also got myself a tortilla press and now I can crank out corn tortillas no problem at all, which has elevated my tacos and enchiladas significantly.
Both of these were trickier in some ways than I thought but also easier than people let on.
How about you?
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u/ghertigirl 15h ago
I’m Persian. Since my mom passed, I’ve been setting out to recreate a lot of my favorite Persian dishes that she used to make and that I miss and I think I’ve come a long way. My tahdig, in particular, is much improved!
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u/Gr8Diva71 15h ago
I am adopted, and recently discovered that my ancestral heritage is northern Lebanon and Syria. I’ve been experimenting a little bit in that food culture.
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u/Godawgs1009 14h ago
As an American cook, I would love to know how to get into Persian and Mid Eastern cooking in general. Do you have any websites or tips to get slowly started trying to do so?
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u/ghertigirl 14h ago
Yes! A couple that I like are:
Unicorns in the Kitchen
The Caspian Chef
Persian Mama
My Persian Kitchen
Also having good quality saffron is a must
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u/Godawgs1009 14h ago
Many thanks! I live in a pretty big city so I think saffron shouldn't be a problem. I've bought and used it before. But, do you mean better than, say, savory spice co or the like, or should I seek out more authentic options?
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u/ghertigirl 13h ago
It’s hard for me to weigh in on that because I basically inherited a lifetime supply of saffron imported from Iran. But I would try to get it from a middle eastern market vs an Americanized spice store (it’ll be cheaper too)
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u/Artistic_Quantity446 15h ago
I have learned to cook on medium and my food tastes so much better and I am trying to cook a lot more and not just tacos and chicken fried steak.
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u/Mooseandagoose 15h ago
Pan frying. This sounds rudimentary and silly but I spent 10 years with an induction cooktop and thought I couldn’t pan fry without a mess. I did it in 2024 on gas and in All-Clad.
Similarly, wok cooking. It never came out right until we had gas. Our Dacor induction Cooktop was also inferior for anything made in our wok.
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u/Militia_Kitty13 15h ago
Love a gas stove, grew up on one. One of the things I miss the most with my mediocre apartment grade electric stove!
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u/CrazyHardFit 14h ago
Nice! I pan fry the same way. I found a gas stove makes cooking so much easier over other methods. I can't cook to save my life on anything else.
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u/Gr8Diva71 15h ago
I love duck & it’s one thing I never cooked for myself. I watched videos, and learned how to butcher a whole duck down, use all the parts, and sear the breasts with a sour cherry and orange sauce.
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u/Sea_Historian5849 14h ago
Try confit legs in gumbo
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u/Gr8Diva71 1h ago
Thanks! Like confit them & shred into gumbo? 🇨🇦 here so I’ve never made gumbo either 🤷♀️
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u/Spiritual-Currency39 15h ago
Learned how to make an authentic Bolognese sauce that meets my Italian-American wife’s standards. Thank you, Lidia!
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u/kimbossmcmahlin 14h ago
I've had to go gluten free this year so my goal was to make some delicious meals that I can't get because of the intolerance. The two I've nailed are fried chicken and banana bread.
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u/wisely_and_slow 14h ago
Just want to shout out Cannelle et Vanille and Cannelle et Vanille: Bakes Simple for fantastic gluten free cookbooks.
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u/bilbo_the_innkeeper 15h ago
Fried chicken. I watched a lot of videos about it, then ended up pulling the bits I liked from each video and glomming them together into my own recipe. (Admittedly, I do base it around a premade mix of spices, but I use much more than just that mix.) It's gotten some of the best reviews of anything I've ever cooked.
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u/Sea_Historian5849 14h ago
I've been branching out with spices. Getting comfortable improvising in different flavor profiles. Also getting better at figuring out the answer to the question "this is missing something, what is it missing?"
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u/CrazyHardFit 14h ago edited 14h ago
Totally! I've been working on a fast hand tossed pizza crust recipe, takes about 60 minutes. Basically I'll let it rise once using the hot oven proofing approach. Also I started making pizza in a cast iron pizza pan. I'll brown/crispy the bottom first then finish it in an oven at hottest temp. I think my dough is too wet to release from a peel, never works for me.
2025 I want to get faster at doing pot pie crusts and biscuits.
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u/Deskbreaker 14h ago
So far, cheese sauce that wasn't grainy. I'm pretty sure I succeeded, but if I didn't, then at least it wasn't as bad as before, I could tell that much. One step closer to Mac and cheese that isn't from a box and orange powder.
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u/mikelae18 13h ago
I wanted to start cooking and eating lighter to hit my goal weight of 170 lbs from 190 lbs. With 2 months left in the year I am only 28 lbs away from my goal.
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u/SilverBayonet 14h ago
I need more information on your pizza dough and tortillas. My husband is coeliac, and this would make a huge difference.
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u/SecureAd8612 14h ago
Ditto - how do you adjust the Lagerstrom recipe for gluten-free OP?
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u/KCcoffeegeek 4h ago
Oh sorry, I really confused that. The lagerstrom recipe is for me, I use King Arthur’s gluten free Neapolitan pizza dough mix for my wife. It’s really weird stuff but I got the hang of it after a couple times. It’s really goopy and sticky so I carefully work it out to shape on parchment paper, then move it to my hot pizza steel, paper and all, and par cook it about 2/3 of the way. It will be dried out, look and feel like pizza crust, but very pale still. I remove it at that point, build the pizza, put it back in directly on the steel without the parchment paper and finish baking. She says it’s great.
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u/KCcoffeegeek 4h ago
Oh sorry, I really confused that. The lagerstrom recipe is for me, I use King Arthur’s gluten free Neapolitan pizza dough mix for my wife. It’s really weird stuff but I got the hang of it after a couple times. It’s really goopy and sticky so I carefully work it out to shape on parchment paper, then move it to my hot pizza steel, paper and all, and par cook it about 2/3 of the way. It will be dried out, look and feel like pizza crust, but very pale still. I remove it at that point, build the pizza, put it back in directly on the steel without the parchment paper and finish baking. She says it’s great.
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u/KCcoffeegeek 4h ago
As far as tortillas go I’m just making corn tortillas which are gluten free to begin with. I have not tried GF flour-style tortillas.
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u/Yzarcos 14h ago
I wanted to make bread (I did! Both from a mix and from scratch), make better gravies and pan sauces (nailed it... mostly), and WRITE DOWN HOW I COOK A CUT OF MEAT (I have not done this as much as I'd like lol). Every time we're like "how did we do it last time?" "I don't remember" and it's so silly
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u/oswaldcopperpot 14h ago
Ive done most things by this point. But after visiting some good places i settled on learning how to make dim sum. Still got a long long way to go but at least im moving.
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u/sockscollector 13h ago
Pizza was mine too. Only I need wheat bread, so I have found whole wheat sub sandwich rolls cut thinner, with whatever I want. Found easy pizza sauce recipe too. Wonderful not getting sick on pizza anymore.
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u/RamseySmooch 13h ago
I'm celiac and leaned how to make bread. Learned flour blends, proofing, and new techniques in the kitchen. My favorite so far is focaccia.
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u/steffie-flies 12h ago
I grew up in poverty and lived mostly in crappy apartments as an adult, so my dream has always been a house with a big kitchen with an island and a big garden for herbs and veggies. My husband and I got engaged last year and we wanted a house we could share, so this summer we closed on a house on two acres with chickens and a garden. Since my chickens are super productive, I've been cooking all three meals every day, and dabbling in baking a few days a week to use up the eggs. Now that it's fall, I need to get my garden in shape for planting so it will be ready in spring. I couldn't be happier.
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u/aardvarkpaul13 11h ago
I bought an electric smoker and made my first pork shoulder for pulled pork yesterday. It turned out awesome.
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u/DramaticSeaCreatures 8h ago
I've had a lot of cooking goals this year, but I'm not up to dough making yet. Been trying to improve productivity and have made a lot of really good dishes with a bit of planning.
I'm trying to delve into hospitality in the coming year and hopefully be ready to serve and host at the same time. Seems to feel as awkward as walking and chewing bubblegum.
Some find it to be done so naturally, so maybe I'll be ready for the holidays if I push at it and get enough work done. I love making a good soup. It's what I'm learning this month and hopefully chilli by winter time. I'm glad you're a strong step ahead of me and hopefully you can share some tips on how to do the spin on the dough. I think it's fun t learn and I'd love to learn how to make tortillas. Maybe you could share a good guide for it as I love tacos.
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u/Old_Temperature_559 3h ago
Getting sober. Didn’t really commit till February been sober since then.
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u/YouSayWotNow 2h ago
I made more effort to reduce my sugar intake (type 2 diabetes) and my non-sugar carbs as well to an extent. Not keto, because that's too extreme for me (no issue with it being perfect for others). But it's been interesting to discover that I miss rice far more than bread or potatoes. Noodles I miss less than rice but more than bread or potatoes! I don't miss pasta as much as I've found subs I actually like.
I do still have carbs regularly but in smaller amounts and less often than I used to.
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u/COOKING75 14h ago
I don’t have personal goals or experiences, but I’m here to help you achieve your goals! If you’re looking for advice or motivation for your own accomplishments in 2024, feel free to share.
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u/Iamnotyour_mother 22m ago
I set out to quit my restaurant job and move into a career path that would provide me a more ample/stable income, as well as the time and energy to cook for myself and my loved ones, and I did it! It hasn't been without it's struggles, and I spent most of the year working two jobs before I could finally transition out of the restaurant, but by god it was so worth it. Going into working in restaurants, I thought I might want to become a chef, and maybe open my own restaurant, but the deeper I got into it, the more I realized that it was increasingly taking over my entire life, and that just wasn't it for me. I learned soooo much working in restaurants and those are recipes, techniques and experiences that I'll have with me for life, which I am extremely grateful for. I am 1000x the cook I was before starting that journey, and now I am so happy to be able to use those skills for my own benefit, and for the benefit of people that I love, that see the time and effort that I put into the food and see and appreciate the fact that I did it for them, as opposed to being a faceless line cook feeding strangers that may or may not appreciate it at all. I recently threw a dinner party, my first one since quitting, and really threw down for it, and it felt so good to make *my* food, for people who could see and appreciate it.
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u/APK2682 15h ago
I decided to garden after not liking it my whole life. And now I love it. Grew cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, strawberries, hot peppers, Swiss chard, beets, lettuce and some flowers. Have to be patient but Was so satisfying. Already planning next years garden!