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Jan 4

Vegetables and whole grains. Vegetables and whole grains.

Vegetables and whole grains. Vegetables and whole grains. Vegetables and whole grains.

Veggies_yay

It started like a whisper, maybe on December 27th or so. It got louder, when we went to McMenamins for pints and burgers. It got louder, when we stopped at Eugene City Bakery to get pastries for the train ride.  It got louder, when I couldn’t decide between Swedish Fish and Raisinets at the movie theater so got both.  It started screaming by the time we went to Burgerville for lunch, and I could barely hear anything else as I ate my Grand Central Bakery cinnamon roll waiting for our plane back home.  And then I spent two days celebrating new years and watching football (i.e. drinking champagne and sausage risotto, and eating pulled pork and drinking beer), and my body said “my god, I give up.”

So tonight we had this for dinner.

Veg_salad

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Jan 2

New year, new energy

And it’s done!  I did much better with the 2011 Food List than I did with the 2010 version.

I chopped and canned and zested and cookbooked my way through another year, and (with a bit of leeway) completed every last item.

Cinnamon_loaf

Beets

You may be here looking for this year’s list – but we’re doing things a little differently this year. Instead of a list, I want to focus instead on whatever comes our way, be it new cookbooks, unexpected ingredients, or one of those food visions that hits in the middle of the night.  I learned a lot from the list this year and I’m incredibly happy with the progress I’ve made in the kitchen this year, but together with part-time culinary school classes (and the homework for those), working in a kitchen, trying to make the things that catch my eye in blogs and magazines, and working with seasonal products as much as possible, the list could be a bit restrictive at times.  I’m hoping to spend the next bit of time experimenting more in the kitchen, following my instincts wherever they take me.

Croquembouche

NYE_dinner

I’m also hoping to spend some time going back through old favorites here on the site.  You may notice some updated photographs on old posts and some other updates here and there.  I want to take this space back to what it was originally intended to be – a capture of my kitchen. A catalog of the things I’ve made that I love, of the recipes I am happy and proud to make for family and friends, again and again. A space for the creative experiments that go well.

And I want to add more to this site – not just recipes, but other things that catch my eye or ideas I want to share. Stories and lists and links and new features.  I hope you’ll share with me your thoughts and your ideas!

Scones_2

Jan 1

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Happy New Year! Finishing the List with one last go-to cocktail

Goodbye 2011!

Hello new year, new adventures, new friends, new foods, new experiences.

I’m ready to say goodbye to the last year – a good year, indeed.  Full of laughter and excitement and travel and love. Crammed with delicious, meaningful nourishment of all kinds. And now here’s a new year starting with new projects, new work, new friends, new plans.

French_75

We ended the year with a night full of friends and laughter. And French 75s.  Read more

Dec 23

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Nearing the end – Food List catchup + go-to cocktail

Early tomorrow morning we’re headed to Oregon for what is sure to be a lovely week of family, of friends, and of relaxing. I’m looking forward to many good meals, plenty of good wine and beer, lots of time with loved ones, lazy mornings with books and magazines, and enjoying some good old-fashioned Pacific Northwest rain.

I have some work to do as well – you’ll notice there’s a few outstanding items on the list, with only one week to go.  A good friend noted this morning that if I posted a graph of list item completion, you’d see an incredible increase over the last few months, and that is certainly the case.  It was hard to see the urgency in mid-February, but I’ve certainly felt it over the last few weeks.

Cooking

Photo credit: Tawny Mata

As I’ve got plenty of packing left to do before I leave to teach tonight, let’s get right to the update, including one particularly important go-to cocktail: Read more

Dec 19

5 Comments

Awesome New Life food: filled cream wafers and roasted sunchokes, among other things

So. Friday was my last day at work. There’s quite a bit I could talk about here – like the heart-warming, breath-taking support I saw from my coworkers and friends at the college over the past few weeks. Or how exhilarating and terrifying it is to up and jump off the professional path I’ve been on for more than a decade. Or how exciting it is to be sitting here writing this, in the middle of the day on a Monday, at my favorite coffee shop – watching people, watching the weather, watching the Christmas lights twinkle at the cleaners across the street, watching whatever I feel like I want to watch. Not every day will be like this one, but I love knowing that unscheduled days like this one will come along more often, giving me the time to reflect, to experiment, to slow down a little.

Some_crust

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