2011- Yay !

2010 is done and 2011 has begun. A whole new year to achieve goals and take on new experiences. I do not make New Years resolutions or even lists of goals myself-I just sort of get giddy about the whole idea of a brand new drawer to store the experiences of my life in. Who knows what will wind up shelved in that come this time next year ? 2010 was not the greatest year, but not the worst either to be sure. I have a lot of friends who have had crushing blows in 2010 ( worst was a friend having a stillbirth on Christmas) , and I compare my groans to theirs and things seem much better. Perhaps this is one reason why we need to express sadness to each other- to remind us of how many blessings we really do have in our lives. I think the worst thing for me happened within the last 24 hrs. My husband, in a desire to help get me more mobile and understanding my complete impatience with the injury, bought me one of those 4 footed canes. It does help me walk around more, but learning how to walk with a cane is a little tricky. Several times I have almost tripped on the feet, and because you carry your body differently when walking with it, I have sore muscles in my back and arms. Getting really tired of trying to learn how to walk yet again in my life, and really wanting to stop coughing from the cold ! All in all, it made for a good reason to do everything to make the bad luck form 2010 stay in that year and not spill into  the new year. Time honored way of doing this was through foods, cleaning house and so forth. I spent the day in cooking chores while the guys took care of shopping, housecleaning and more.

first way to make the bad luck stay- feed it rich food ! Caviar on cucumber rounds is a good way to do it. Caviar is a very good source of healthy omega fats, and is something that can be thought of as a healthy treat. Lots of folks think it is a very expensive food, but it is no where near as expensive as these:

Ox tails ! Many years ago, when I was a child, these and neck bones were dirt cheap meats. Neck bones  made a very rich spaghetti sauce, but ox tails made one of the finest, richest soups on the planet !

made with barley, carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes, it is a very rich bone broth. Oxtail soup is something people either love or hate ( we love it) and if you ae going to pick a "rich" food to hold the bad luck in place, this is a good choice. Oxtails used to be about 40 cents a pound- today you can pay as much as 8 dollars a pound for them.

Good soup should always be served with good rolls- these soaked whole wheat crescent rolls served the purpose !

Mozzarella balls with   cherry tomatoes just for fun. Nick seems to think anything served on a stick is special and fancy :-)

and then Swedish Meatballs- mainly because the other day I had a surplus of ground beef defrosted and had to figure out a way to cook and refreeze the extra. Meatballs are a great way to do this.

At 10 pm ( figuring that it is midnight somewhere) we rang in the new year with sparking cranberry juice and herring. For some reason, for as long as anyone can remember, my family has had a mandate to eat herring at Midnight on New Years Eve. Always struck me as an odd thing for a Scotch/Irish family to have as a custom, till one year I learned that the custom was actually Scandinavian in origin a, and was probably adopted back in the days when my ancestors were defending the land from Viking Invaders. Most likely there were blood bonds formed, and this custom became part of our life. 

Some goals I have for the year at the moment is to make friends with my cane, experiment more with fermented foods and just be the best me that I can be. It's gonna be a good one !