Monthly Archive for January 2008
Best Wishes for the New Year
May the new year be filled with health, joy and love for all of you. In the final days of 2007, I spent some time enjoying the January 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine. It’s a great issue and I was particularly moved by a posthumously-published essay by Edna Lewis. Lewis’ passionate words about food—southern food, specifically—were not only gorgeous and inspiring but also entirely resonant with me. It made me realize what an important role food played in 2007 for me.
My husband and I moved into a new home, where I feel I’ve finally made a kitchen my own (a truckload of kitchen-related wedding gifts has helped in this respect). I’ve fallen in love with several local markets—both farmer’s markets and more traditional groceries—and look forward to “visiting” them weekly. I had the pleasure of hosting my first holiday dinner for family. I’ve built a new tradition with my sister and my husband—a weekly family dinner. I threw a couple parties (like this one) featuring spreads that were a blast to plan and make and delicious to eat. And I baked a couple hundred cupcakes for our wedding in August.
And, of course, I launched this blog. It was something I wanted to do for a long time and I’m proud to have gotten up the courage (and overcome a slight fear of technology and cameras) to do it. But beyond being proud, I’m blown away by how much fun it has been. Knowing that I’ll be sharing each simple cup of soup, special triple layer cake and kitchen conquest with you has made every moment I’ve spent in the kitchen that much richer. One of my main goals (fine, resolution, if you must) for the new year is to continue to grow this blog and stretch myself. Lucky for me, it’s a resolution that I’m extremely excited about.
So, may your new year also be filled with new creations that inspire and challenge you, like this blog has done for me, and incredible passions, like southern food apparently was for Lewis.
And may it also be filled with delicious food and loved ones with whom to share it. These cinnamon rolls were both, for me. They lived up to Bon Appetit‘s adjective (ultimate) for them. And they were certainly special enough to ring in the new year. As was a great celebration last night, which we shared with one of Kevin’s sisters and her boyfriend. I hope they’re enjoying these sticky buns right now too. This recipe yields a really large number of rolls, so we sent a pan home with them last night, so they could bake them off this morning.
(Click “more” for more photos & recipe)