Plans and Goals for the New Year

I haven’t ever been big on making New Year’s Resolutions for two reasons. The first is that the word “resolution” itself troubles me. It seems to have a whiff of negativity to it, like you’ve been very bad and now must reform yourself. I’m all for self-improvement, but (and this brings me to my second issue) I think it’s important to act upon these inspirations as they occur to me, on whatever arbitrary day that may be. I have started some of the most important things in my life on completely random days (this blog, my photo project, learning Turkish), and I am *so glad* I struck while the iron was hot instead of waiting. So January 1 has never been especially inspiring to me as a day, but, on the other hand, because all dates seem arbitrary to me, that means any day can be a special day, a new day. That is an excitement I embrace when I get out of bed every morning. All of that said, I am all for making goals and plans, and there are some ways in which the new year marks some changes for me. As of December 16, I am done with my dissertation, so now I have a bit more free time, and these are some of the things I’ve thinking of devoting that time to.

1. Reading my cookbooks. We have a pretty awesome collection of cookbooks, most of which were wedding presents from wonderful friends and family, and I use them *all* the time. But I have been thinking that it would be really nice to sit down and spend an afternoon with them, reading all the way through, marking things that look interesting and enjoying being under their magic kitchen spell. A few Christmases ago, my mom gave me Molly Wizenburg‘s A Homemade Life, and I tore through it before New Year’s, savoring every sweet story and recipe, wiping the tears from my eyes, and being incredibly inspired by her honesty and bravery in sharing her life. I can’t wait to do the same with Melissa Clark‘s majestic In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, and I’d gladly spend all my Tuesdays, and every other day as well, for that matter, with Dorie Greenspan. My sweet husband just gave me The Girl and the Fig cookbook for Christmas, and, even though I use it all the time, I have yet to read all the way through The Cheese Board Collective Cookbook. Oh friends, there are some mouth-watering afternoons ahead of me.

2. Reading my sewing books, sewing from my vintage patterns, and cooking up some projects of my own! Eric’s mom gave me the most amazing comprehensive guides to sewing for Christmas last year, some of which she used herself when she was learning to sew (and she’s a master, y’all), and I *love* them. I look things up in them all the time, but I would love to just slowly work my way through them all, and I think that would be a sewing masters course unto itself. It’s been so long since I since I took a sewing class (um, I think I was 9), and a lot of what I’ve done since then has been self-taught. It would be awesome to brush up on the basics and learn some new skills as well. I also have an incredible collection of vintage patterns that I bought for 25 cents each at the Depot for Creative Reuse. I made a cute dress out of one of them, but this kind of sustained project is exactly the kind of thing I didn’t have the focus for while working on the dissertation, and exactly the kind of thing I am really longing to do now! I also have a million and one ideas tucked away for other sewing projects. To the sewing machine!

3. Keep better track of my reading. My husband, who is wonderful in more ways than I can count, has always impressed me with his system for keeping track of his reading. As soon as he finishes a book, he makes a record of it and writes a little blurb about it, maybe the most salient points for him, maybe the things that annoyed him about it, maybe the things it made him think about and consider. It’s all safely tucked away on his computer, and that is pretty amazing. I have been keeping a list of books I’ve read for the past few years (inspired by him), but I have let it slide this past year, and I’d like to get back to it. If nothing else, I believe that the experiences we have, including the books we read, make us who we are, and having a record of that is a powerful thing. I’ve gotten back to this practice already this month, but I am excited to keep working on it next year, especially since I anticipate having a bit more time to read.

4. Exercising. I say this not because I am trying to lose weight, but because exercising is good for you and it makes you feel good. It’s been especially important for me this past semester, since I’ve been working at home, to get out and do something with my body. I always feel so refreshed and glad I did. This year I have been really inspired by some awesome ladies who run and blog about it, and I love letting my feet hit the pavement (er, track, I suppose) too. My sweet husband takes me along to the gym as his guest, and he even runs slow with me so he can talk to me. That’s love. 🙂 When the new quarter starts at Caltech, I’ll be getting my own gym membership, so I can go swim in their heated pool, pump iron, or pound the track whenever I like. I am excited! So, those are the four big things I am looking forward to in the new year. How about you? I’d love to hear your goals and plans too! Happy New Year!

Our First Christmas Together

This year Eric and I celebrated our first Christmas together, and it was the sweetest and most wonderful day. We talked a lot about our family traditions, and we added some new ones for ourselves. It was beautiful to see our families melding, and our new family being born. In my family, Christmas traditions begin on Christmas Eve, but we had a serendipitous experience on the 23rd that I hope will become a new tradition. Eric usually goes to lunch with his group on Friday at the Athenaeum, a gorgeous and delicious club built when Einstein came to Caltech, so he’d have a nice place to eat lunch and be his brilliant self in style. I’d been out doing last-minute grocery shopping all morning, and I was surprised when Eric called around noon to say that his group had already dispersed for the holidays, and asked me if I’d like to join him for lunch instead. My answer was something along the lines of “YES!!” (It was sort of miraculous already that I hadn’t eaten lunch, since I usually get hungry by 11 or so). The Ath is beautifully decked out for Christmas, and I was so glad I got to see it, since it was their last day open before vacation. They were handing out free eggnog in the lobby, which made it feel all the more festive! I hope this is something we’ll be able to do every year, at least as long as we are here in Pasadena.

The real Christmas festivities began on Christmas Eve, though. My family always goes out to breakfast on Christmas Eve, a tradition that began when my parents were on their honeymoon. I love this one and convinced Eric of its great merits, and he was happy to go to Europane with me for breakfast this year. I don’t know if you can tell from this picture, but that scone is as big as my head, and even though I didn’t quite eat the whole thing, I was not anywhere near hungry until dinner time. Classic!

When we got back home, I spent much of the rest of the day in the kitchen, which was just fine by me. I think our oven was on all afternoon, getting quite the workout! Above is the aftermath, in part. I didn’t have a dishwasher for so many years (um…11 years) that I’ve gotten into the habit of not washing dishes right away. Even though we do have a dishwasher now, my brain has not quite made that critical jump, and I often leave my tea things on the counter, forlorn and cold until Eric gets home, and I realize I could have just put them in the dishwasher. On Christmas Eve, though, I washed everything right away because I needed to use it again immediately. I told Eric it was a Christmas miracle!

I baked a loaf of bread for our Christmas dinner (never mind that we had so much food that we haven’t even cut into it yet!), but I was also working on my contribution to another family tradition: Christmas morning breakfast. For as long as I can remember, we’ve always had a special breakfast around the tree: pigs in blankets and cinnamon rolls, and plenty of coffee and orange juice, which we imbibe in between opening presents. I gave this tradition my own little twist by baking pumpkin currant walnut scones (the Great Scone Explosion of 2011 continues!) They made for the perfect festive breakfast, lightly sweet and spicy, and I will share the recipe soon:)

I was also making the dough for our annual Christmas cookies. This year we went with a slightly different recipe than our usual gingerbread–these cookies have a touch of ground walnuts, and it makes all the difference. The first year that Eric and I made gingerbread cookies, we didn’t have any cookie cutters, so we tried cutting out shapes with knives, which turned out just about as hilariously as you might imagine. The next year we fared better, and now our cookie cutters feel like old friends. There are our favorite gingerbread cookies ever, so I will also share that recipe soon.

Eric did a bit of wrapping while I was baking, and our tree was bedecked with beautiful presents! I am so happy with how our tree looked, mostly in that it didn’t look too bare of ornaments!

Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care…or at least by the gas fireplace with care;) We took a few family portraits with my husband’s spiffy new camera gear before heading off to Christmas Eve service. When we got home, it was time for dreaming of sugar plums and sleeping until almost 10am, a luxury we may not have in the years to come!

After breakfast we opened our presents, which was, of course, a ton of fun! Eric gave me lots of sweet and thoughtful gifts, and one of them was this adorable card, a gift certificate to buy some new apps for my phone:)

One of Eric’s presents was this little road bike ornament, which he put right right on the tree:)

Eric had wrapped the gifts so beautifully (it is a running joke in my family that scientists make the best wrappers, and I would say that there is definitely both correlation and causality) that I almost didn’t want to open them. He made these innovative little ribbon pigtails that I thought were too cute for words.

I liked this one too, given my penchant for red.:)

After we opened presents, we were able to talk to both of our families, which was a wonderful treat. Thank goodness for Skype and cell phones to make the distance seem lesser! Then it was time to cook our feast! I contributed the veggies, including these little marble potatoes, which we brought back from Berkeley (yes, I like them that much!) They are amazingly good just roasted in oil and salt and pepper, and I have been known to eat them for dessert. Yum!

We also caramelized some parsnips, a perennial favorite of mine, in balsamic vinegar.

Eric made the crowning center of our dinner, a delicious beef roast with rosemary. It was ridiculously tasty, and I am so grateful for a husband who does not mind dealing with bloody meat instead of his recovering vegetarian wife:) All in all, it was a perfect and beautiful day, one I know we’ll always look back on with joy, our very first Christmas together. I hope you all had a truly wondrous holiday as well!

La Note

La Note in Berkeley is a place near and dear to the hearts of many, a place you’d be willing to stand out in the cold for an hour to get into, a place you’d be willing to shiver on a garden patio in December for, if necessary. Oh yes. This weekend was the perfect storm of celebrations: Eric’s birthday, my dissertation filing, and our first trip back to the Bay since we moved down south in August. Eric flew in on Friday night, and this was the first place on his agenda, so off we trotted into the cold:)

Although we arrived at 10 on a Saturday morning, we got incredibly lucky because they opened the garden patio a few minutes after we arrived. We were whisked away to a lovely little table, and at least one of the heat lamps near our table worked, which was a gift. I used to think having to suffer through this kind of weather to eat delicious food was just a crime, but now I find that I am willing to pay the price…and it wasn’t *so* cold anyway, thankfully!

After a quick perusal of the menu of delights, I ordered a double cafe noisette and warmed myself with its delicious and perfect foam.

While we were waiting for our food, I went about exploring to revisit all my favorite little things about this sweet French cafe. Here is the patio, in part, although from this angle you can’t see the lemon tree and the avocado tree.

Here is the narrow wood-planked walkway out to the patio.

And here is the jam-packed and bustling interior, full of warmth and soft light.

Even the bathrooms are French:)

But the most important thing is clearly the food:) I usually get the lemon gingerbread pancakes with poached pears, but this time I went for the raspberry oatmeal pancakes, which were absolutely perfect: so light and fluffy and full of flavor. Eric had the cinnamon brioche French toast, which I found astoundingly good, but alas, it disappeared before I took a picture! I am so glad we were able to come because La Note is truly a special occasion kind of place, where one commemorates the passing of exams, the end of grading marathons, the completion of degrees. How sweet to celebrate here one last time:)