back to basics

I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions, but in 2008 I did set up a couple of goals to work towards. One goal was to try a new food each month, another was to buy myself flowers each month, and the third goal was to take up running. I did fairly well with the first goal; I didn’t schedule a new food to try each month, but I did step outside of the box and try several new foods, including scallops, oysters, figs, pomegranates (the actual fruit), quince, butternut squash, sausage (ok, that wasn’t entirely new, but I dislike sausage and yet tried one at a Brazilian BBQ)… that’s all I can remember at the moment, but I also expanded my repetoire with cooking and canning (I canned preserves for the first time ever!).

I didn’t buy new flowers every month, but I did expand my garden a bit this year (or tried to, as we first had major flooding and then went through a bit of a drought). The running fell through when I threw my back out late last winter. I tried to take up running as I was still healing, and I ended up making things worse. So, that one I gave up for the year.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my progress, and now I’m looking forward to 2009. I would like to expand my cooking skills even more, and I am working on cleaning up my diet more. I already do a pretty good job with consuming few processed foods, now it’s time to cut down on the saturated fat and refined flours. I almost included sugar in that goal, but I really don’t overdo the sugar unless it’s combined with white flour.

The final goal is to continue to eat more fruits and vegetables, and to work out creative ways to add them to my cooking. I’m seriously considering participating in a CSA this summer both to try new things, but also to force myself to create dishes based on the food that is available. We’ll see.

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