Soups for a Cold, 8 Ways to a Neater Kitchen, Cooking Projects for the New Year, and The Kitchn’s Top Posts of 2012 — Most Popular Posts Published December 30 – January 5

2013-1-5-hotposts.jpgHappy Saturday, friends! How are you adjusting to the New Year? Do you have a list of resolutions you plan to tackle this weekend? If any of them involve your kitchen, you’ll want to check in with a few of our popular posts this week, including eight ways to a neater and more organized kitchen, a guide to thoroughly cleaning your kitchen in 20 minutes a day for five days, and 10 cooking projects you should try this year. All this and more below!

15. Add a Pinch of Spice to Warm Up Winter Smoothies
14. Clean Out Your Pantry, Fridge & Freezer in 20 Minutes a Day for 5 Days
13. Best Food Sources for the 13 Essential Vitamins: A Handy Infographic
12. Recipe: Fresh Grape Cake with Luscious Lemon Sauce
11. 5 Soups to Soothe a Cold
10. Housekeeping Help: 15 Tips To Keep Your Kitchen Clean, Tidy, and Smell-Free! More

What’s Cooking This Weekend? — Weekend of January 5-6, 2013

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s the first Friday of the new year — is there something delicious cooking in your kitchen yet? Maybe a cocktail in honor of Downton Abbey, or a French onion grilled cheese sandwich? I’m eyeing Emily’s winter citrus compote for breakfast tomorrow, and thinking about my kitchen goals for 2013. Are you? We’d love to hear all about your first kitchen goal of the year (send it to us here). And tell us too: What’s cooking this weekend? More

Share Your First Kitchen or Cooking Goal of 2013 with The Kitchn! — Send Us Your Submissions!

We talked earlier this week about setting our own kitchen goals for 2013. We love to think of resolutions in the new year as opportunities to look forward to, not obligations to be tackled. By the end of this year I anticipate having made a habit of eating lots more vegetables, for instance. Maybe you’re looking forward to learning to bake gluten-free bread. Or you would enjoy having a clean freezer, homemade cheese, or a garden. Maybe you’d love to fix that dripping faucet this week. What’s your first kitchen goal or resolution of 2013?

We are inviting you, our readers, to share one short and sweet kitchen goal with us. Send us a photo and a quick description, and we’ll publish all of them that we can next week! That way we can all help one another accomplish something fresh and new — maybe even before the week is out! Read on to submit your own goal… More

Beyond Chicken Noodle: 10 Warming Chicken Soups

2013_01_02-coconut soup.jpgI hate to say it, but I was inspired to write this post after a days-long bout with the flu that left me craving chicken soup. And lots of it. While chicken noodle soup is the always-beloved standard, there are many other options out there that are equally simple to make at home to satisfy the wearied winter belly. I began researching and whipping up soups with global influences and more complex spice profiles, all the while discovering some new favorite recipes I’ll continue to recreate in sickness and in health. More

Downton Abbey Cocktail Recipe:The Bittersweet Mr. Bates — The 10-Minute Happy Hour

2013_01_03-IMG_9358.jpg The highly anticipated premiere of Downton Abbey’s third season is so close we can almost taste it. This Sunday night fans from coast to coast will be toasting the return of their favorite characters and a few new additions to boot. At my house we love any reason to have friends over and mix a few drinks, so this occasion suits us just fine. Since almost tasting isn’t good enough we’d like you to actually get a taste of Downton for this week’s 10-Minute Happy Hour. More

How To Roast Sweet Potatoes in the Oven — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

In my opinion, sweet potatoes are a superfood on many levels. Not only are they incredibly nutritious (a 1-cup serving offers 65% of our daily requirement for vitamin C and as much as 700% of the recommended daily requirement for vitamin A), they also have a fairly low glycemic index of 17. They’re also easy to find, easy to store, easy to cook, and they can function equally in sweet or savory recipes. But most importantly, they’re delicious. More