Top 10 Signs You're Becoming a Better Cook + What I Served at My Thesis Defense & recipes I want to make

Top Ten Signs You're Becoming a Better Cook, via Cheap Heathy Good:

1. You eyeball ingredient measurements.
   
2. You substitute ably and with abandon.
   
3. You regularly improve on recipes written by professionals.
   
4. You search for physical indications (browning, thickness, scent, etc.) that a recipe is done, rather than use times.
   
5. You have an ever-expanding repertoire of dishes you know by heart, and can easily go a week without consulting a recipe.
   
6. You bring lunch to work not because you want to save money or watch your waistline, but because your leftovers are fantastic.
   
7. You don’t choose certain restaurant dishes because you can make it just as well – or even better – by yourself at home.
   
8. Your pickiest friend will eat your food without complaint.
   
9. Your foodie-est friend will eat your food with glee.
   
10. Your parents entrust you with Thanksgiving.

According to this, I think I am definitely on my way to becoming an actual good cook. I almost always eyeball ingredients, I substitute all the time, and I think I improve written recipes pretty regularly, too. How about you?

Here are a few recipes I'm hoping to make over spring break, which is all this week:

Potato and Artichoke Tortilla
Miso Soup with Poached Egg
Lime Soda Hangover Cure
Yogurt Cake

I served coffee, banana bread and fruit salad at my thesis defense last Thursday. This banana bread recipe was recommended to me by a fellow MFA student and it was delicious. I substituted applesauce for the oil, and the cake was incredibly moist, even after I left it out all day and overnight after my defense (it was St. Patrick's Day! I was celebrating passing my defense...)

Sorry About The Silence

here on Master of Fine Eats.

Both of us are defending our theses in the next few days, so things should pick up after that. Have any  suggestions for awesome, incredibly complicated and time-consuming recipes I can look forward to making over spring break next week? I want to spend some time in the kitchen! Let me know.