Happy Birthday to Me!

Here's a special post for my birthday! It's my golden birthday (28 on the 28th). I thought I'd look back on the goal list that I created a year ago, and just see how I did. I didn't accomplish everything that I wanted, but I'm still pretty pleased with how many I did manage to cross off the list!

Goals:
1. Use eggplant in a meal. Done!
2. Bake another pie. Done and done!
3. Take another cooking class. I'm taking college classes instead, that overrules this goal. :)
4. One week a month I'll cook only vegetarian meals (ovo/lacto ingredients are acceptable). Revised this one, as it just didn't work for us.
5. I will have at least 3 new blog posts a week for the whole year (except when we're on vacation). Done!!
6. Host a dinner party for friends. Sort of done...we had a few people over for a super impromptu, not planned meal. That counts, right?
7. Try a new (to us) restaurant every month. Done. I didn't always blog about it but we did try 12+ new restaurants this year.
8. Bake a souffle. Done!
9. Buy more potted herbs for the house. Not done.
10. Make Tiramisu completely from scratch. Not done.
11. Cook a meal with fish at least twice a month. Done! It ended up being mostly salmon.
12. Get an icecream maker and use it! Done, many times over. :)
13. Make at least one pasta dish from scratch. Not done.
14. Try making my own ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Not done.
15. Get a freezer for the garage. We determined that our garage is too small. :(
16. Buy an aebelskiver pan and use it! Used it once, I'm counting it!
17. Cook my very first turkey. I cooked a chicken instead, I'm counting it. :)
18. Look into buying a juicer and use it to add more fruits/veggies to our diet. Decided against it, not worth the money/time/effort.
19. Make caramels. Done!
20. Make Thai food at home. I've made a bunch of curries, I'm counting it.
21. Make macarons. Not done.
22. Try making creme fraiche. Done.
23. Sign on with a home delivery service for local organic produce. Tried one delivery.
24. Make homemade jam. Not done.
25. Make creme brulee. Done!
26. Learn how to use my camera to take better pictures of my meals. I took a class!
27. Try more recipes from my Irish and Norwegian heritage. Done and done!

Now that we've looked at the past, I wanted to update you all on the future. Two months ago I quit my job and headed back to school to begin the long journey of hopefully becoming a Registered Dietitian. Before classes began in January, I wrote almost 30 posts and scheduled them for January and February, which is why I've been able to keep up with my 3-posts-a-week goal while going to class. That backlog of posts has now run out, and classes are keeping me very busy. I'm going to reduce my posting to probably just once a week, but my hope is that one post will be well-written and well-photographed, and hopefully you will appreciate the quality over quantity! :)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!