Operation 2013

Happy New Year everyone!  

I love a brand new start.  It can be a new year, a new house, a new job - new gives me a breath of fresh air.  So let's have a new set of goals to complete this year.

Resolutions always seem to fall by the wayside.  Thinking of my goals as an Op (army-esque, I know) keeps them as an on going project as opposed to something I talked about and never fully committed to.

Last year, Operation 2012 went pretty well.  Let's take a look see.

Start cooking from my cookbooks more.
Done, and I bought some new cookbooks that I LOVE!!

Make 5 foodie things:

1. Risotto
2. Souffle
3. Macarons
4. Homemade Pasta
5. Baked Alaska

3 out of 5 isn't too bad for the first year.

Take better pictures of my food.

Yes!  Working on this.  I got a DSLR camera, a great food photography ebook, and some props. 

Before: 

After:

{Guinness Gingerbread}

This year I'm sticking to the same format: a foodie list of five things to cook/bake and two other commitments.

Operation 2013

Refinish the kitchen table and chairs and reupholster the chair cushions.

Make 5 (+2) Foodie Things:

1. Bombe
2. Homebrew beer
3. Tart Tatin
4. Heart Cake from Sprinkle Bakes
5. Coquilles St. Jaques
6. Souffle  {carried forward}
7. Homemade pasta  {carried forward}

Move to WordPress

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I think this will be a really solid, achievable list for this year.  The kitchen table has been on my mind since June, yeah...seven months.  I've been trying to get my hands on a sander.  Let me rephrase, I've been trying to get my step-dad to remember to give me his sanders.  

The food stuff pushes me to try recipes that are challenging, technical, and have intimidated me in the past.  That, and I've been bugging Mike to make another homebrew for a while now.  It's going to be a boozy March!  And I'm not giving up on the souffle and pasta.  I know exactly what pasta and souffle recipes I want to make.

And WordPress?  Well I've seen too many issues with Blogger lately, and to tell you the truth I've been thinking about it for three months and looking into the ins and outs and following along as some bloggers I'm friends with have made the move.  Now I know I'll have gals to run to and ask for help.  

I'm excited to update the look of my blog with the move too.  Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE Maddie's blog design  and I'm going to keep elements of it with the new look, but I'm a change my outfit 10 times before I go out girl.  You get the idea.  

And I couldn't wait for the WordPress move to do a little make over.  I decided to get started now and show you all a revamped look for WLOW to go with my new visual archive pages.  Tutorial for the archives will be posted on January 7th.

I'd love to here what your goals for the year are.  I think it's really fun stepping outside your box and taking on a challenge you didn't think was possible or were too scared to try.  

Bring it on!