New Year, New Revolution

So.
I said that I was going to write my resolutions and directions today, and I will.  I'm not great on the keeping the resolution thing but I think that making them is important - keeping yourself on track and all that.  Last year, my big resolution here was to make 6 recipes per month from the year 2005's issues of Everyday Food.  While I didn't make it, I did make a pile of new things that were yummy.  I have more years of EDF that are wildly under used.  Likewise, there are a couple of things that I'd like to do for me that fall into the food vein, and one things that has a lot to do with my house, but little to do with food.
To that end, I present this year's resolutions:

1. 6 Recipes per issue of Everyday Food from 2006.  I've already marked the recipes from Jan/Feb.  Beyond that with the blog, I'd like to post new content Monday, Wednesday and Friday plus weekend planning.  I also intend to continue with Pintertest Kitchen.
2. Stop drinking pop.  2 years ago, I started down this road.  I lost weight.  Fast.  It was shocking.  Then I backslid and started again.  Maybe it was the bubbles, maybe it was my genuine love of gingerale, but I started drinking it again.  Pop is liquid candy.  I need to stop.
3. Eat breakfast.  I don't do this daily, usually because I stay in bed too long.  But with a job that doesn't allow me to eat regularly, I need a better start to the day.  I've been looking at baked oatmeal.  We'll see what happens.
4. Finally, I've signed up to do 365 Spring Cleaning.  I'm sucky about cleaning and thankfully have a spouse who can't see the dust as well as I can.  I'm hoping to at least do some of my scary clutter areas in a way that makes sense.  The first project:  Organizing my office by January 31.  

I think that's enough.  Hopefully writing things down will help them come to fruition.

Retrospective: 2013 in Review

So.
I can't believe that we're already here at the beginning of a new year, looking ahead to what is to come and looking back at what we did.  I've been watching the news this week with their little retrospectives of things that happened, and there are things that I would tell you were longer ago - or that I completely forgot about.  Frankly, I can't believe that we've finally arrived here.
Personally, 2013 has been a good year, but it had its challenges.  I changed schools, which I think is all for the good.  I turned 40.  We went to NYC for a week, which was amazing.  We renovated the kitchen and the pool and while neither of those things qualify as amazing the results do.  I love my new kitchen and the space and counters.
Speaking of the kitchen, I spent a great deal of cooking this year.  I'd like to spend even more time in 2014 doing the same.  According to the stats on my blog, I made 63 new recipes this year.  That's not completely true.  I have 9 recipes that I haven't blogged, and a few more that didn't make the cut.  The exciting thing about this is that even with the kitchen hiatus I made more than 1 new recipe per week.  I participated in 7 Pintertest Kitchens, and discovered a new favourite website, Budget Bytes.  I also blogged in the Pintester Movement once and saw a spike to over 1000 views that month with my Buffalo Chicken Lasagna. 
I also made 32 recipes in the Magazine Challenge.  With 10 issues, that's less than 6 per magazine but it's not too bad.  I made nothing out of one issue and 8 out of another.  I'm so glad I went back and visited these issues.  I'd only made 1 thing, Cornmeal Blueberry Muffins, out of 2005 up until now.  I can't say that anymore.  For the amount of money that was sunk into a subscription back in the day I'm glad I finally got around to using these magazines. 
Tomorrow, I'll give you some ideas of where we're headed in the coming year.  But I present to you now the Best and Worst of 2013 after the jump:

I'm still here!

So.
J and I went to New York City, and come home to an email announcing that we would be starting kitchen renovations in a week and a weekend.  While I've done some cooking, I've been spending more time perseverating about the packing for the reno.
I think I have some recipes stored up on the camera for the time during the reno, and I looked at September's Everday Food while I ate lunch today, and it looks amazing! 
Pictures of the before kitchen are coming soon, and then we'll be back into some recipes.
Hooray!