New Food – 2012

I used to be a really picky eater and as an adult I’ve tried hard to expand my eating horizons.  When I started this blog in in January 2012, my goal was to try one new food a week to post about.  And by “new food,” I mean a food product I’ve never cooked with before.  Great plan, but that was a bit over ambitious; this blog took a life of its own and I didn’t need to make special things to post.  As you can see, there are only 17 new foods, just a tad less than 52.  Nevertheless, here are the 17 new foods of 2012:

1. Chestnuts – I can take them or leave them. The flavor was fine, but I’m not sure roasting them at home is worth the effort.
2. Vanilla beans – I now use vanilla beans all the time!!  So much flavor. This is just the first time I used vanilla beans –  Vanilla cupcakes with peanut butter frosting!      
3. Figs – Figs are tasty and these fig newtons taste better than the store bought ones. – Homemade Fig Newtons 
4. Brussel sprouts – Brussel sprouts are gross.  End of story. 
5. Dates – Dates are amazing!  I never knew how perfectly sweet they were. – Bacon Wrapped Dates with Blue Cheese 
6. Blood Oranges – Tart and sweet and the most beautiful color mother nature has to offer. – Blood Orange Margaritas
7. Pulled Pork – Pulled pork is one of my favorite foods, making it myself was a necessity. – Pulled Pork Sliders
8. Powdered Gelatin  – Gelatin is easy to work with, I don’t know why it worried me previously, the possibilities for homemade jello are now endless! – Coffee Marshmallows
9. Clarified Butter – Heating butter and skimming off the the foam until it’s perfectly yellow. – Fudge Stripe Cookies
10. Brown Butter – Now let’s heat butter until it’s brown and nutty! – Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies 
11. Beets – Beets, when roasted, are sweet and beautiful.  Why not add them to cupcakes, look at that color. – Beet Cupcakes
12. Malt Powder – Malt powder isn’t just for Whoppers. – Chocolate Malt Cupcakes
13. Sriracha – Spicy, but addictive, I now add it to most dishes. – Sriracha Chicken 
14. Farro – A great side dish when you need a break from pasta and rice. – Roasted Corn & Red Pepper Farro Salad
15. Citric acid – Add the sour flavor to anything! – Sour Patch Kid Cupcakes
16. Gluten free all-purpose flour – An easy swap to make your favorite baked goods gluten free for your gluten-intolerant friends. – Gluten free snickerdoodles
17. Bourbon – It seemed like all the cool kids were drinking bourbon and I wanted to get on the bandwagon. – Chocolate and Bourbon Cupcakes