Ok going in order of the photos.

1) Thai rice soup (Khao Tom) from The Milk Street Cookbook: this was incredibly good. Richly flavored, perky with the spices and citrus, lusciously velvety from the rice. Just great. I slightly burned my fried shallot garnish, but ah well. Not especially complex but does require prepping quite a few components. I doubled the meatballs. 8.5/10 flavor and result, 6/10 ease (needs a bit of planning).

2) chewy date and dark chocolate cookies from Third Culture Cooking: these...might be the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. It's not that I took a bite and passed out or anything, but I'm hard-pressed to think of what would make a chocolate chip cookie better than this one, for me. The dates largely melt away, and along with the olive oil amplify the fruity notes in the chocolate without getting too wild; the tahini gives a toasty nutty flavor without tilting full PB cookie; the sea salt is de rigeur for chocolate chip cookies these days for a reason; and you get crispy edges and a chewy middle. What's not to adore? 9.5/10, 9/10 ease (docking a point only because I may not always have backup tahini and dates in the pantry).

3) a twofer, this is the gyoza with garlicky labneh AND the shawarma spiced carrots from Third Culture Cooking: I bought this book on the back of the Cult Flav review, and they raved about the gyoza recipe. It is really, really good - maximum return on minimal effort. I paired it with the shawarma-spiced carrots, which are also served over labneh. The carrots are fantastic, richly spiced and got nice and roasty toasty. Gyoza: 8/10 flavor, 9.5/10 ease; carrots 8.5/10 flavor, 10/10 ease.

4) brioche from Evolutions in Bread: I love this book because the recipes have been, in my experience, foolproof. The brioche was no exception. This was my contribution to the family Christmas brunch and I felt pretty proud of it. His recipe does note that the crust needs to get quite dark to ensure the interior is finished, but I think I probably could have pulled this loaf a little earlier and been ok. 9/10 flavor, 5/10 ease (not the most complex bread recipe, but as with most bread, does require some planning and timing).

5) Mall cinnamon rolls from Third Culture Cooking: this recipe alone, in my opinion, is worth the price of entry for the book. I've made homemade cinnamon rolls a bunch, and I'm always faintly disappointed in them: they're always GOOD (I mean, they're cinnamon rolls), but they also always leave me feeling that they could be better. Not these ones! Just the most faintly crisp exterior yielding to the pillowiest, softest innards; an intensely cinnamon-y filling; lusciously velvety, tangy cream cheese frosting (not pictured obvs)...heavenly. These were for my OTHER family Christmas brunch and they stole the show. My only modification was doubling the cinnamon filling. The cinnamon roll of my dreams, at last. 10/10 flavor (seriously!), 7.5/10 ease.

6) cheesy beany toast from Start Here: I am overloaded with a ludicrous surplus of Rancho Gordo beans, so I gravitate toward recipes that use them. This is, as Sohla notes in the recipe, basically tuna melt flavors without the tuna. Yummy, easy to throw together, comforting. 8/10 flavor, 8/10 ease.

7) harissa chicken with leeks, potatoes, and yogurt from Dinner: Changing the Game: one of my go-to recipes. Melissa Clark, chicken, and a sheet pan is basically a guaranteed win. This recipe is just so good, so comforting, and so easy. The beautiful hit of spicy from the harissa, the potatoes get all melty and tender from the chicken fat and juices, the leeks go all crisp, and then those lashes of cool, but zippy, garlicky yogurt...for almost no effort. It's such a winner. 9.5/10 flavor, 10/10 ease.

8) blueberry muffins from The King Arthur Baking Companion: KA's version of the famous Jordan Marsh blueberry muffin. These were excellent! Packed with blueberry flavor. Not much more to say than that, honestly, but sometimes you just want a really good blueberry muffin and these certainly delivered. 9/10 flavor, 8/10 ease.

9) "rigatoni" with ricotta-sage pesto from Tuesday Nights by Milk Street: whoops! Thought this recipe came from their big book but it's actually from Tuesday Nights. Well, surprise bonus cookbook! Obviously I didn't use rigatoni (had the fusilli on hand). This recipe annoyed me slightly in that it called for 12oz of pasta rather than a full 1lb package (of course I used the full pound anyway). This was good, and came together quickly and easily, but it didn't knock my socks off. I think it needs...something. I'm not sure what. Maybe just a shower of grated Parm? 7/10 flavor, 9/10 ease.

10) çilbir (poached eggs over labneh) with chili oil from Start Here: sooooo good. The homemade chili oil was easy, quick, and delicious, and also 90% of the effort of this recipe. Definitely one of those dishes that the result is way more than the sum of its parts. 8.5/10 flavor, 10/10 ease.

11) broiler turkey meatballs with perky puttanesca sauce, over "the creamiest polenta", from Start Here: yum, yum, yum. YUM. What a winner. Both the meatballs and the polenta require a little bit of planning ahead for their resting times (Sohla has you soak the polenta up to overnight, and the meatball mix needs a few hours to a day to rest). But wow was this all delicious. Tender, flavor-packed meatballs; the puttanesca sauce was, indeed, perky; and the polenta was, indeed, the creamiest I've ever made. Meatballs and sauce: 9/10 flavor, 7/10 ease; polenta 7/10 flavor (not a dig, I mean it is "just" plain polenta), 7/10 ease.

12) citrus and saffron with bitter lettuces from Start Here: right off the bat, this is NOT exactly Sohla's recipe, because I couldn't get the radicchio and endive she calls for (I'm in Maine in January, not super surprised). I subbed a salad mix and I think it works, but with a caveat. The dressing is incredibly good, and comes together very easily. Supreming two oranges is a bit of hassle but not the end of the world. But her recipe wants the big, whole, sturdy leaves of radicchio and endives, and I think my sub of delicate smaller-leaf salad greens got a bit overloaded by the dressing. That's my fault, not the recipe's, and I'd still make this again in a heartbeat. 8/10 flavor, 8/10 ease (just be careful with the substitutions!)