New Year Food Resolutions We Should All Embrace

Every year I make it a point to jot down a few New Year Resolutions and this year is no different... Although this year I started thinking about them before March.

So here they are. And because I wrote them down in a blog, it only makes sense that everyone else should embrace them as well.

I hope they inspire you. Uplift you. And, after reading mine, I hope you will feel really, really good about the one's that you made.

Now, let's fill our glasses and face the onslaught of the New Year with these, my New Year Resolutions:

- Make my New Year Resolutions before January 1st. (Crap. It's the 10th you say? Okay. I mucked up. Do over.)

- Eat less red meat. With the exception of steaks and ribs. And grilled lamb chops. (By the way, is bacon a red meat?)

- And while we're on the subject of meat: Don't buy anything from the meat department whose label is not sanctioned by the USDA or is not recognized by any other food authority.  I'm talking about cuts that might be creatively labeled "Canadian Butcher Free Range Sizzlin' Steaks" (frozen, of course).

Or how about, "Chuck Flank Mock Tender Steaks - Great for Grilling!" (not to mention plugging up the sink drain in case you misplaced the black plastic thing that came with the food disposal).

Or, "Young Grass Fed New Zealand Lamb or It Could Be Pork or Maybe a Large Fowl of Some Sort." (Either way, just cook the damned thing and serve with plenty of beer. No one will notice).

Or one of my favorites, "North Jersey Perth Amboy Brownfield Steaks." (But hey, for $1.98 a pound it was certainly worth a shot, even though they had a greenish tint and smelled like someone's car had just overheated.)

- Try the gluten-free thing. I understand that many folk are going gluten-free even though they are not gluten-intolerant and are touting the healthy benefits. Perhaps 2012 is the year I give it a whirl...as long as it doesn't include giving up things like toasted Cuban bread or any type of pasta, I'm good to go.

- Drink more water and less scotch. Unless, of course, the scotch is in the water, then make it a double. If you're buying, let's set up a tab.

- Start jogging regularly again. However, two years ago I vowed to run 4 miles a day. But by the end of the first week I was like over 20 miles from home, so I said screw this. But this year I talked to an actual runner and he said if I'm going to run for 4 miles, I need to run 2 miles out and 2 miles back. Problem solved

- Buy more fresh produce from local growers at the farmer's market. (Except, perhaps, from that guy two-thirds of the way down whose citrus fruit is always stamped "Sunkist". I mean, what are the odds that a local grower would share the same name of a major conglomerate? I guess stranger things have happened.)

- Finish writing my next cookbook "Table for Two - Back for Seconds".

- Finish the novel. (I'm not writing one, I'm trying to finish reading one.)

- Love my friends more.

- Love my family more.

- Love God more.

And I'll leave you with this great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

I mean, how could you go wrong with a quote from someone that was probably called 'Ralphie' or, gasp, 'Wally'(!) when he was growing up. You *gotta* listen to a guy like that.

So...Happy New Year dear friends and fellow food lovers. I'm looking forward to your ideas, comments, and wiseguy remarks in this upcoming year.

I would be a poorer man without them.

Now let's raise a glass!

And since it's the 10th, let's raise two. We have a lot to catch up on...

Now...what are some of your New Year Resolutions?

The More Things Change...

...The more they stay the same.

Not.

I was just finishing up a blog post featuring my New Year's Food Resolutions (yeah, yeah, I know...it's already January 7th. So, sue me...) when I stumbled across a rumor saying that the good(?) folks in the mega-cyber world will be discontinuing Google Friend Connect. First for non-blogger.com folks then, eventually, for blogger.com folks like me.

Crap...

So...for those of my dear friends and fellow-food lovers who've signed up to follow via Google Friend Connect here to the left --> (under 'Seated Around the Table'), please take the time to follow me either by e-mail (you can see the sign up box in the above right) or via Facebook or Twitter (I think I have a button for each on this page somewhere).

For really committed friends, send me your phone number and I'll drop you a line once a month or so.

For you really die-hard followers, send me your address and I'll show up on your doorstep with a bottle of wine from time to time. Two bottles if you have dinner ready.

Sigh...I guess change is the nature of the beast with this internet/social networking/blogging thing.

But I'm thankful that some things don't change.

Like time-proven recipes and friends like you.

Now...please get up off your butt and answer the friggin' door. It's freezin' out here and this '42 Chateaux Mouton Rothschild is getting cold...  :-)

Love Me. Hate Me. But Please Don't Tolerate Me.

Okay. I know this is a food blog. But we need to talk.

First, let me top off your glass of Merlot. Say "when".

Good. Now, here's the deal.

I lost some followers after my most recent blog posts.

But I find it hard to believe it was because they were offended by my holiday tips. Heck, if it was my left-of-decorum sense of humor that offended them, I'm sure they would've turned heel many blog posts ago.

No. I think it was because in these last couple of posts I alluded to the sports phenomenon called "Tebowing", and cited an oh-so-whimsical quote about Grace from the often left-of-decorum novelist Frederich Buechner, and then there was that Christmas carol penned and sung by Bruce Cockburn with a little help from Lou Reed and Roseanne Cash.

In other words, I dragged God into my blog.

Some folks appreciated it. Some folks were silent. But it appears that some folks were pissed. Why? As one e-mail expressed it, by reflecting on a highly successful quarterback, and quoting a well-respected novelist's musings on Grace, and posting a yuletide tune, I wasn't being, well, very "tolerant".

You've seen the bumper stickers. The ones that proclaim "tolerance" with the stylized letters representing different religious beliefs. I was behind a car sporting one such bumper sticker in the parking lot of Target just this past weekend. But the driver must've used up all of her tolerance at the previous store, cuz when a white Kia Rio with two missing hubcaps scooted into the parking place that she was obviously coveting, she rolled down her window and yelled something that vaguely sounded like "You muffin shucker!"

So much for, um, tolerance.

You see, I don't like the words "tolerance" or even its cousin, "tolerate".

Why do I dislike these seemingly pacifying words? Because tolerance and tolerate seem to infer that you are "putting up with something that you'd rather not have to".

In other words, you don't like something, so, to be a good sport or citizen, you have to just take a deep breath, suck it up, roll your eyes, and tolerate it.

Not me.

I have zero tolerance for "toleration". Or what I would call The Tolerance Principle.

Let me explain. I may like something or dislike something. If I do, I will let you know. And I may agree or disagree with you. But, again, I will let you know.

However, like or dislike, agree or disagree, if what you espouse is held in conviction, I can respect it. But you can bet your $3 bumper sticker I won't simply "tolerate" it.

The Tolerance Principle particularly raises it's ugly head during December when many folks shy away from expressing their deeply held beliefs lest they offend someone. So, whether it's a big wig corporation, the bubbly cashier at the local market, or the guy ensconced on the bar stool next to yours, many feel they have to resort to non-offending euphemisms like "Season's Greetings". (Of course, whenever I hear the words "Seasons Greetings" I immediately think of the salutation one would say to a particularly attractive jar of cumin or nutmeg).

But back to many people's penchant to not offend. Here's my take.

Ditch the euphemisms and wish me whatever is important to you. Christmas? Hannukah? Kwanzaa? Winter Solstice? Hey, I'll respect it. At least you hold onto a conviction.

For nearly a decade I lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Throughout the year, I was exposed to examples of that deeply-held tradition as my neighbors celebrated their festivals and faith.

But I tell you what,  I sure as heck didn't role my eyes and "tolerate" those overt religious displays that were so different from my own. Nope. Instead, I respected them. In fact, my neighbor and good friend Neil's love for his sacred tradition inspired me to fully embrace my own.

So...if someone's faith inspires them to do well by their neighbor, I'm not gonna tolerate it. I'm gonna celebrate it.

Okay, there you have it.

And now I'm gonna say it. Again.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Love it. Hate it. But for Christ's sake* please don't tolerate it.

Now...who's up for a little celebrating?

Warren

* (I don't mean to say this in a flippant way - He loved us too much to "tolerate" much of anything...)

Something's Cooking. And...If I Listen Closely....Something's Rippling...

How was that turkey you cooked for Thanksgiving? I know your guests loved it. The leftovers? Ditto.

Man...I love this time of year. Cuz I get to wander into the kitchen with those I love and create a feast that will fill the joyful plates of those who sit around our table.

And when all the holiday plates are washed, dried and put away in the cupboards, I'll wish our guests a good night, put the kids to bed, pour a glass of single malt, then I'll switch on the stereo and listen to those who propel me to a new universe.

Especially in these dark, cold, and crisp as bacon winter months.

Tonight it's Bruce Cockburn. Again.

I have this song on CD. Perhaps you don't.  So I'll send it along on YouTube here. Bruce with Lou Reed and Roseanne Cash.

Pour a glass. Settle back. Close your eyes. And listen.

"Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe..."

Merry Christmas!