Favorite New Recipes of 2006

Finally, the long-mentioned "Favorite New Recipes of the Year" post arrives! These are all recipes which were new to us in 2006; this year's all came from other external sources (i.e. we didn't invent them), but they sure were good.

There was a definite theme to many of the new recipes we made this year: they included things we grew ourselves. Two out of the three recipes involve fresh, home-grown tomatoes. If you don't have your own tomatoes, grow some. If you can't do that, find a farmers' market in the summer and buy some from a local farmer. If you can't do that, don't bother to make these tomato recipes. They really need the full flavor and freshness of fresh, ripe tomatoes. And as everybody knows, you can't buy tomatoes from a grocery store. Sure, you can buy something that LOOKS like a tomato from the store, but that is where the similarities end.

#1: Linguine with Sweet 100 Tomatoes, Basil & Cream

Source: Gardeners' Community Cookbook

In retrospect, I wish I had taken photos of this dish. If I did, I'd be drooling while looking at them right now. Whenever we harvested our Golden Nugget tomatoes, we would make this dish. Since the tomatoes we had were of the slightly larger variety (see notes), we cut them in half before cooking. This dish is so simple, yet incredibly flavorful. It is truly amazing what fresh, in-season food can taste like!

Tomatoes, garlic, heavy cream, fresh basil... how can you possibly go wrong?

#2: Tomato, Basil and Cheese Pie

Source: Gardeners' Community Cookbook

This was another frequent favorite during tomato season, and the recipe came from the same cookbook as #1. It is a bit more complicated, because you have to make a tart crust. But before you get all scared, tart crusts aren't actually that difficult. After all, you do most of the work in the food processor.

#3: Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Source: Good Eats: House of the Rising Bun

Lest you thought we restricted ourselves to only healthy food that we grew ourselves... there's nothing quite like homemade cinnamon buns. The first time we made this recipe, we used the wrong type of yeast - we used the more common "active dry yeast" rather than "instant yeast". The buns didn't rise. But even the "failures" tasted pretty dang good.

You do have to have a bit of patience and plan ahead; after all, the word "Overnight" is right in the name. But they sure beat the heck out of anything Cinnabomb ever produced.

#4: Sake Salmon and Rice

Source: Nigella Feasts: Delicious Dinners

We don't cook fish that often, mostly because I don't have a lot of experience with it (catch-22, of course). This salmon dish, however, is easy and so delicious. It even tastes great with Atlantic farm-raised salmon, for all you still back on the East Coast!

I'm going to try to do this every year from this point on! And next year, I need to take more photos...

- Mike (& Corinne)