Looking Forward

This year was…well, I was about to say shitty, but it had a couple landmarks in it that prevent me from calling the whole year a complete wash.

Still, I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking forward to the fresh start the new year will bring in a couple weeks.  I love (LOVE) making new year’s resolutions.  If you don’t believe me, check out one of my own posts: here.  Seems like there’s always room for improvement or just change, and I’m all about making changes for the better in my life.

So here is the short list of the things I’ve decided 2011 holds for me:

#1:  The start of a promising career.  In case you were wondering, that means I will be a practicing attorney.  Emphasis on the word “practicing.”  No more dilly-dallying around folks.  I’m ready to put my JD to work.  This goal goes hand-in-hand with equally important goals of financial stability.

#2:  Geographic Stability.  I’ll explain in the unlikely event that this phrase is unclear to anyone.  I’m tired of being a nomad.  I’m ready to put down some roots and get to the business of becoming an upstanding member of a community.  This requires that I find a community, and that I be upstanding.  I think both are within my means.  This means I will be able to do things like join co-ed kickball teams, help out with local fundraisers, and have a coffee shop barrista know my name.  (Note:  please do not burst my bubble if this is in fact not a true reflection of what it means to be an upstanding member of a community.  I do not care to know.)  This kind of stability also means that I will have a residence, and I will finally be able to say “I am FROM __(insert awesome mountain town here)____” with a giant grin on my face.  Having a residence also means people can visit me, and I can make them banana bread.

#3.  Tourist Extraordinaire.  Assuming the first two are accomplished, I want to then leave my residence for short periods of time to visit places I am not familiar with in the slightest.  Number one, and most important stop is this place:

This is Atlantis.  Obviously it is not lost in the ocean.  It is an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas.  Yes.  I want to go to there.  You can go too.  All you have to do is ask, and I will tell you how that is possible.  Ask me, because this destination would be ten times better with a bunch of friends there. 🙂

I’m slowly adding places to my list, but so far that is the only one that is completely set in stone.  I am going to the Bahamas.  I plan to extend my travel places as the year progresses.  But I think that one is a good start.

#4.  Complete and total health and happiness amongst my entire family.  Yes, I am aware that this one is not something I can control or even have influence over.  Other than my own efforts to keep myself healthy and happy.  Still, I think my family deserves an entire year without medical emergencies and hospital visits.  That may not be possible, but I’m still going to cross my fingers for it as the ball drops in a couple weeks.

That’s all I got so far.  By the by, one of my resolutions for this year was to read 20 books just for fun.  Mission accomplished!  I’ll post the list another time.  I think another one was to cook more — definitely mission accomplished with that one.  Tomorrow I’m having friends over for a “Bake Off.”  Not really a competition, just a way to get the gang together and make a bunch of buttery treats simultaneously!  I’ll take pics, and post next time.  Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend!

Today

I cooked.

And baked.

And it was good.  🙂

Dish#1:  Asparagus Risotto

I borrowed that picture from simplyrecipes.com by the way.  Mine looks a little different because I used wild rice in my risotto.  What is risotto you ask?  Well http://www.ochef.com is here to answer you!

Risotto is an Italian rice dish. It is made by briefly sautéing the rice in olive oil or butter (often with some onion), then adding a little bit of stock, stirring almost constantly until the rice absorbs the stock, then adding a bit more stock, stirring, adding, stirring, adding until it’s done. It usually takes between 20 and 30 minutes of stirring. When it’s done, the rice is cooked through and bound in a wonderful creamy sauce that is made as the starch leaches out of the rice grains and combines with the stock.

So that is what I made, tossing in some asparagus and tomatoes for good measure.  It turned out a tad salty, but overall pretty good.  I think in my future risotto endeavors, I will overlook any suggestion in a recipe that I add any more salt to it.

#2:  Pork Chops with a Maple Syrup/Apple Cider reduction sauce

That is pretty much what it looked like.  Thank you this time to ellysaysopa.com.  I was a tad remiss in taking my own pictures of my delicious confections today.  Thankfully, there are many other pictures out there of approximately the same thing.  The maple syrup/apple cider reduction was amazing.  I’m a sucker for sweets, and this brought out a beautiful flavor in the pork chops I think.

I also took the liberty of making dessert earlier on in the day.

#3:  Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

The recipe for this I got on cookinglight.com, at the wise suggestion of my sister.  These are pretty simple cookies, but I think turned out rather well.  I thought it was interesting that they required almond paste, and had a little trouble locating the stuff at first.  Plus, you have to grate the almond paste, which I have to admit was a tad arduous.  I guess that the saying is true though, nothing worth having comes easy.

I also made some banana bread, from a recipe I found on Tasty Kitchen.  We had a bunch of bananas going they way all bananas go after sitting out for more than a week.  So I made a healthy banana bread from cooking light a couple days ago, and decided that the remaining bananas would be used for a…less healthy banana bread.  The one I made today has chocolate chips in it.  I think that was an excellent decision.

I don’t really know what came over me today.  It was a tad cloudy outside all day, and I woke up feeling like our kitchen was dying to be used.  Yes, our kitchen has feelings.  I have big plans for the week ahead in the cooking department.  I’ve been given free reign to explore the depths of our giant freezer in the basement and figure out what I can do with all the food in there.  Thats where the pork chops came from, dontcha know!  I’m fairly certain there are a lot of other goodies in there, just waiting to be thawed, and cooked in some new and unique way.

Plus, tis the season for scrummy crunch.  Don’t know what scrummy crunch is?  You poor, poor soul.  You’ll just have to wait until I make some.

I’m hoping tomorrow brings a little more sunshine, and a little more motivation to clean out our insane pantry.

Forgiveness

First, watch this:

This morning, I went to yoga.  This was the first yoga class I have been to where we were expected to audibly *ohm* during various exhales.  Certainly added a new element to the practice of breathing.  Our instructor was also very big on forgiveness this morning.  As she walked amongst us, struggling to maintain equilibrium in crescent moon so as not to fall over onto our faces, she would repetitiously encourage each breath to signify some form of forgiveness.  To choose to forgive ourselves, others, to release this “thing” of forgiveness into the world and thereby release ourselves from emotional baggage.  (I’m paraphrasing of course).  I found out at the end of class that she is studying to become a psychologist.  We must be an experiment for her.

I have to admit though, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about forgiveness.  I’d like to think that I forgive pretty easily.  However, its been a rough year, and some of the things that have happened this year are difficult to forgive.  Forgive is defined as “to cease to blame or hold resentment against.”  Simply to cease, to stop, to just let go of whatever/whoever it is that has “wronged” you.  Easier said than done, right?

In other news, I have decided that someday I will build a house that is an exact replica of a colonial era Williamsburg house.

And I have the KC Kappa Homes Tour to thank!  They had one of these homes on the tour, built 11 years ago here in KC, and was an exact replica of a colonial era Williamsburg house.  Down to the exact kind of door hinges that were used.  They even had wooden floors that were beveled with a can-opener.  Plus a wine cellar with 15,000 bottles of wine in it.  Now you know why I want one.  I’ll probably just skip the can-opener floorboards though.  Gotta cut costs somewhere, right?