In order to earn the titles in cooking (and thus new recipes) faster, cook each thing one at a time. When you cook a dish and make ten at the same time, you only get credit for cooking once. However, if you cook that same dish ten times, you will get credit for cooking ten times. This will, of course, help you earn your titles faster and will also open up new recipes quicker.
When you are able to edit the town, sell the milk can decorations in the shipping bin to get 18,000 G.