[ Modest ] Make

Modest Make was created to document my very modest goal of hacking through 36.5 recipes in 365 days. (Wait, you ask, how can there be a half recipe? You’ll see.) These recipes are not ridiculously difficult, nor are they nortoriously time-consuming. Most involve basic cooking skills (such as braising, baking, broiling … and err, stirring things together) that I’ve already mastered. However, these recipes are also complicated enough that I can easily find quicker (and cheaper) alternatives at a restaurant. The point of this exercise is to expand my cooking horizon. I want to try out dishes that I otherwise would not make, with ingredients that I normally would breeze by at the grocery store.

I have no formal culinary training—unless you count making the turducken twice (which I’m proud of) as some form of validation (which I think you should). I will take a laissez-faire approach with my recipes. A cook should be flexible to her taste buds and the ingredients available in her pantry. But I’m not going to do a half-ass job either. I will research as many versions of the recipes as I can before I start cooking.

Why 36.5 recipes?

Look, I’m not trying to make a rigid meal plan for 365 days. Nor am I delusional enough to think I would not settle on the frozen pizza after an exhausting day at work. I’m still going to eat out, I’m still going to try out other recipes that I come across, I’m still going to pretend an extra-large bucket of popcorn at the theater is a proper meal (it sure costs as much as one). But one “fancy” dish in ten days seems to be a sustainable pace.

Check here for the masterlist. Hopefully, I can cross out the entire list in a year.