“Or, if you can’t take the taste, make the recipe anyway…” ~eam II Yes, that’s my quote. I made it up. Why? Because eventually, we were going to get to those recipes that I just didn’t want to make. Why not? Because I didn’t think I’d like the taste, or the ingredients, rather. But I said I’d make all 40 recipes in this Cook the 40 Challenge I gave myself, and so here are a few of the recipes that I kind of saved for the latter part of the year, because I wasn’t looking forward to eating them. Cook the 40 Why take on Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes…

“It’s almost as easy to stand up as it is to sit down.” ~Charles Lindbergh It’s almost as easy to make this recipe as it is to buy some ice cream or a frozen treat at the store! Really? Really. Follow along, and you’ll see that this recipe—which was published in 2014, one of the best years for travel that I have personally experienced—may be one of the easiest recipes in the Cook the 40 Challenge. Cook the 40 Why take on Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes from their forty years in publication? Because if you’ve been paying attention, you know that’s one of the things I’m doing this year!…

“Cooking well doesn’t mean cooking fancy.” ~Julia Child Indeed, Julia! Cooking well definitely does not have to mean cooking fancy, and it also doesn’t have to mean cooking slowly or in a complicated way either. It can mean that, of course—and has, at times—but not always. And not with the next two recipes I made from Food & Wine’s list of their best ever 40 recipes. Cooking Well I do like to cook well, and if that also means that it’s easy to do so, why not! Now, you’d think that recipes in this challenge I’ve taken on would not be so easy, but several of them have not been…

“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.” ~Wolfgang Puck To me, cooking is an art, as much as it’s a science. While cooking can be pretty scientific (and I’m not even talking about the chemistry of baking!), it is also just what Wolfgang Puck gets at in the above quote: different ingredients being put together by someone who knows what they’re doing. Just as important is combining those flavors while making food memories with your favorite people. Someone Who Knows I have already…

“I could never in a hundred summers get tired of this.” ~Susan Branch Seared salmon in summer or summer vegetables with seared salmon? I changed the recipe a bit—because one, I am allergic to or at least have a bad reaction to mushrooms and so do not eat them, and two, I don’t really care for corn. I kept the spinach and everything else, and then added my own fresh veggie as a side. At any rate, while I do not know to what Susan Branch was referring in her quote above, I could never in a hundred summers get tired of this salmon recipe! How Do You Say That…