Manda Monday: I hereby resolve...

Happy 2012!

I'm back with my New Year's resolutions.  Last year, I resolved to make all bread and cakes from scratch. I can proudly report that for the most part, I did just that. 99% of all cakes were made from scratch, and the cakes that started with a box mix were doctored up with so many extra ingredients that they might as well have been from scratch.  As for the bread, I'd say about 70% of it was homemade.  My bread machine isn't the best, but I am trying to make it work.  From this experience, I know I will never (unless it is a Sock It To Me cake) go back to box cake mixes, and I'll continue to make bread from scratch as often as I can.

And while it wasn't a resolution for 2011, I did become a gardener, so I feel really good about that. 

For 2012, I have a few resolutions:

1. Try a new dinner recipe twice a month.  My dinner menu repertoire has gotten extremely boring. There are only 30 or so meals I make, and most of those are dependent on the weather: crock pot meals in the winter, grilled meals in the summer.  Right now, each dinner suggestion makes me say "But we just had that!"  Not cool.  Over the next few days, I'll be pouring over my 50+ cookbooks and marking recipes to try. And I'll be sure to share the winners with you.

2.  Make more crafts!  I have a ton of craft supplies and projects I want to tackle (scrapbooks, card-making, photo albums, etc.) but I have been very short on time.  This year, I'd like to carve two hours out of my weekly schedule to do something crafty.  It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, but it does need to get my creative juices flowing.  All I've crafted recently are my Christmas card books, and I really want (and need!) to do more.

3. Become more frugal.  While I am big on clipping coupons, frugal entertainments options and more, I need to educate myself on making wise investments and saving for retirement.  Also, I have two small children who are geniuses and bound for MIT, and I need to start saving now for their college education. And space camp.  And music lessons.  And archery class.  These things add up, and I want to be prepared financially. Though emotionally, I don't want my babies to grow up and leave me, ever.  Sniffle. 

What are your resolutions?  And just to be clear, I think it's totally fine to say "I resolve to brush my teeth every day" even if you are already doing that and you just need a resolution that easily accomplished to boost your self-esteem.  Totally acceptable.  Because you know what?  "Brushing my teeth every day" is my hidden resolution #4.  Just so you know.

NYE cocktails

I'm thinking ahead to New Year's Eve, cocktails, and the possibility of staying up until midnight.  Which I doubt will happen, especially if I indulge in these cocktails, but I'm totally fine with that.

Martha has some amazing winter cocktails and champagne and sparkling wine cocktails.  These in particular have caught my eye (and my mouth):

Pomegranate-Champagne Punch

The Blizzard Cocktail

Coquito

Semifreddo Bellini

Frizzante Mojito



Prosecco Sangria

Don't those look amazing?! I don't want to pick just one, so I might make all of them, get crazy drunk and fall asleep by 9:30.  Which would mostly be a repeat of last year's New Year's Eve for me.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration!  If I can recover from all these cocktails, I'll be back bright and early on Monday morning with my New Year's Resolutions.  Happy New Year!

Resolution: Getting organized!

Did you make a New Year's Resolution to get organized? I know getting, and staying, organized is always a priority for me.  Take a look:

If getting organized in 2011 is a priority for you, too, then stick around.  We can do it together!

Resolutions

As I have done for the past twenty years or so, I'm making my new year's resolutions.  We all make them, don't we?  We vow to get organize, lose weight, learn to snorkel, be a better person and more.  These promises we make to ourselves are done with the best of intentions, but rarely do they account for real-life circumstances.  Work, kids, stubbornness, lack of time...these things and more all get in the way of sticking to our resolutions.  Then, sometime around January 5, we go back to being our slovenly selves. 

At least, I sure do.

But this year is different!

This year, I'm making only one resolution.  It is incredibly specific and will definitely make me more like my idol Martha Stewart. Ready?  Here they are...

In 2011, I will bake all CAKES and BREAD from scratch. 

No mixes, no store-bought loaves, nothing.  Of course, I still have a few cake mixes and one loaf of store-bought bread in the pantry, but after those are gone, THAT'S IT!!!  Making cakes from scratch shouldn't be a problem--I've done it many times before and I actually prefer to do it that way because it produces a much better cake.  Baking bread from scratch will be the challenge...I've never done it before, despite having a bread maker in the basement.  Time to haul that puppy up to the kitchen, dust it off, and figure out if it still works.  If it does...fresh bread for everyone!

I'll be sure to check in with you on January 5 to let you know how this grand experiment is going.  In the meantime, have a fun, happy, healthy and safe new year!  Happy 2011!

New Year's Day Open House

We had an open house for New Year's Day--a very enjoyable time well-spent with friends and family. In my wannabe-Martha style, I went all out for the refreshments and ended up making twice the amount of food I actually needed. Hooray for leftovers!

One item that did not have much left over were the Spiced Cutout cookies. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com years ago, and it's been a winner every time.

I find it a huge help to roll the dough out between two sheets of waxed paper (Husband R. always gets that job!) and refridgerate it overnight, or at least a few hours.

The red bowl is for the scraps left around each cut-out. Wait until you've gone through all the rolled dough, gather all the scraps, mush it together and roll it out again for the next round of cutting. The goal is to handle the dough as little as possible, lest it become tough and not as delectable.

For the New Year's Day celebration, I didn't want to use any old cutters, and since Christmas was technically over, none of those cutters would do, either. So, I went in a not-so-serious direction: Already Been Chewed cookie cutters by Fred.

To please both the Yes-I-Want-Frosting-On-My-Cookies and No-Thanks-I-Made-This-Crazy-Resolution-To-Not-Eat-Frosting folks, the cookies were served with frosting on the side. Which sounds so much nicer and Martha-like than "I am fundamentally lazy and besides, I didn't have time to frost all those freakin' cookies."

The cookies were a hit. Enjoy!