Point of Fact: I have never been a fan of resolutions. It seems that New Years resolutions are made to be broken and I'm just not that kind of girl. I'm a stick-to-it kind of a girl. So at the end of 2011 when I sat down to think of the things I wanted to dip my toe into and dabble with this year I decided to write "2012 goals" at the top of the page instead of resolutions. I thought I'd take a moment to post them here so I can cross them off as I accomplish them. Plus if you read my blog on a regular basis (and I've come to realize that some of you do, which humbles me that other people actually want to see what I'm up to) you'll get a little peak into some of the stuff you'll be seeing here this upcoming year.
1. Last year I set myself a goal to learn how to knit. I was only ever able to knit a scarf. Granted, I could knit you a scarf any color, length, or width that you wanted, but still...it was only a scarf. By the end of the year I was knitting all kinds of stuff. I still haven't done a sweater, and I want to, but this year I've decided to set aside my knitting needles a little bit and pick up a crochet hook. So one of my goals for 2012 is to learn how to crochet.
2. Another skill I want to pick up this year is soap making. This is something I've wanted to learn how to do for years. I'm not talking about glycerin soap, I'm talking soap made from lye. So I'm going to set aside any excuses I might have made up and really do it this year. I really like the DIY approach to life so adding soap making to my skills set seems like a natural step for me.
3. I'm a lady with ideas. Last year I came up two ideas for books. One is for a children's book that was inspired by my daughter Lily. I started playing with the story last year. This year I want to finish the story and work on the art. I might not get all of the art done for it but I at least want to make headway on it.
I also have come up with an idea for a cookbook. I already have 10 recipes made for it and I have a dozen more ideas sketched out in my food journal. This year I want to finish 20 more recipes for it.
I realize that these books might never make it to publication. There are many books that never get picked up by a publisher. However, it is something I have always wanted to do. At the very least I can privately publish a few copies and give them out to friends and families.
4. There is one thing I plan to eliminate from my house completely this year...diapers. Jude will be turning 3 this year. He is showing all the signs that he is ready to be potty trained (yea!). Honestly I think he was ready to start around Thanksgiving, but I wasn't. I was waiting until the dust from charcutepalooza had settled and I could focus clearly again. So today he is trotting around the house in his big-boy underwear and I'm keeping a positive attitude, and my fingers crossed.
5. The last thing I wanted to work on this year was food related. I know, I know, it's shocking. Who would have thought that a blog primarily based around food would have a goal based on food for the new year? I really have charcutepalooza to thank for this. During the past year I really started to push myself in the kitchen. It felt great to get my creative juices going in the kitchen. It was exciting for me. When charcutepalooza was coming to a close a bunch of us were wanting to continue, we wanted to learn more, to create more. Instead of picking up a new skill set I decided I wanted to learn more about different cultures foods.
I have found myself avoiding certain cultures foods because recipes will call for specialty ingredients that spoil if not used quickly enough. The problem is that unless you are cooking that type of food, or food that is inspired by that cultures food, you might not use those specialty ingredients fast enough. This means that a lot of ingredients go to waste. Fish sauce and miso are two examples of those kinds of specialty ingredients in my house.
So I came up with an idea...why not immerse myself in a cultures food for an extended period of time. By cooking a regions food repeatedly tow things will happen. First, I will not be letting those specialty ingredients go to waste. Second, I will be growing as a cook. The problem that I ran into was how to divide the world.
Any cultures food is affected by several things. The first is location. Weather is what originally controlled what could be grown in a specific region of the world. You won't be growing mangos in a desert. Then trade routes came along and started mixing up the spices and herbs used in different countries in the world. Bigger countries started to take over smaller countries claiming them as territories further influencing regional foods. On and on it went, so how do you split all of that up in a manageable fashion? I pulled out and atlas and took a good look.
I had a time frame of keeping this challenge to a year in length. I quickly realized that this was not going to be possible. The smallest I could group the different regions of the world was into 7 groups. I wanted to spend more than a month in each area. I decided to push it to being a two year challenge instead. This way I can spend 3 months cooking foods from each area. That will leave 3 months at the end for fusion food fun ;) I honestly feel that 3 months is barely enough time to get your feet wet in any ethnicity's food but it's a good way to introduce yourself to new ingredients that you might not have bothered with before.
I'm not sure if anybody else would have any interest in this type of a self challenge but if any of you guys would want to join in and play along for all of it, for part of it, for any of it, it might be fun to learn something new together. There isn't going to be any "prize" except for learning something new and becoming a more informed cook. At least those are my goals for doing this.
The way I divided the world was by using the following seven oceans/seas; N. pacific, S. Pacific, N. Atlantic, S. Atlantic, Arctic, Mediterranean, and the Indian ocean. I will choose one of those bodies of water and all the countries bordering it or nearer to it than to another ocean will be where I will be cooking from for those 3 months. I will find several good cookbooks from those regions and list them here on my blog. Then I will get to cooking and share what I'm up to and learning about at least twice a month. You'll know which posts they are because they will carry the #sevenseas hash tag that I will be using specifically for these posts. If you want to play along let me know either in the comments section, on twitter, via facebook, or you can e-mail me. Heck, send out smoke-signals I'll keep my eyes to the skies ;) If you do a post for #sevenseas let me know and I'll include a link to your blog the next post that I do. I'm planning on starting around Valentines day. By Feb 1st I'll decide where I'm going to start and put a a post introducing that area along with some cookbooks that will be useful.
So that's what I plan on doing this upcoming year. What new endeavors do you want to tackle in 2012?
Not a scarf
1. Last year I set myself a goal to learn how to knit. I was only ever able to knit a scarf. Granted, I could knit you a scarf any color, length, or width that you wanted, but still...it was only a scarf. By the end of the year I was knitting all kinds of stuff. I still haven't done a sweater, and I want to, but this year I've decided to set aside my knitting needles a little bit and pick up a crochet hook. So one of my goals for 2012 is to learn how to crochet.
2. Another skill I want to pick up this year is soap making. This is something I've wanted to learn how to do for years. I'm not talking about glycerin soap, I'm talking soap made from lye. So I'm going to set aside any excuses I might have made up and really do it this year. I really like the DIY approach to life so adding soap making to my skills set seems like a natural step for me.
3. I'm a lady with ideas. Last year I came up two ideas for books. One is for a children's book that was inspired by my daughter Lily. I started playing with the story last year. This year I want to finish the story and work on the art. I might not get all of the art done for it but I at least want to make headway on it.
I also have come up with an idea for a cookbook. I already have 10 recipes made for it and I have a dozen more ideas sketched out in my food journal. This year I want to finish 20 more recipes for it.
I realize that these books might never make it to publication. There are many books that never get picked up by a publisher. However, it is something I have always wanted to do. At the very least I can privately publish a few copies and give them out to friends and families.
5. The last thing I wanted to work on this year was food related. I know, I know, it's shocking. Who would have thought that a blog primarily based around food would have a goal based on food for the new year? I really have charcutepalooza to thank for this. During the past year I really started to push myself in the kitchen. It felt great to get my creative juices going in the kitchen. It was exciting for me. When charcutepalooza was coming to a close a bunch of us were wanting to continue, we wanted to learn more, to create more. Instead of picking up a new skill set I decided I wanted to learn more about different cultures foods.
I have found myself avoiding certain cultures foods because recipes will call for specialty ingredients that spoil if not used quickly enough. The problem is that unless you are cooking that type of food, or food that is inspired by that cultures food, you might not use those specialty ingredients fast enough. This means that a lot of ingredients go to waste. Fish sauce and miso are two examples of those kinds of specialty ingredients in my house.
So I came up with an idea...why not immerse myself in a cultures food for an extended period of time. By cooking a regions food repeatedly tow things will happen. First, I will not be letting those specialty ingredients go to waste. Second, I will be growing as a cook. The problem that I ran into was how to divide the world.
Any cultures food is affected by several things. The first is location. Weather is what originally controlled what could be grown in a specific region of the world. You won't be growing mangos in a desert. Then trade routes came along and started mixing up the spices and herbs used in different countries in the world. Bigger countries started to take over smaller countries claiming them as territories further influencing regional foods. On and on it went, so how do you split all of that up in a manageable fashion? I pulled out and atlas and took a good look.
I had a time frame of keeping this challenge to a year in length. I quickly realized that this was not going to be possible. The smallest I could group the different regions of the world was into 7 groups. I wanted to spend more than a month in each area. I decided to push it to being a two year challenge instead. This way I can spend 3 months cooking foods from each area. That will leave 3 months at the end for fusion food fun ;) I honestly feel that 3 months is barely enough time to get your feet wet in any ethnicity's food but it's a good way to introduce yourself to new ingredients that you might not have bothered with before.
I'm not sure if anybody else would have any interest in this type of a self challenge but if any of you guys would want to join in and play along for all of it, for part of it, for any of it, it might be fun to learn something new together. There isn't going to be any "prize" except for learning something new and becoming a more informed cook. At least those are my goals for doing this.
The way I divided the world was by using the following seven oceans/seas; N. pacific, S. Pacific, N. Atlantic, S. Atlantic, Arctic, Mediterranean, and the Indian ocean. I will choose one of those bodies of water and all the countries bordering it or nearer to it than to another ocean will be where I will be cooking from for those 3 months. I will find several good cookbooks from those regions and list them here on my blog. Then I will get to cooking and share what I'm up to and learning about at least twice a month. You'll know which posts they are because they will carry the #sevenseas hash tag that I will be using specifically for these posts. If you want to play along let me know either in the comments section, on twitter, via facebook, or you can e-mail me. Heck, send out smoke-signals I'll keep my eyes to the skies ;) If you do a post for #sevenseas let me know and I'll include a link to your blog the next post that I do. I'm planning on starting around Valentines day. By Feb 1st I'll decide where I'm going to start and put a a post introducing that area along with some cookbooks that will be useful.
So that's what I plan on doing this upcoming year. What new endeavors do you want to tackle in 2012?
I made soap for the first time with a friend a few months back - and I love the end result. It's a task.i too want to master in 2012.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would love to play along for #sevenseas. Here's to great discoveries in the year ahead!