Three weeks (and two days) and I haven’t flubbed any of my 2007 resolutions. You’re impressed, right?
I’ve been keeping track of the resolutions I made for the year with the goal-setting-slash-social-networking site 43Things. I’m not going to share the whole list (although if you’re stalkerish enough, you could probably find me) but here’s my food-related goals of 2007:
Learn to bake. For several weeks this fall, my list of blog post ideas had the following item: cake autopsy. That’s how appalling my cake had been — unfit for anything but scientific dissection. However, in the past month, I’ve successfully baked not one, but two cakes, thanks to One Cake, One Hundred Desserts. Now that I can bake an edible cake, I’m going to take on pie crust and one “ooh, nice!” dessert.
Cook something I haven’t cooked before every week. This is the college blow-off course of the lot seeing as I’m pretty sure I do this anyway. It’s there for me to go, dude, I totally did this! and then congratulate myself with some pie.
Prepare wonderful bento lunches. I actually used to do this, but when the summer vegetable season waned, it got harder to pack a good looking lunch that wouldn’t spoil at room temperature. This week, my husband’s office relocates to a place with two of those newfangled gizmos — a refrigerator and a microwave — so expect more Hell Bent for Bento posts soon.
Compost my garbage. Just this morning, I found myself elbow-deep in the trash, fishing out a used coffee pod in order to compost it. That’s how committed to this goal I am. I don’t know why this goal geeks me out, but I love dropping off a big bag of rotting food scraps at the Greenmarket every week. Speaking of which…
Visit the Greenmarket at least once a week (even in winter). By now, I think everyone knows some of the reasons to eat locally grown food. However, like most mammals, I’d much rather stay in my nice warm burrow and make FreshDirect bring potatoes and apples to my door, instead of venturing down to Union Square every week.
What about you? Did you make any food-related resolutions this year?
A book I’d recommend for the cake baking goal is Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cake Bible. Her recipes are meticulously detailed (some complain that they are too detailed but I disagree) and she has lots of technical information about why certain steps are necessary, the outcome that results, etc., etc., etc. Just the thing for getting geeky about cake baking.
That sounds great — that’s what I like about the book I’ve been using, which I’m just going to start referring to as “1/100″ because it’s too much to type out every time.
Anyway, that’s what I like about “1/100″: it’s very specific on why and how the cake works. I’m going to have to get “Cake Bible” from the library.
Sorry to be off topic, but I don’t see an email address for you. Can ya believe Trainwrecks (which is how I found your site – as in, through the comments) is kaputsky? Holy [cow]!!!
I missed the drama, just wondered why nothing new was coming through my feed reader. Doh.
On topic: I am all about the Bento plan. Have you seen the boxes offered by Laptop Lunches? Room temperature no more!
Hands down the best baking book: Baking Illustrated.
“Cook something I haven’t cooked before every week”
I think I’m going to make myself do this one.
Also:
http://www.idontlikeyouinthatway.com/2007/01/rachael-ray-is-drunk.html
My unofficial (because I can’t shake the slight distaste I have for official resolutions) food resolutions were:
1. At least half of the beef I eat should be grassfed
2. Increase the amount of locally produced food I consume
3. Plan my meals weekly and reduce the amount of eating out we do
So far, so good. My meal plans/grocery lists are pretty awe-inducing. I think almost all the beef I have consumed since the new year has been grass-fed and I am making a serious effort to buy locally produced food by visiting the local farmer’s market weekly.
I agree with Cake Bible! I’m not a baker and even I’ve had success with the book.
I hadn’t come up with anything good as far as “food resolutions.” Now I need to ponder this. I do want to come up with more creative lunches for work besides dinner leftovers or cheese and crackers.
Sarah: I saw that! Today, my husband and were talking about changing the name of blog to “I shot Rachael Ray” and see if that gets me more readers.
Kate: I just wrote you a letter! I’m going to continue our conversation on grass-fed beef in my next letter.
Andrea: I really think creative lunches hinge on having cute containers to put them in. My friend Eun-Duk and I keep saying we’re going to the Mitsuwa Marketplace in NJ soon on a bento expedition — if you want to go bento shopping, you should come with us.