Resolutions for 2011

Last year's Valentine's cards.

1. Utilize my hands more.  Doodle more, write by hand, craft things, play frisbee with my dog*.  Part of what I do professionally is to illustrate things digitally, and I like doing it, but it's not all I want to do.  I heard this interview with Linda Barry on NPR back in November, talking about how writing by hand and doodling can calm you, keep writers block at bay and inspire further creativity.  I need all of those things, so I'm going to try to utilize my hands this year.  *My dog Gert is nine.  She's super smart and has a lot of energy, but so far I can't get her interested in the frisbee, and I fear she might be a little old for all that jumping since lately she's limping a little more often.  Still I'm trying to find a more interactive way for the two of us to hang out because she's less active now that she lost her dog companion.

2. Yoga.  For the past three years I've been doing yoga with various degrees of regularity.  I was doing yoga at home each weekday and a class once a week until April, when I went on vacation and fell off the wagon.  Now that they finally are offering yoga classes at the Community Center near my house, I'm totally getting back on board.  

3. Eat Less Meat.  I shop consciously to buy mostly organic foods, hormone-free meats, free-range eggs, and as many local products as possible.  (I've even been using local shampoo, conditioner and SPF moisturizer for the last couple of years, which is one of the hardest "buy local" categories to fulfill in my opinion, but that's probably a whole other post).  I'm sure I already eat less meat than many Americans, but I'd like to cut back more.  I don't have strong ethical reasons,  this is probably just a reaction to all the rich foods over the holidays and winter comfort foods, but I'm in the mood to simplify my diet a little.  A few years ago I did a two week cleanse diet that allowed you to eat real food (instead of just juice and raw veggies), but it was essentially all vegan, sugar and gluten-free.  It required tremendous will power and preparation each day, especially since I was working full time while doing it and needed to take enough food with me each day to fight off the temptations of lunch out with clients, or a quick coffee break with friends.  I'd never become a vegan full time for many reasons, but I have to admit, I felt really great for those two weeks.  My moderate idea for recreating some sense of that time is to go vegetarian for a while, or at least for most days of each week.  These are a couple of the vegetarian recipes that I've found lately that I want to try.  Garbanzo Bean and Roasted Eggplant Soup and Sikil Pak (Mexican Pumpkin Seed Dip).

Huge thistle along the road in the Jemez.

4. Explore more.  I think I did pretty well exploring new things in 2010, and it was fun.  I finally went to Mesa Verde, I visited to Palm Desert for the first time, I started a quest to find the best eclairs in the state, I tried my hand at tailoring vintage clothes, I stopped straightening my hair and let it be curly, I took the Amtrak train to Los Angeles and marveled at Union Station.

Meanwhile, how'd I do with last years resolutions?  My resolutions last year were all culinary, I wanted to learn to make a mean pie crust, make English Muffins, Bagels and Croissants.  I did pretty well since the only one I did not attempt was making English Muffins.  I did start making sourdough bread, which I'm accepting as a substitute.  Having a starter now, I'll just update that resolution a little and say that in 2011 I want to make sourdough English Muffins.

Croissants pre-oven.

Croissants post-oven with coffee.