Kitchen Concoctions: Magazine of the Month Series

Monday, January 2, 2012

Magazine of the Month Series

As one year ends and another years begins it is time to reflect and look forward! I love a new year (just like I love a new week), it is a fresh start and a time to get organized and refocused. Today I will be wrapping up my 2011 monthly series: the Magazine of the Month, and sharing what I have in store for 2012.

I, in fact, have quite a few new things in store for Kitchen Concoctions this year, some that I had hoped to do last year and never got to it and a few more ideas. Today I will share just a few of these ideas and in the coming weeks share/reveal more (all in due time).

When I first started this blog I had a monthly cookbook of the month feature (inspired by Deborah). You see I have a slight cookbook ~~hording~~ collecting problem. Usually I would pick up a cookbook, read it cover to cover, mark the recipes I wanted to try, make one or two and put the book on the bookshelf and never look at it again. I wanted to change this, so when I first started blogging I picked 5 recipes from one cookbook a month and featured them. Then at the end of 2010 (when I had a resolution to get organized and de-cluttered in 2011) I realized that I had the same problem, but with recipes from magazines. I decided for 2011 I would clean up my magazines, organize these recipes, and actually use them by changing my cookbook of the month feature to a magazine of the month feature.

These features are a lot of work but I feel like they really push me to explore new recipes and actually use the cookbooks and newspaper clippings I have been ~~hoarding~~ saving for many years (read: make me feel like I don't need to submit myself to some TV show to get help).

When organizing my magazine recipes (for more information on that stay tuned, I have a whole post planned with tips and organization ideas) I discovered I have a ton of recipes printed from various on-line food/recipe/meal planning sites that also fall into the category of "I print this out and carefully save it but it may never see the light of day". I decided that just like the cookbooks and magazines these precious online recipes need to have a moment to shine.

So for 2012 I will be featuring recipe/cooking/meal planning/food websites. One each month for the year. I think this is perfect for this day and age since most of us get the majority of our recipes in html form.

I should clarify that I will not be featuring blogs (as much as I love my blogs and want to support fellow bloggers, I have another plan up my sleeve for that), but will be featuring member run recipe sites, meal planning sites, etc. Last year I tried two different ways of I featuring my selected recipes each month. Some months I would feature one recipe a week and other months I would pick one week a month and feature a different recipe each day. This year I will feature the website of the month recipe on Wednesdays (seems fitting right? Website Wednesdays!). Then after the month is over I will do a review with all the featured websites' specs (cost, quality of recipes, information provided, etc.)

I am very excited and have been busy making recipes from January's site (will be announced Wednesday!). I have a running list of websites I frequent and would like to feature but I am open for additional suggestions, so please share!
And in case you have no clue what I am talking about, or would just like a refresher, below are all the magazines I featured in 2011:

(Note: I am not paid to do these reviews! I just like to do them for my own benifit- to use the recipes I have filed away- and because I ~~think~~ hope you'll find this information useful!)
January: Food and Wine