New Year’s Resolutions: Why Not a Resolution a Week?

I was contemplating New Year’s resolutions the other day. I have never really been one to set a New Year’s resolution. Maybe it’s because I know I won’t fulfill it.

That said, I think humans need Jan. 1 each year. We need (or at least I do) something that symbolizes a chance to start over – to start fresh. We all need another try at that elusive goal.

My problem is that a year feels like a long time to work toward what is usually an overly ambitious or at least overwhelming or vague goal to start with. Lose 20 pounds? That sounds like a lot of work. Exercise every day? That might last a week. Be happy? That’s a universal challenge.

So I have a new idea: What if I try to hold myself to a resolution a week?

I know, I know – why would I want one a week if I can’t even handle one a year?

The Recipes that Lived to See Another Year for the Holidays

Last year I hosted my first Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. I may have gone a little overboard creating a menu, but everything turned out great thanks to my husband's contribution of a detailed calendar of when to put what in the oven, etc.

My parents hosted Thanksgiving this year, and my husband requested I bring two dishes from last year: maple-mashed sweet potatoes and chorizo cornbread stuffing.

Most of my Thanksgiving menu last year was courtesy Rachael Ray, whose recipes I have surprisingly come to love. I'm not much of a daytime talk show viewer, given that I work full-time away from the home, and I really don't spend a lot of time on the Food Network. Though that is slowly changing! Sunday mornings are my favorite time to turn the Food Network on and just let it run while I'm making pancakes and eggs. Anyway, long story short, after a successful Thanksgiving with her recipes, I've tried others and they've also been great.

I highly recommend the maple-mashed sweet potatoes. They are mashed with, you guessed it, real maple syrup - and butter. How can you go wrong? 

You can find the recipe I used here:

• Maple-Mashed Sweet Potatoes

And the chorizo cornbread stuffing ... yum ... it's perfect for me because I LOVE stuffing, but I avoid gluten. That's a tough one. If you make this recipe, use Pamela's Cornbread and Muffin Mix. It's the perfect amount of sweetness, and beats out any other cornbread ready-made mix that I've tried. And no I'm not being paid to say that. I honestly think that that mix helps make this stuffing work.

You can find the recipe I used for this stuffing here:

• Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing

Enjoy!

How to Plant Garlic in the Winter for Early Summer Harvest

I'm a newbie to the gardening game, so imagine my excitement when I found out that I could plant some veggies in the fall to have them appear in spring or early summer.

Love it.

And with all the cooking I've been doing lately, I have discovered I use a lot of garlic. So why not start my fall planting experiment with garlic.

I started by breaking apart the garlic into individual cloves, keeping the thin shells on each.

Ripening Tomatoes Indoors: It's Easy

My garden was a little delayed in harvesting thanks to a little thing called flooding in Colorado this year. It water-logged most of my plants right at prime harvest time.

So after things dried up, I cleaned up the fruits that were no good, and decided to let the remaining tomatoes in particular hang out for a bit in the garden.

When I could finally hold out no longer, I took the tomatoes - mostly my San Marzanos - off the plant, placed them in a box in the hopes that they would ripen in my kitchen. I had nothing to lose really.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Crema

I discovered Foodie Crush the other day; in particular this recipe on the blog – Chipotle Shrimp Burritos with Simple Avocado Crema.

One word: Awesome.

How did I come upon this recipe? I bought chipotle in adobo sauce to make tacos out of the cookbook, Salsas and Tacos, I got for my birthday in September. If you’re interested in checking that out, visit the Santa Fe Cooking School’s online store here.

I wasn’t really sure how the tacos, which involved shredded chicken with chipotle seasoning as well as a sour cream (crème fraiche is what it actually calls for) sauce blended with the abovementioned chipotles in adobo sauce. Turns out, I really liked it.

Red Posole: Using Ancho Chiles, Hominy & Queso Fresco for the First Time

I made this recipe the other day - Rachael Ray's Red Pork Posole - sans the pickled onions. It was delicious!

It took me three to four hours and was an education in using a couple of new ingredients (to me).

Ancho chiles: 

The Great Potato Harvest of 2013 (Kind Of)

I planted clearance potatoes halfway through the summer. Some say that planting potatoes later in the summer can fool the bugs, and may prevent some pest problems.

I'm not sure. But they were cheap, I hadn't ever tried potatoes, and I had space. So I bought some that I normally wouldn't, and tested them out. Why not?

Here was my grand harvest, all 11 of them:

Potatoes, fresh from the garden

Now granted, I have never grown potatoes before, and wasn't sure what the best practices were. I didn't realize that once the plants reach 6-8 inches tall, you mound the soil around it so that just 4 inches or so are showing. That will increase your yield if you continue to do that over the summer.

The beauty of being a beginning gardener is that you learn more every year. Next year, I'm going to try out grow bags from Gardener's Supply.

I'd like to use them for both potatoes and for sweet potatoes, which we eat quite a lot of and are supposed to store well. Seems like an easy way to keep them away from the weeds in my garden ... which I'm still fighting post-flood ... and keep them away from pests.

I ate my entire potato harvest tonight with the assistance of my man; I have to say, breakfast for dinner is the best! And the potatoes, like all food fresh from a garden, tasted so good!