Cooking Goals for the school year

My son is going back to school and many people have asked me what I am going to do.  I really hadn't gotten past the first two weeks with tons of errands that I haven't done while he has been out of school like haircut, dentist, oil change, and doctor visit which are already scheduled!!!  I think that I might take one day to sit at Panera and have a bagel or bowl of baked potato soup (depending on when I make it there) as a reward for making it through a busy summer!! 

What am I going to do??  I am going to work on doing some recipes that I haven't tried before.  There are some recipes that really intimidate me so I am going to try a few challenging ones!!

The first one that I am going to make is Amish Friendship Bread so watch out friends!!  I am going to be making lots of different breads from the starter and I can't wait to see which ones will be great.  I will soon be overrun with the stuff :)

The first on the list are:

Homemade Baked Granola
Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal
Nutella Chocolate Chip Brownies
Flourless Chocolate Cookies
Herbed Focaccia Bread
7UP Biscuits (just need to find a good deal on sour cream)
Copycat KFC Crispy Potato Wedges (need to find a good deal on buttermilk)

In my quest to use less processed food and more from scratch, I am looking for some family favorite recipes for the following so I might have to try a few:

Biscuit Mix (like Bisquick)- from Family Feasts Cookbook or Miserly Meals Cookbook
Ready to Make Oatmeal- from Family Feasts Cookbook
Brownies- from Family Feasts Cookbook or Miserly Meals Cookbook
DIY Shake N Bake- from Family Feasts Cookbook
Soft Pretzels- from Miserly Moms Book
Stuffing- from Miserly Meals Cookbook or Food.com or No Ordinary Homestead
Almond Basil Pesto- to use the end of the season basil from either Spark People or CookinCanuk or Allrecipes

With the hope of cold weather, I am also going to make Chicken Tortilla Soup but probably not until October or November.  I guess I should start looking at my winter list to see what cold weather food is on my must have list :)

Things that I would like to make in the not to distant future but still feel a little to intimidated to make are cheesecake, English muffins, bagels, hush puppies, and french bread.  I hope to get up the guts to try them sometime but I am not sure that they are on my list yet!!! 

Do you have anything on your list that you want to try to cook or something you are afraid to cook??