2021 New Year’s Resolution

[osprey_archer]

My New Year’s Resolution for 2020 was “try something new each month,” and I am happy to say that I fulfilled it! Although not quite the way my January 2020 self expected, as I intended to try things like “try Ethiopian food” and “visit New York City,” and after February (“paint-your-own pottery”) I was instead doing exciting new things like “experience a global pandemic.”

On a cheerier note, I also tried a lot of new recipes. I’m particularly proud of the progress I’ve made learning to bake yeast bread: not only have I tried a bunch of new recipes (particularly delighted that I can now make myself fresh soft pretzels whenever I want), but I’ve started baking my own bread on the regular. At first this was because it was the only way to get my grocery store visits down to the recommended once every two weeks, but I’ve found that I like having fresh home-baked bread so much that I intend to keep baking it even once we can go to the grocery store with giddy abandon.

(I’ve also found that I like these widely spaced grocery store visits: it makes going to the grocery feel like a treat rather than a chore. Possibly because I always buy myself a treat. But when you’re only going every two-three weeks, that is a perfectly reasonable amount of treats.)

So the resolution didn’t work out quite the way I expected, but nonetheless it worked well, and because my options for fulfilling it were so limited by the exigencies of 2020, I think I’m just going to roll it over for 2021. Maybe I can finally go to an Ethiopian restaurant! Not to mention make good on that trip to New York City… I’ve been faithfully saving my Honeytrap royalties, and I think I have enough for a real blowout trip, and maybe a side jaunt to Massachusetts too.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Happy new year!

[osprey_archer]

Happy new year!

[lucymonster]

Ethiopian food is soooo good. And. really fun to eat, with the injera instead of spoons or forks. I hope you get the chance to visit that restaurant this year!

And fistbump on the quarantine baking. Home-baked bread is satisfying on, like, a spiritual level. I made a pull-apart loaf with homemade pesto recently and felt like Hestia incarnate.

[osprey_archer]

Is the Ethiopian restaurant even still there after such a shitshow year for restaurants? WHO KNOWS. Of course if the New York City trip works out, I definitely should be able to find one there. Ditto a cat cafe.

I have my go-to bread recipe that I probably bake twice a week (it doesn't make a very big loaf), but I should really get back into trying new bread recipes, too. Or just make cinnamon rolls more often, because homemade cinnamon rolls in the oven are absolutely an "I am a domestic goddess" moment.

[lucymonster]

Cinnamon rolls are so goddamn good. ;_; America's Test Kitchen have a quickbread variant that they swear is just as good, but I've been hesitating to try it because a) I don't trust quickbread to be as good as yeast bread under any conditions and b) if I'm wrong and it is just as good, I'll have the power to turn out cinnamon rolls in a mere one hour, which is surely too much power for any mortal to wield.

[osprey_archer]

Counterpoint: surely you need to test this recipe in the name of SCIENCE? And then report back, recipe in tow if it proves to be just as good as it claims.

[asakiyume]

I'm tangentially very impressed that you were able to keep your grocery visits down to every two weeks! Not just the bread... how about milk? But maybe you don't use a lot of milk (or any milk)? I think we were able to keep it to maybe once every five days when we were being really strict. Now, probably once every three? IT'S THE MILK, I TELL YOU.

What do you get for treats when you go?

[osprey_archer]

I'm lactose intolerant, so I really only use milk for cooking - and I tend to use buttermilk (for pancakes, biscuits, etc), which lasts longer.

Trader Joe's sells dark chocolate almond laceys, which are basically discs of chocolate with crumbled almonds in them. They are addictive! But last time they were out, so I had to get molten chocolate lava cakes instead.

[asakiyume]

I really need to remember key data like that you're lactose intolerant.

Those almond laceys sound wonderful--for people who like dark chocolate, which I don't, but I can appreciate the concept of them, at least!

[osprey_archer]

No worries! The only friends' dietary issues I can keep track of are the ones I feed regularly; I forget everyone else's.

They also have a milk chocolate macadamia lacey, which might be more to your taste! (Last time I was at the store, someone had bought out BOTH types of laceys. The horror, the horror.)

[asakiyume]

Mmmmm, much more my cup of ... chocolate ;-)