Yesterday I shared my 25 goals for January. In that post, I mentioned one of my goals was to learn to make some new-to-me things and that I’d tell you more about this today!
In 2024, I set a goal to learn how to make sourdough bread. I am so thrilled to report that not only did I learn how to make sourdough, I feel like I really became proficient at it.
And then I went on to learn how to make sourdough pancakes, sourdough waffles, sourdough English muffins, whole wheat sourdough, and sourdough bagels.
Inspired by my sourdough success, I also tried my hand at making fermenting kombucha, sauerkraut, and water kefir. I wasn’t a huge fan of the kombucha or sauerkraut, but we loved the water kefir and I made many batches of it!
I also perfected French Bread and Overnight Artisan Bread this year!
These successes in the kitchen gave me the idea to set a goal to try to become proficient at 12 new-to-me things in 2025. Most of these are food related, but not all of them area.
I polled my audience on Instagram to get ideas for things I should learn and then took there ideas, thought about what would inspire me most and what were things I’ve really wanted to learn to do. From all of that, I picked 12 things I want to learn in 2025. My goal is to focus on one area per month.
Here’s my list:
12 Things I Want to Attempt to Become Proficient at in 2025
1. Making Homemade Focaccia (using my sourdough)
2. Making Homemade Yogurt (I’ve made this in the crockpot before, but I want to learn how to make it in the instant pot and find a recipe that we all love!)
3. Making Homemade Vanilla (can you believe I’ve never made this before??)
4. Making Homemade Noodles
5. Making Homemade Mozzarella Cheese (This one honestly feels the most intimidating from my list!)
6. Making Nontoxic Candles
7. Making Homemade Croissants
8. Making Homemade Pretzels
9. Making Homemade Silver Dollar City Cinnamon Bread
10. Making Homemade Lotion
11. Making Homemade Hamburger Buns
12. Making Homemade Mayo
I have a few other things I want to learn/try: like making sourdough bread with mix-ins, making chocolate sourdough bread, and making homemade soap again. But I’m going to start with the list above and then if I feel like I’m proficient in the thing I picked for each month, I can add something else that month to try that’s not on the list if I want to!
I’ll be documenting what I’m trying and learning and experimenting with over on Instagram stories in more real-time and then sharing some of the journey here in posts on the blog!
What are you hoping to learn in 2025? Tell us in the comments!
Coming tomorrow: The list of all the books I read in 2024 + my top 4 favorites!
P.S. Just for fun, I thought I’d share a post from 2012 where I set this same goal. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a great job of following through that year — a lot of it had to do with me picking things I wasn’t really excited to try, choosing a specific month for each so then I felt boxed in, and also it just being a season of my life where I was traveling so much and exhausted so much of the time. Really hoping for better success this coming year!