Hi friends!

I hope you’re doing well! I am doing just fine. The day that this goes out will be T-minus one week from my winter break from work, and I am pretty damn excited to get to sleep in as late as my cat lets me for two full weeks. I am very, very grateful that my company takes this time off. I have certainly worked at other companies that did not take the holidays off, even though it was completely dead, the industry was shut down, and half the company was out on PTO. It always just begged the question: why am I here?

Today’s newsletter is all about cooking! I’ll crown my favorite recipes that I made for the first time this year, and then share a list of every single recipe I wrote about in 2025, just in case you missed one. Finally, I’ll give out some silly awards like “Most Random Ingredient Used” and “Biggest Cooking Surprise.”

As I write this, my apartment smells incredible, because I actually have a pot roast cooking in my oven right now. I have never braised meat in the oven before, I usually go for my slow cooker, but I had shit to do this morning, and this technique required many fewer hours. I’ll let you know how it turns out! (Update: It turned out great! Very tender and flavorful.)

Cooking is one of my favorite things to do, when I have time to do it. (When I don’t have time to do it, ordering GrubHub is one of my favorite things to do.) I especially enjoy cooking around the holidays, when coziness and decadence is called for. You get the opportunity to share food with friends and family, dig into traditions, and maybe make a few things with that “wow” factor. I usually make a lasagna bolognese for Christmas Day dinner, with a trifle for dessert, and a strata for breakfast on New Year’s Day. I’m not sure if I’m going to do that this year, or mix things up. I’m kind of leaning toward shaking things up a bit this year. Maybe we need some new traditions. Then again, it is the one time a year I make lasagna, so. But on the other hand, I can make lasagna anytime! Hmm. Much to consider.

Well, enough of my babbling, should we just get into it?

Like You Know Whatever Presents: The Very Best RECIPES of 2025

Let’s get into the best recipes of 2025! You can find last year’s list here, and all my best-of content for 2022-2025 here.

Here are the very best recipes that I made for the first time this year! These were all new to me, not necessarily new to the internet/world. They are ranked according to my very subjective ranking system that weighs multiple factors including deliciousness (most important), eatability, effort-to-result ratio, and the number of times I made them this year. One good thing I can say about this year’s recipes is they were all incredibly easy to make! Like, weeknight easy. It makes sense, since I worked a lot this year and had less time to cook.

Normally, I make a list of my top five favorite recipes of the year, but this year, I just could not pare it down to fewer than six. And really, why should I? These recipes all deserve a spot at your table. Enjoy:

#6: Buffalo Chicken Dip Sliders. These would be perfect for a Super Bowl party, although I did not make them for a Super Bowl party, I made them for an ordinary Sunday dinner in March for some reason, and we had loads of leftovers (which kept very well, I might add!). They were sooo good!

#5: Chicken and Butternut Squash Orzo. Orzo almost becomes like risotto in this creamy one-pot meal with roasted butternut squash, fresh sage, and thyme. I made this multiple times, thanks to being able to buy pre-diced butternut squash.

#4: Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts. This recipe is so easy (and relatively affordable), but tastes expensive and like you went to a whole bunch of trouble to make it. I need to make this again very soon.

#3: Blueberry Crumb Bars. These gooey shortbread blueberry bars with a buttery crumb topping were so easy to make using my food processor, and I could not stop eating them. They’re like the summery, berry cousin of a lemon bar, basically. We ate almost the whole 9x13 pan in a week.

#2: Creamy Tortellini Soup. I made this a bunch of times this year! There’s a richness to this soup’s creamy tomato broth that makes it so addictive. You could easily omit the pork sausage or sub a chicken or vegetarian version, or throw in some extra veggies if you’d like. Definitely a cold weather favorite, although it’s so good, I even made it in the summer once.

#1: Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Feta and Dates. Please don’t kill me for putting a fucking salad as my top recipe of the year, but I truly made this sheet pan recipe over and over again in 2025! The salty baked feta just goes so well with the sticky dates and peppery arugula. A great all-season dish!

Here is the full list of every recipe I wrote about in my newsletter in 2025! The winning recipes are starred.

Winter

Baked Brie with Fig Jam

The Best Fudgy Brownies

Thai Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

Gochujang Sloppy Joes

Broccoli Cheddar Pasta Bake

Chicken and Butternut Squash Orzo*

Red Wine Braised Pot Roast

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts*

Chicken Rice with Buttered Onions

Spring

Thai Chicken Coconut Curry

Ziti Chickpeas with Sausage and Kale

Cheesy Pecorino Polenta with Roasted Kale

Buffalo Chicken Dip Sliders*

Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup

Chickpea Tomato Soup

Creamy Tortellini Soup*

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Ricotta Gnocchi

Matzo Brei

Lemon Bars

Pan-Seared Salmon with Garlic Butter

Maple Butter Roasted Baby Carrots

Noodle Kugel

Orange Marmalade-Glazed Ham

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Radishes, Mint, and Ricotta Salata

Twice Baked Potatoes

Rosemary Blue Cheese Scones with Walnuts & Pancetta

Perfect Bean and Cheese Burritos

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Marsala

Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Feta and Dates*

Baja Style Fish (or Shrimp) Tacos

Summer

Spicy Caesar Potato Salad

Lemon Chicken Thighs

Fresh Shrimp Tacos with Mango Salsa

Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Chicken

Street Corn Pasta Salad

Simple Eggplant Parmesan

Shakshuka

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

Potato Salad

Succotash

Blueberry Crumb Bars*

Blackberry Crisp

Chicken Scampi

Fall

Pumpkin Bread

Orecchiette With Roasted Butternut Squash, Kale, & Caramelized Red Onion

Mac ‘n Cheese

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Chicken Broccoli and Wild Rice Casserole

Arroz Con Pollo

Chicken with Rice, Chorizo, and Tomatoes

French Onion Soup

Chicken Parmesan

Baked Potatoes with Crispy Broccoli and Bacon

Baked Ziti

Pot Roast

Biggest Cooking Fail: I was cooking this Thai sweet potato and carrot soup during the first night of the L.A. fires when my power went out, and I still needed to blend it, so I never actually ended up eating it. I had to flee my apartment the next morning and just left the soup there, so when we finally got back days later, the whole apartment smelled like soup (although I’ll take that over smoke any day, honestly). Lesson learned: don’t cook dishes that require electricity during natural disasters.

Biggest Cooking Triumph: I was pretty proud of myself for mastering noodle kugel for Passover this year. Sometimes cooking food from a different culture can be daunting because I really don’t want to fuck it up in a disrespectful way. I think I nailed it!

Biggest Cooking Surprise: Looking back at this list, it’s sort of insane how much chicken I cooked. Like, damn, bitch, don’t you know any other proteins?

Most Impressive New Technique Learned: I used to be quite scared of my broiler, but I’ve used it a few times this year, to great success. I think the technique there is just: being super attentive to food that’s under the broiler.

Most Used Countertop Appliance (other than microwave): I used my food processor for desserts a fair amount!

Least Used Countertop Appliance: Magic Bullet. I did not make a lot of smoothies this year.

Most Random Ingredient Used: I ordered a jar of Calabrian chili paste for the spicy Caesar potato salad thinking I would use it on so many things, and legend has it, it’s still sitting in the back of my fridge, having been used only once.

New Dish or Ingredient I Fell in Love With: In the past, whenever a recipe called for “Italian seasoning,” I’ve always just used my own mix of dried herbs. This year, I finally bought a bottle of pre-mixed Italian seasoning, doubting I would use much of it, and now half the bottle is gone! Very useful, as it turns out!

Best Recipe Site: I made quite a few dishes from Damn Delicious this year, and it’s pretty damn reliable. Two of my top five recipes of the year are from that site!

Aaaand that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this culinary look back at my year. What was your favorite thing you cooked this year?

Next up, on Monday, I’ll send out the finale in my Best of the Year series, the Very Best of 2025, including a resolution recap and my guesses for what will be in/out in 2026!

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page. This post is public, so feel free to share it on social media, or forward it to a friend.

Until next time—you better get busy cooking (or get busy ordering delivery)!

Love,

Liz

XOXO