Hopes, Dreams, Revelations and Resolutions

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Everyone is talking about their big parties tonight or quiet night alone.
Tomorrow many people will begin their resolutions.

I never have kept a resolution, the closest I got was to May or June. I had decided to stop cursing because my language was terrible at the time. After I found out I had been cheated on in the spring, I decided to give boys a break and try cursing again.

I don’t want to call them resolutions I want to be more free flowing. Why set yourself up for a guilt trip later? Why not list your hopes and dreams for the new year?

My hopes and dreams always far outweigh my accomplishments bucket, but I slowly plug away and get a few more things done.

A few hopes and dreams for the coming year for myself and others:

• I wish to keep trying new recipes with my hubbster. Maybe try another country/culture specific dish.

• Expand our chicken flock, build a simple coop and get free eggs all summer.

• Play with our kids daily or every other day so they learn to love people. (Goat kids are due in May or June)

• Start another garden!
Buy seeds, plan, start and plant.
We skipped 2013 and we were pretty sad every day we didn’t have fresh produce in the backyard.

• Go on more dates with Hubbster. My Christmas present of monthly dates should do the trick. (I will likely post about them later)

• Read more for fun.
Get a book, read it all the way through in two weeks. Quit hanging onto one tiny paperback for two months and then barely finishing it.

• Spread more joy.
Visit people, just to sit and have tea. Talk about happy things, really listen and respond to stories from their life and how they are feeling. Like plants; I need to tend to my relationship garden more.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. There are more serious hopes like, finding a solid job that doesn’t kill my spirit, paying off bills so I can travel, and exercising more. However, I don’t need a new year to start these things.

Do you have hopes, dreams, goals, resolutions for the new year, or have you had revelations in 2013?

My wish to all my readers is the warmth of a good meal in their stomachs, happiness in their hearts, and the strength of spirit to achieve their goals for the upcoming year.

Merry new year,
~Kit and Kat~

New Journal

I’ve made a slow start but a start nonetheless in my new journal.
The purple flap has a magnetic closure.

It has a glorious little pocket for love notes, fortune cookies and ticket stubs. Similar to the pocket on moleskein journals. This one is about the size of a paper CD case.

This is a thicker journal that I usually shy away from because of my tendency to become bored with the patterns or pages. This journal holds a pleasant surprise in that there are five or ten different patterns and colors.

Like I said a slow start, I only have the first few pages filled. I hope to start throwing in some good notes and things for Christmas celebrations and grocery lists for Xmas cooking.

I feel like most of my journals have a slow start. Like most novels you have to invest in a little time to gett to know the writing style and characters. I have to get to know the lax or taught spine and ease into how the paper soaks up the ink from my favorite pen.

Speaking of pens, do you have a very specific pen, or style of ink pen you use for journaling? I am quite picky. In some journals I refused to write with a ballpoint pen at all. That made for tough times when I inevitably misplaced my fancier ink pen.

Food Fotos

I have been trying to think of a lovely theme or nice way to tie my photos together for a blog. However, they would all be super short and simply saying: Hey, this is that one thing that I ate for dinner. And that sort of nonsense is for Instagram [which I also have].

So here are several food pictures of things I have been eating recently. If you’re interested in a recipe for it please let me know.

I know this picture is a little fuzzy, my apologies. I was starved and wanted to eat immediately. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a good picture of it unless I snapped one right away.
We had fish with Catalina seafood rub, spiced rice from scratch, and Brussels sprouts coated in butter and nutritional yeast. This meal was orgasmic!

I followed this recipe as a basis for my plans, with some changes:

Soaking up the liquids–but not quite done

Tomato Rice Recipe Ingredients

• Oil to saute
• Onion – 1 large diced
• Ginger Paste & Garlic minced – Eyeballed (1.5 tsp and 2 TBSP)
• Chilli powder – eyeballed it
• Dried red pepper flakes – eyeballed it
• Curry powder – eyeballed maybe 1 TBSP
• Bay leaves – 2 leaves
• Salt to taste
• Tomatoes – 1 can diced
• Can of black beans – rinsed and drained
• Rice – 2 cups uncooked jasmine
• 3 cups of water or chicken broth
• NONE of the other ingredients listed on the website.

Saute onions with spices and a dab of oil. Add tomatoes, beans, rice and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is gone and rice is tender.

Don’t forget to make hill billy paella with your leftover rice. We cooked up chorizo and shrimp to put into it this time and served it on a bed of fresh greens. So much yummy!

I made entirely too many rolls for Thanksgiving, but it was good to share them for more family anyway. I made roughly sixty rolls and they made it to two family functions. The left-left overs are in my freezer now. I hope to pull them out for a good hearty soup night this winter.

Just take a gander at those luscious rolls! Next time want to brush them with egg or milk to give them a right nice sheen. Although, as pictured above they are perfectly appealing. Have I ever shared my fun bun recipe? I feel another blog coming….