New year’s resolutions? Eat this!

These resolutions are going be a lot more fun that the lose-weight, stop-smoking, exercise-more variety. These pledges are all about food – what we eat, how we make it, how we eat it and where. If you sign on to just one of these resolutions, you will commit to maybe unplugging the food processor just once, knead some dough, instead of flipping on the electric bread machine, reject frozen for fresh and eat in a different country, without leaving town.

1. Make it yourself – mayonnaise or ketchup, applesauce or sweet potato chips. You’ll cut out the preservatives and stabilizers and the dreaded transfats. Make your own sorbet – it’s as simple as freeze and puree.
2. It’s all right to eat something other than a burger and fries with your hands. Try Ethiopian. Explain . . .
3. Try something you hate – make a different way. I tried that with Brussels sprouts. Added pancetta, brown sugar – all the good stuff. (OK, it didn't help the sprouts at all . . .)
4. Find a new, non-food use for a familiar food. I found a recipe that uses all those little leftover soap scraps. Mix them with oatmeal, vegetable oil and water and you've got a great-smelling exfoliating bar. (If life’s too short, though, just buy some.)
5. Eat something raw that you usually eat cooked, and vice versa. If you have only eaten chayote grated over a salad, try roasting slices of it. It deepens and sweetens the flavor. Beets, apples, berries, pears, salad greens all reveal their greater personalities.
6. Take pictures of the food – really. Dishes you’ve made and those served up in a restaurant. So what if you’ll look like a tourist. It’s a way of recording accomplishment, keeping memories every bit as precious as those photos of the Eiffel Tower. (That's grilled octopus in Thessaloniki, Greece and pasta in pastry bowls from Da Fiori in Venice pictured above.)
7. Eat extremely local. Local growers, local producers, local neighbors’ yards. You’ll be helping local business thrive. Go to a farm. Pick your own, see where food comes from - th kids will love it.
8. Ask a fellow shopper what she’s going to do with something in her shopping cart that looks interesting. Hate to sound chauvinistic, but nosy New Yorkers talk to strangers all the time. I’m one of them.
9. Ask to talk to the chef. He might roll his eyes, but not in front of you. Tell her what you really liked, what didn't quite work -- ask what she was thinking as she created these dishes.
10. Learn something – how to carve vegetables, work with filo, fold napkins.
11. Make something elaborate and time-consuming. Be sure to share it with friends. Examples: Try cassoulet – the five-day version, not some quickie variety. I’m going to make a coulibiac one of these days – Russian fish pie in puff pastry. I already made puff pastry in 2008 -- piece of cake!
12. Just once, have a scoop of ice cream and a sip of wine before noon.

-- Nancy