mastering the art of 2010

after a long night working on new year's eve i spent most of the last 36 hours warm and cozy in my lic apartment. with the temperature dipping below frigid outside, lirr trains speeding lazily by my windows, and the moon shining blue above, it's been the perfect weekend to contemplate the new year.

i've also, happily, spent some time dashing through the blogosphere and have been inspired by the many resolutions and sentiments of this intentional community of world wide webbers. jenna of cold antler farm's post on being just one hour better, and ashley of small measure's post on, well, small measures particular spoke to me.

it's damn exciting turning over a new year!
there's just a lot of opportunity for...

opportunity!

know what i mean?

so...i won't bore you with all of my intentions for 2010, i'll get right to the
delicious stuff:

1. eat locally even more - over the last couple of years i have taken huge steps forward in an effort to eat organically, locally and in season. about this time of the year when nothing is coming out of the ground or off trees in the northeast the pickins get pretty slim. in the past i've chosen organic (usually from california) over local but more recently have been questioning that action. susy has a great post regarding this very topic over at chiot's run that echos my sentiments eloquently. basically, the label 'organic' isn't what it once promised to be. from now on when the choice in front of me is certified organic from far away, or not certified organic grown locally - and consciously, i won't disregard the local option in favor of certified organic.



it's best to have both of course, and in 2010 this is my hierarchy of food consumption:

homegrown
local organic
local not-certified organic - conscious practices
organic non-local - small farms
organic non-local - agribiz
conventional

2. garden better - there is nothing like eating what you grow yourself. gardening better for me means finally breaking down and getting some garden help. ever the DIY'er (i prefer the term pilgrim) i fought m's suggestions for 4 years. finally last summer when i realized the garden was causing me more stress than work deadlines it was time for a change. i am excited that this will open up possibilities that i could only plan in years past but never quite actualize, particularly because i have found the perfect gardeners!

small farms rising first, check the website and you'll see what i mean. second, aside from being on the same page [as us] when it comes to gardening practices, hadley & brian are particularly cool and i suspect a friendship brewing. :)

in the little bit of time they helped us at the end of the season, our garden turned from an over mulched worm farm ravished by blight into well organized rows standing in anticipation for the season ahead. and we had micro greens in abundance under a micro 'green house' when we went up there to check on things in november! go figure!

more herbs, veggies, fruit and flowers (for the first time) will be grown in our garden this year!









you can kind of see the garden area in this photo - herb garden in front, then rhubarb, blueberries and the fenced in vegetable garden behind. which brings me to my next intention:

3. take more photos - in general, and particularly of the changing seasons & growing food. i am also hoping that the speedlight flash i received for christmas will give me more hours in the day for kitchen photos.

4. make dumplings once a week - this probably seems totally random (i like that!) but to know me is to know that moist, starchy things are my skool (if they can't run fast enough good buttermilk biscuits are toast around me) after all, there is something quite comforting, scrumptious and crafty about dumplings.

i have pretty much zero experience thus far making dumplings - and as geeky as it may seem, the prospect of mastering an ancient foodcraft is kinda exciting to me (i suspect i'm not alone here?) i treated myself to two books that i have been eyeing for quite some time:

asian dumplings: mastering gyoza, spring rolls, samosas, and more

andrea nguyun is a contributing editor to saveur magazine and blogs all about asian dumplings on her site asian dumpling tips. the focus is on authenticity, the photos are gorgeous, and though i haven't started yet, i can tell the detailed instructions here will be keys to my success.




the dumpling: a seasonal guide

wai hon chu & connie lovatt's definition of a dumpling is "a portion of dough, batter, or starchy plant fare, solid or filled, that is cooked through wet heat..." thus the recipes, organized by month, span from gnocchi to indian idlis, and the focus is on the quality of ingredients & seasonality.



5. expand and refine pickle & jam techniques - for jams i plan to explore working with less sugar, i agree with kevin's sentiments at saving the season that the old standby of 65% total sugar by weight can render the jam too sweet and is not necessary in most cases. i also want to work with more interesting herb and fruit combinations.



i plan to explore more 'quick' chutneys in the indian tradition. these are almost the polar opposite of the preserved english chutneys that most of us are familiar with and are probably more akin to mexican salsas. the best of them hit sweet, hot and sour smack dab in the middle.



fermenting is very high on my list this year for pickled produce. and no matter what happens, blight or no (please no!) i am determined to grow enough tomatoes to can both whole tomatoes and sauce in abundance.

and of course the first ever tigress' can jam has just kicked off and that means that i'm organizing a crazy clan of 140 canners who have committed to hot water bath can a designated fruit or vegetable each month and shout about it on the web. so that means 12 cannings, and 12 shoutings for me too!




6. bake more & again- starting about 3 years ago i went for a whole year & 1/2 baking my own bread. once a week at least i was peel in hand and sourdough at the ready. then my oven broke, took 3 months to finally get back in working order and the baking chain was broken. on top of that i have a penchant for pies and tea cakes, which basically have been about as elusive as sugar plum fairies (i wanted a link to an actual performance but youtube apparently has issues with it) around these parts for the past year or so.

since i got this whole dumpling thing going on, i'm not going to set a stringent commitment like baking weekly, but my intention is to get back into regular baking in 2010. that said, to whet my baking skillz i'm going to enter the 3rd annual brooklyn pie contest to benefit bk farmyards on january 23rd. it is for a good cause, looks like good fun & good eatin'!




7. learn to crochet - i know, i know this has nothing to do with food. but you gotta admit that this looks good enough to eat. i saw this at sandra juto and i was overcome with desire to learn how to make one of my own. this is coming from someone who's father once told her that the only 'sew' she knew was 'so' what.

which i must admit is true.










fear of needles aside. i think i can do this.

i'm not sayin' i'll have one of these by the end of 2010 - oh no! i's not that crazy! but i will learn how to make this grannysquare somehow someway. because this thing is gorgeous and it's about time i learn to make something i don't eat.

i think. yikes!





8. post at least once a week - either here or on tigress in a jam. since their inception 9 months ago i think i've pretty much adhered to this schedule, with just a couple of weeks here and there that i didn't quite make. it works well for me and i hope for you too. this year my intention is to make sure i don't miss a week, plus some.

that, my friends is it for my intentional foodie forays for 2010.

would love to hear about yours!

:)