December 27th - January 2nd
December 27th - January 2nd
Last year, instead of doing resolutions, I did a monthly challenge of doing a different task 20 times each month. 20 times in a month seemed realistic to me. It allowed room for days I forgot or simply didn't feel like doing said thing. They were strategically planned throughout the year to help me be successful. April's challenge was to start the day with a 20-minute dog walk because the weather would start to warm up around then and it would force me to get outside after winter. July was no alcohol for 20 days because we would have returned from our, very delayed, honeymoon and I would most definitely need a little cleanse. Well, I successfully completed the first three months of the year. Then covid happened. Like with a lot of things, I said screw it. My March challenge was to attend 20 yoga classes. On March 15th Marco and I went to a Sunday class together, my 9th class, and the next day everything closed. I finished the challenge at home with online classes but you know, it's not the same! One day I'll challenge myself to do 20 classes again.
For 2021 I don't have resolutions but I have three goals.
To eat different greens. I can get stuck in a routine and stick to what I'm comfortable with. I want to embrace greens that I don't usually reach for at the store. Collard greens, beet greens, cabbage, and Swiss chard are a few on the list.
Subscribe to a local CSA box to eat more local produce and support local farmers. This winter I have been longing for California farmers markets. Weekly farmers markets have always been a big part of my life and living in a place with real seasons kinda screws that up. Our farmers markets only happen from April to November and the good one is 40 minutes away. I'm making it a part of our routine this year to drive down and embrace them while they are available. Finding a CSA box and signing up is on my list of to-dos this week, which will sustain us with local goods when we can't make it to the market and during winter.
I am challenging myself to cook ten recipes from a different cookbook each month...
Here's the deal:
When you like to cook, everyone buys you cookbooks. I have tons of beautiful cookbooks that I have never cooked anything from. I look at them, I display them, and I even bookmark recipes that catch my eye but when I want to cook a specific dish I'll look it up online. I live on my phone, what can I say? This Christmas I received eight cookbooks, EIGHT COOKBOOKS. I have looked through them all and re-organized my bookshelf to put them all on display. During my organizing, I got really honest with myself about how ridiculous it is that I rarely cook from them. My goal is to tackle one book per month, cooking ten recipes from each book. Ten recipes feels doable but if I don't get to all ten that's cool too. For example, if I get to finally go on my two-week honeymoon (three years late) I may only make five recipes. I'm leaving wiggle room and giving myself a little grace when I need it. On the last day of the month, I'll be sending out a bonus newsletter talking about my experience cooking through each book. Doesn't this sound fun?! It sounds fun to me now but I could totally regret this by May. Who knows.
January's book is Where Cooking Begins by Carla Lalli Music. I have had this book for a while and have loosely followed a few recipes from it before. I have a feeling a book like this will be a piece of cake to cook through. I follow Carla closely because her cooking is similar to mine. To challenge myself, I plan to cook from multiple books that intimidate me a little. Like India: The Cookbook which is 960 pages. I know very little about Indian cooking and it will all be new to me. It's January and I among the majority of people saying "what do I cook now?!" am hoping this will keep things fresh, inspire my own cooking, and teach me many new things.
The first half of the week sucked. No sugar coating it. I totally had a post-holiday depression and had zero motivation to do much. Except for taking all the holiday decorations down, reorganizing them, and whipping my label maker out to clearly label everything. That I did enjoy thoroughly.
I made two pasta dishes that blew my mind. Lamb Ragu with Feta and Mint inspired by Colu Henry's video on Youtube and Lobster Fra Diavolo. I started with homemade seafood broth from the Lobster Fra Diavolo that was so flavorful I almost sipped on it straight. I have two more cups that I popped in the freezer to test this recipe out a few more times. Start saving your lobster shells and shrimp tails to make seafood broth!!
Tara O'Brady's Pistachio Rose Shortbread cookies were supposed to get made on Christmas but it just didn't happen. I made them gluten-free using Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour (my ride or die GF flour) and used goat butter. I had fantastic results on achieving shortbread texture from gluten-free flour. I'm not sure why I haven't made gluten-free shortbread before?! Flavor wise, it wasn't life-changing. The recipe could benefit from some adjustments but is worth making.
Marco Rating: "I didn't taste the rose so therefore I give them a 7/10."
We went a classic route for New Year's Eve. We had caviar on Kettle chips with creme fraiche as a happy hour snack. Followed by steaks (bison sirloin for Marco and a 28 day aged rib eye for me), charred...ugh burnt broccolini, and caramelized onion potato au gratin? I never make potatoes au gratin because it is dairy, dairy, and more dairy. I attempted a Marco friendly version using goat milk, manchego, and pecorino cheese. Both made of sheep milk. It was good but not amazing. The flavors were great but the mouthfeel needs some work. I left it in a low oven for some time to keep warm and it continued to cook. The top deeply caramelized and maybe improved it? We drank a bunch of french 75s and Zoomed with some friends. Marco fell asleep on the floor (he was tired, not drunk) well before midnight and that's about it!
We woke up on New Years Day to a beautiful snowstorm. The universe gives you what you need and I needed this!! It snowed the entire day and we ended up with 4-5 inches total. Last year I impulsively grabbed two $10 plastic sleds at Home Depot and we put those bad boys to work! We layered up in our snow clothes and sledded around for hours. We cruised the neighborhood, walking up the hills and sliding down anything we could. We are low on the list to get our streets plowed, bad for driving but great for sledding. Saturday we did the same making our way over to our park where the big hills are and people were snowboarding down them. After a cracked sled and getting significantly banged up (bruised tail bones and whiplash) we had a little après sled around the fire pit in our backyard.
We are going to sled our way over to the grocery store today. Driving in the snow is something I will never enjoy and I failed to prepare us for this storm. I'm predicting a few freezer meals in the upcoming week.
Recipes From This Week:
Lamb Ragu (Inspired by this video)
Lobster Fra Diavolo (Similiar to this recipe)
Thing Everybody Needs:
Mini measuring cup!! I use this multiple times a day to measure everything. Lemon juice, salad dressings, cocktail ingredients...
Animal Cuteness:
Wet snow dog in her puffer jacket.
Random Thing From This Week:
At the end of September, I roasted the last of our summer tomatoes and turned them into soup. I froze half of the batch and we had it for dinner after our sledding. When you have extra soup, pop it in the freezer. Your future self will thank you! Plus you can enjoy summer tomatoes in the middle of a snowstorm.
Book I'm Cooking Through This Month:
Where Cooking Begins, Carla Lalli Music
Recap + review 1/31
If you have snow, go play in it! Run around like a little kid because it feels good. Then make some cookies because that also feels good. Enjoy the little things we have that make life fun.
See you next week,
Marcella
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