30 Before 30: Food

As I mentioned on Friday, food is one of the areas I want to focus on with my 30 before 30 project. In general, my goal is going to be to find thirty new recipes to add to our recipe collection before my thirtieth birthday. Now, before you assume that this will be as simple as trying thirty new recipes, you should know that Darrell and I are kind of picky about which recipes "earn" spots in our permanent collection. We always make a recipe twice before putting it into our collection (unless it is just ahh-mazing), and we consider more than just the taste of it when reviewing it: how manageable is the prep, how easy are the ingredients to find, how affordable are the ingredients, how do the leftovers keep (if it makes leftovers), etc. When I am baking, I always take into consideration how foolproof the recipe is: am I able to get the same results multiple times or is the recipe finicky? So, as you can see, adding one new recipe per month to our permanent collection will be a bit more tedious than just trying thirty new recipes.

Although I'm not going to constrain myself to a list of thirty specific recipes to try, there are a few important ones (to me) that I would like to get in my permanent collection by the time I'm thirty. Some of these I've tried recipes for in the past (unsuccessfully); others are challenges that I want to push myself to attempt.

Buttercream and/or Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I actually set out to find my "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe a few summers ago, but didn't really make any progress. Whoops.)

Homemade Croissants

Basic Brownies

Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade Pancakes (Bonus points if I can find a recipe to make into a shelf-stable dry mix; have you seen the sodium contents of the mixes you buy in the store?)

Caramels (Probably going to need to buy a candy thermometer for this, but I'm totally okay with that.)
Macaroni and Cheese (not from the box--I've already got the boxed kind mastered)
Jambalaya
Roast Chicken (a whole chicken)
Tomato Sauce
Chicken Noodle Soup

Are there any other recipes you think I should try to master by the time I'm thirty? What are some of your favorite recipe box staples?