1. NYTimes Recipe App
This is a very good app! I’m a little annoyed that it gatekeeps all of the NYTimes recipes, but other than that, it’s pretty great. A wide variety of recipes, star rating system, comments section (which are sometimes funny) with a separate tab for best hints, and a decent search function.
2. Restaurant Menus
Certainly, there are things at restaurants that I am unlikely to make at home. That’s part of the fun- why go out for something I can make myself? (Answer: At least someone else is doing the dishes!). But for recipes that are delicious and within my grasp, I’ll try to recreate. Or search the internet on the off-chance the recipe has been published in a profile piece or that someone else has tried to replicate. One recent example: Fish (Sausalito) has the best beans:Bombaloni Beans (Iacopi Farm white beans in olive oil, chili, garlic, parsley & butter). It led me to join the Rancho Gordo bean club. The Fish beans are better than mine, but I’ve come close-ish. Probably needs more restaurant-levels of butter.
3. Instagram
This is more aspirational. I would love to get into Mrs. Donabe‘s style of cooking myself. Buy a donabe and get to it! I also like 101 Cookbooks, Smitten Kitchen, Rainbowplantlife, and “our” chef from Bordeaux, Tanguy Laviale.
4. Cookbooks
I have a few. I turn to Ottolenghi the most. I tend to simplify a little and it still works!
5. Blogs
I don’t have real interest in meal planning, but I do like browsing people’s plans if they’re into. I’ve also been impressed with some of the NaBloPoMo bloggers…well, specifically Julie’s meals. I think her most recent salad may be something I bring to Thanksgiving dinner!
I have SO many cookbooks and I almost never use them! It’s a real problem. You would think I would, being we eat at home every single day and I always cook, but here we are. I’m more of a “let’s just try this” kind of cook, where I fling things together, recipe-less. It usually works out!
I love that method! I do it a lot too or I start by looking over the recipe and then leaving it behind.
I hope your salad turns out, I need to know! I think Jenny is also taking it to Thanksgiving. The beans, I want to try that recipe.
I will keep you posted!
Yessss Julie’s salad looked so delicious! It’s funny you mention restaurants as a good source of inspiration because I cannot stop thinking about this amazing squash dish I had a few weeks ago on a date. I should look up the menu and see if I can recreate it somehow.
Yes! And then put it on your blog:) Was it delicata squash? ‘Tis the season and it’s so delicious.
I have the NYT Cooking App, but I also follow a lot of food blogs and keep bookmarking things on IG (my sister, mom and I have a specific Whatsapp Chat, where we share new recipes :)).
That is so cool to have such a niche chat thread. This makes me think I should talk to my Mom and sister more, lol. Are all the recipes in German?
One of my big goals for 2026 is to get more comfortable with cooking. I watch so many cooking shows and I’m always so impressed at how easy they make cooking look! I don’t need to make anything fancy, but I would like to be more comfortable in the kitchen and expand my recipe repertoire. Right now, I mainly use blogs like Budget Bytes and Skinnytaste for recipe ideas.
I love Skinny Taste, although it’s been a minute since I’ve cooked from there. Thanks for the reminder!