Halfway There

I've now gotten halfway (and a little more) through the 52 week challenge (a bit late, but better late than never), and it's been interesting looking back on a half year of new cooking experiments. I've definitely learned a lot and come away with new ideas and inspiration.

The second quarter of challenges were:

Week 14 - Belgian (beer and onion braised chicken carbonnade and stoemp)
Week 15 - knifework (lots of prep work)
Week 16 - 80s (French bread pizza)
Week 17 - soy (Mediterranean baked tofu and sweet and sour tofu)
Week 18 - Peruvian (ensalada de choclo)
Week 19 - caramelization (mujadara and caramelized carrots)
Week 20 - diner/drive-in food (grilled cheese and corned beef hash breakfast plate)
Week 21 - beer (spicy beer braised lime chicken enchiladas)
Week 22 - Turkish (nohut salatasi, mercimek koftesi, beet salad)
Week 23 - confit (spicy red pepper and eggplant confit)
Week 24 - historic foods (turkey meatloaf)
Week 25 - stone fruits (peach salsa)
Week 26 - Philippines (chicken adobo with mushroom and bamboo shoot rice)

(The first quarter of challenges are listed here.)

Looking back on 26 weeks of challenges has also allowed me time to reflect. I didn't cook a lot before last year since the schedule at my previous job was unpredictable and I never knew when I would be home for dinner, much less have time to cook one. That meant that, when the start of the 52 week challenge rolled around in January, I was still a relative novice. Over the past half year or so, I've cooked a bunch of different international cuisines for the first time and tried so many new things. I'm proud of the challenge dishes that have come out of the kitchen so far this year. There's a lot more to learn and I'm by no means a master, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what's ahead in the upcoming challenges!