From Scratch Weekends: A Year in Review

When 2010 started, Ryan and I had created From Scratch Weekends.  This was an effort to make more food starting from the basics and making as much of a meal as we could from scratch.  The idea was that 3 things could be accomplished: 1) We knew what was going in our food 2) We could say that we knew how to make that from scratch and 3) It gave us time together in the kitchen, working together and spending time doing something fun and productive.  One major problem, I would say, is the size of our Portuguese kitchen.  On top of the small size, we have 1 functional 110V plug that gets overworked quickly.  Let's just say you can't use the microwave and the toaster at the same time or the fuse blows in the house and you are left in darkness.  All that aside, Ryan and I had a successful year in From Scratch Adventures. 

Here is a review of some of these great meals, starting with the quote of what I first set out with From Scratch Weekends almost a year ago.

FROM SCRATCH WEEKENDS: The idea came to use when we wanted to make some tortellini's at home. We googled for recipes and had a hard time since most called for prepared store bought tortellini. Then there was a post on Yahoo! Answers where the person asked for a recipe from scratch and got a response for a sauce from scratch and tortellini from the store, so the original author then had to clarify. I thought FROM SCRATCH would imply just that, but it means different things to different people.

So, our idea is to cook one FROM SCRATCH meal over the weekend. For us this will mean as from scratch as possible, so bread, pasta, whatever. As much as from scratch as possible. At some point we will have to draw the line since somethings we may not be able to make. I plan to make any bread we will use for the meal from scratch and anything else that is within reason.

I also thought we could get 40 From Scratch Meals in, but it seems I did not account for a very busy summer traveling and lots of school work on the weekend.  I will be the first to admit as the year went on, the meals became less frequent.  BUT, I do have one final from scratch meal from this last weekend on 2010.  More to come on that!  Let's see how we did otherwise when it came to making things from scratch (in no particular order):

 

We made Tapas:

 

We threw a pizza party:

We ventured into Mexican food:

 

We even made bagels:

 

We tried out a quiche:

 

We did some tasty black bottoms:

 

We tried our hands in home brewing beer:

We made many delicious spreads:

 

We made bean burgers with the cutest little buns:

 

We went over the top with super mac and cheese:

 

We rolled some sushi:

 

We got wacky with flavors:

 

We made tortellini:

 

We must like Italian since we made a lasagna too:

 

We did dinner and dessert fondue:

 

We enjoyed a Middle Eastern Feast:

 

We whipped up some tasty Indian cuisine:

 

There were a few others.  I just picked out some of my favorites.  This concept has allowed us to make many dishes that we might not otherwise have tried.  I know it helped that we have a lot of kitchen gadgets, but some of these recipes would have worked without the Kitchenaid mixer or the bread machine.  Overall, I think it was a pretty successful year for us in the kitchen cooking things up from scratch.

 

Don't forget to tune in to my next post where I will show off the last From Scratch Weekends adventure of 2010.

QUESTIONS:  Which of our From Scratch Weekends meals was your favorite?  Did you participate at all in From Scratch Weekends over the past year?  Any suggestions for From Scratch meals for 2011?