What I'm Setting: Goals for the New Year

{photo credit: tomKphoto from our 2009 wedding,

 yeah, I totes used this photo last year, too}

2013 was a good year -- I learned how to cross-country ski, D and I traveled to California to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday and do some wine-tasting in the Napa Valley, and we bought our first house (with 60+ acres). As the new year begins, I thought I'd take some time to write down some of my goals for 2014. I figure putting it out there will help hold me accountable, right? 

1. Hone my cooking skills. This year, I would like to attend an intensive culinary boot camp course to become a better cook in the kitchen. As a corollary, I would like to have more friends over for dinner this year. Guess we need to reclaim our dining set from my in-laws in Michigan, where it has been in storage since our (small apartment) Philly days.

2. Turn off the technology. I have to admit I am one of those people who obsessively check their phones/social media. (Ugh, so annoying!) This year I'd like to use technology less in my downtime and read/write more often. I think implementing tech-free evenings in our household would be a good thing! 

3. Eat healthfully and mindfully. Given that I write a food blog, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I love eating food. This year, I would like to remind myself to eat more healthfully and mindfully. I am a huge lover of sweets and carbs (and as a Wisconsin resident, I can't forget to mention my love for cheese), but given that my metabolism appears to no longer be my friend (if it ever was), I need to start watching what I eat a bit more closely. I've flirted with the idea of trying the Whole 30 or going paleo, but honestly, I'm more about moderation versus restriction when it comes to the food I eat. I think it wouldn't hurt to lower my intake of carbs and dairy, but I'm not going to completely knock it out of my diet. 

4. Get back in the gym/workout habit. I have a history of going gung-ho on my fitness and then letting it drop to the wayside. Last winter and spring I attended spinning classes once or twice a week at our local Y, but when the noon classes stopped during the summer session (and didn't resume in the fall), let's just say that my gym attendance took a nose-dive. I took a gander at the upcoming winter session's schedule and I was happy to see that it is chock-full of noon-time classes this time around. Hopefully this will motivate me to get back to the gym. That and the fact that I'm staring down a girlfriend vacay to Mexico in five months. Quantitatively, I would like to get in at least 20 minutes of exercise every day (in addition to my daily walk with Leroy -- well, when it's not -20 out, or -5, for that matter). 

5. Grow (some) of our own food. Our goal in buying a house on large acreage was to start growing/raising some of our own food. D just put an order in for heritage breed chicks, which are set to arrive in early June. We would like to raise both layers and broilers. I'm not looking forward to the harvesting portion of events, but it does make me feel good that I will know exactly how the food I eat was raised and dispatched (as it were). We also plan to get our garden going this year, though on a small-scale. In addition, we plan to plant several apple trees and get a berry patch going. It should be a busy year on the farm this summer! 

What are your goals for the New Year?

What I'm Making: New Year's Resolutions

{photo credit: tomKphoto from our 2009 wedding}

Happy 2013! It's so prosaic to say it, but I swear 2012 really flew by. We began the year in Philadelphia and ended it in Northern Wisconsin. In July, we traveled to California for a family wedding in Fresno and then spent a fabulous week in Yosemite where D and I conquered both the Half Dome and Clouds Rest hikes. Other travels included trips to Florida and Chicago to meet up with my group of girlfriends from grad school and an unforgettable trip to Alaska courtesy of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute in early September.

This summer, after moving to Wisconsin in June, we spent much of our free time with our real estate agent searching for homes -- I think we're going to put the home search on hiatus during the winter months and finally have some time to enjoy our surroundings. Though I may not be up for ice fishing or snowmobiling, I am looking forward to giving cross-country skiing a whirl and getting back into snowshoeing, one of our favorite wintertime activities when we lived in Wyoming. Next Spring/Summer I'd love to do some hiking in the area and get back on my bike; we've heard a lot of good things about road biking in the area.

Clearly ... getting to know my surroundings better is at the top of my New Year's resolutions. Another of my resolutions is to get back into the fitness game (speaking of things that are prosaic...). Following our move, I fell off the fitness wagon; I was so spoiled with fitness-related opportunities in Philly -- what with my gym just a few blocks away, my yoga studio less than a block away, and a number of unique fitness options, including Body Cycle Studio (spinning) and Lithe Method classes just a short walk (and budget-friendly Groupon) away. This year I'd like to get back into running (prior to the holidays I was working on a simple 9-mile/week running schedule to ease myself back in to the running game) and try out some of the classes on offer at our local YMCA. I'd also like to give a couple yoga studios a whirl, both in town and just south of town in Wausau. I haven't had much luck finding a good power vinyassa class in the area ... but I don't think I can justify a 6-hr roundtrip drive to Madison just to take a class at Dragonfly Hot Yoga.

As to the blog, I think I'm going to start off the year by moving from a five posts/week schedule to a three posts/week schedule (most likely Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). It's funny ... I went to a blogging conference a couple of years ago where I attended a panel discussion about food blogging. One of the panelists mentioned that her key to success was "quantity over quality" (something the other panelists vehemently disagreed with), and I remember thinking to myself that that sounded like horrible advice. And yet, I find that over the past year, I have definitely posted for the sake of posting rather than really thinking about the quality of the post. This year, I'd like to focus more on my writing -- many of the blogs that I myself prefer to read have excellent writing, and that's something I definitely aspire to.

In terms of food-related resolutions, I would like to get back to consistent menu-planning. Over the past few months I have stepped away from planning our meals in advance, and I think that frustrates both D and myself when dinnertime rolls around and neither of us has any idea what to make, and/or we don't have the ingredients we need on hand. I also want to be better at not wasting food. I think menu-planning will help with this resolution, as will sticking to a grocery list. Finally, I have a major love for cookbooks -- I have an entire bookcase dedicated to them in our kitchen. This year I'd like to make at least one meal a week from a cookbook. I don't think I have the dedication (or desire really) to cook straight through a single cookbook; our tastes are too varied and I'm a bit picky, so I don't think it would be a useful exercise for us.

In the end, though, all I really would like for 2013 is to have a year full of good health, plenty of time with friends and family, and lots of delicious food -- and I wish the same for you.

Thanks for reading!

Holiday Shenanigans: Florida Edition

D and I spent Christmas together at home in Philly. After opening presents in the morning, I whipped up a batch of Alton Brown's french toast for breakfast. In the afternoon, we went for a long walk around the neighborhood with the dog; it was quite nice as not many people were up and about. A special bonus of the empty city was that we were able to score a parking spot for our car right in front of our building -- that rarely happens! Our Christmas dinner featured a small roasted chicken, mashed fingerling potatoes, homemade stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

After spending a quiet Christmas at home, at 4 a.m. on the 26th, D and I packed up the car (and the dog), and hit the road for an 18-hour road trip. Our destination? Lakeland, Florida, home to D's grandparents. After all was said and done, we arrived in Lakeland around 10:30 p.m. Our GPS originally predicted that we'd arrive at our destination around 8:30 p.m.; but a spate of bad traffic (and accidents) in South Carolina added in two additional hours.

Since we had Leroy with us, we opted to stay in a hotel since dogs are not allowed in D's grandparent's neighborhood. The morning after our arrival, we started what would be a morning ritual of heading to Lake Parker Park to work off some of Leroy's energy by walking one of the many lakeside pathways in the park.

{morning views and avian fauna at Lake Parker Park}

Highlights of our visit with D's grandparents included several rounds of Grandpa Bronson's famous brandy alexanders, watching a 3-D movie on their fancy TV, being entertained by dinner theatre in Orlando (somebody please do a documentary on a behind-the-scenes look at the Capone's actors: I'm dying to know their backstories), and learning how to play stupid, a card game (which I won! Woot!). Here are a few photos from our trip to Florida:

{Grandpa Bronson and his famous brandy alexanders}

{enjoying my first brandy alexander of our stay}

{watching a 3-D movie wearing our cool glasses}

{dinner theatre at Capone's -- a picture says a 1000 words}

{ready to enjoy an evening card game}

{dealing cards}

Leroy was a surprisingly well-behaved houseguest and it didn't take long before he let both Grandma and Grandpa Bronson pet and handle him. There may be hope for our little rescue dog after all! After spending four days in Florida, we packed everything back up again and hit the road early on the 30th. We made it back to Philly around 10:30 p.m. and after schlepping several loads of stuff back into our house (ok, D schlepped most of the stuff while I chilled with the dog in the car, which was illegally parked on the street), we soon called it a night.

New Year's Eve was another low-key holiday for us; D had the sudden onset of a cold, so we opted to stay in for the night. We feasted on a dinner of herb-roasted chicken breasts along with leftover stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce from our Christmas meal. Somehow we managed to stay up until midnight and toasted with a glass of champagne before heading to bed. And there you have it! A full report on our holiday shenanigans from Christmas to New Years. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!