I have the kind of mind that will just wonder aimlessly without straightforward goals so setting resolutions helps me more than it might help others.

I also like to make them public. It keeps me honest and also might even give you a few ideas for resolutions this year.

So here’s a quick post with my resolutions for the next year and also a review of my 2011 resolutions!

Last Year’s Resolutions

I set 5 goals for 2011 and I would give myself a solid B on accomplishing these. Let’s go through them one by one.

Brew a Batch of Beer. I used to love brewing beer and I hadn’t done it in a few years so I really wanted to try to get back into it this year. I brewed exactly one batch. It exploded. I have yet to try again. So I technically met this resolution, but I don’t think I really met the spirit of this resolution.

Do Some Canning. I rocked this one. I had two really successful canning attempts. My pickled okra turned out amazing. I just have one or two jars left. My peach jalapeno jam was also a success. It wasn’t as spicy as I would’ve liked, but that’s just personal preference. I feel pretty confident about basic canning now and am excited to try more.

Grow a Garden. Not only did I grow a garden, I built a garden! I grew all kinds of stuff… some of it succeeded and some of it failed. My garden this year will be a lot better after having a year of experience under my belt.

Freelance Articles. I wanted to write a bunch more freelance articles in 2011 and I sort of succeeded. I wrote almost an article a week for Tablespoon, but I wasn’t able to get any writing assignments outside of that. I wrote a few query letters, but no bites. I’ll try again this year though.

Hit and Maintain 175. This was a half success. I’ve definitely lost weight this year. I hover around 180 now. The good news though is that I think I’ve built a lot of muscle. I’ve been exercising a lot and Betsy and I are just generally more active these days than when we lived in DC. Betsy told me recently that she thinks I’m in the best shape she has seen me in since we started dating. I’ll take that as a WIN.

 2012 Resolutions

Ok. Now for the fun part. Here’s a few fairly ambitious resolutions for next year!

Making Croissants - I’ve tried to make croissants about half a dozen times in the past. I’ve never been able to produce anything that even half-resembles a croissant. I’m not saying that I will succeed at this, but I’ll try a few times. Bring on the butter!

Self-publish a Book - This is actually in the works. It’s a project that I’ve been working on for about 9 months now and is almost done. I’m really excited to tell you all more about it, but I need another month or two to put on some finishing touches.

YouTube It - I’ve never really figured out a good way to do Macheesmo in video format. Frankly, I like writing and taking photos and that’s what works best for this site in my opinion. That said, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a separate project on Youtube. It would be food-related, but not really coincide exactly with the stuff on Macheesmo.

Run the Holy Cross Trail - I’ve been doing a lot of trail running this year and I’m sort of addicted to it. I’ve never been a huge runner, but I really love the varied terrain of a trail. Plus I get to bring the dog.

Holy Cross is a pretty tough mountain biking trail near us. I’ve biked it before and it’s very difficult. I think it’s a bit under 10K distance-wise but it also has a 700 feet elevation change so I think it would be a challenging run.

Organs! - I love cooking with offal, but I’m pretty inexperienced with most types. I want to keep experimenting and try a few different and new types in 2012. In fact, I’m posting a really delicious offal dish TOMORROW. So check back for that!

That’s my hopeful 2012 in a nutshell!

Do you have any resolutions for 2012, cooking or otherwise? Leave a comment!

Great croissant photo by Rofi.

It’s been a busy year.

But since the year is almost over, I wanted to take a post and review all my resolutions from last year. Just to keep myself honest you see.

One at a time…

300 Posts. I think I pretty much met this goal. I might be a few posts short, but I figure I made up for it with photos that I’ve posted under Daily Snaps (More like Weekly Snaps but whatever). All-in-all I feel like I’ve really hit a stride with my posting schedule and while it sometimes seems like a lot, I really enjoy writing everyday. I count this one as a success.

Meat Four Times a Week. I think this one was kind of a bad goal because it was hard to keep track of. The good news is that I’ve reduced my meat intake from a year ago, without a doubt. And the meat I do buy, I try to buy the best I can find. These days Betsy and I eat a lot more vegetables and whole grains accented with the occasional piece of meat which I think is how it should be.

I’ll count it as a half win since I can’t actually verify that I ate meat only four times a week.

Brew a Batch of Beer. FAIL. I still owe you all this one. I have an idea for it… just need to pull the trigger.

Lose 10 Pounds. A half success. Literally. I started the year at 185 and I’m hitting 180 these days. Five pounds isn’t a lot, but it’s 50% of what I wanted to lose so I’ll take it.

Finish The Book. I did! It’s finished! It’s an ebook called 55 Knives and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

So all-in-all, I think I did okay on these in 2010 given the busy year I had.

But enough of the past, let’s talk about the future! Here’s a few goals I have for 2011!

Brew a Batch of Beer. Repeat. But seriously. I’m going to do it. I’m also going to write up a quick guide on how you can do it on the cheap. It’s going to be solid.

Do Some Canning. I really want to get into canning/pickling/etc. Now that I actually have space to store the stuff in, I want to do it. It seems a bit like a lost art. I’ll post on this sometimes, but I get the impression that people who are interested in canning already know how to do it. But leave a comment if there’s anything specific that you’d like to see a canning post on.

Grow a Garden. I have the space and it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’ll definitely post photos of it and you’ll obviously see the various vegetables in recipe posts (assuming things I plant actually GROW).

Freelance Articles. I’d like to write at least one (hopefully more) freelance food articles in an actual publication. While it would obviously be drop-dead-unbelievable to be in something like Bon Appétit, I’ll probably set my sights a bit more realistic.

Hit and maintain 175. I’m pretty sure that’s my ideal weight. I’m gonna nail it this year and maintain it.

Those are my goals for 2011! As you can see, a lot of them are Do-It-Yourself goals which is a direction in which I’d like to continue pushing myself.

So, do you have any goals for the new year? Food-related or not. Leave a comment!
Cool 2011 design by [Mooi].

Questions like:

- What counts as one meal of meat? Surely if I eat a 6 ounce steak it should count differently than if I make risotto with chicken stock that I made from scratch right?

- What about quality? Is quantity the only important thing to take into account here? Will I only eat organic meat?

- Does fish count?

- Can I do this except not count bacon because it’s so delicious?

After spending some time thinking about it, here are my basic set of rules that I’m going to try to use throughout the year. Feel free to use them, change them, ignore them, or comment and tell me how wrong I am.

1) Meat Four Times a Week. When I say that I’m only eating meat four times a week, I mean servings of meat. Even a generous definition of serving size puts that at around 4 ounces of meat. I usually start the meat clock on Sunday morning. So far in doing this experiment, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to eat practically no meat during the week and then I normally eat more meat over the weekends.

2) No Rollovers. This isn’t a wireless plan. If I eat three servings one week, I can’t eat five the next week. Sure this encourages me to eat exactly 4 servings every week, but I see nothing wrong with that.

3) Multipliers and Fractions Are Possible. Since one meal is counted as a serving size, it’s possible (and very likely) to burn through more than one meal in a sitting. If I devour a 16 ounce porterhouse steak in one sitting that counts as all four meals (and yes I can do that without a problem). At the same time, if I use a strip of bacon to flavor a sauce, I could maybe count that as 1/2 serving of meat.

4) Homemade Stock is Free. If I take the time to make homemade stock like I did yesterday, the stock is free when used and doesn’t count toward one of my four meat servings. So if I make risotto or something later, it doesn’t count as a meat meal unless I add additional meat to it. Dan and I debated via chat for a bit on this one and this seems fair to me. The idea being that it encourages me to use scraps that otherwise might be thrown away… basically an incentive program.

If I purchase stock directly though it counts. Only homemade stock made from leftovers doesn’t count toward a meal.

5) Quality is Important. In my resolution, I didn’t make any statements about what kinds of meat I would be eating and that prompted a few emails from people – and rightfully so. I did this mainly because I think it’s possibly more important to eat less meat than it is to eat quality meat. It’s a pretty solid fact that it’s absolutely impossible to produce the levels of meat humans consume now in a humane and healthy manner… so step one seems to be: Eat less meat.

6) Going out. Going out to eat is difficult if I’m trying to watch my servings of meat and also keep quality in mind. It means that I will almost never eat meat at fast food places or chain restaurants. The exception might be Chipotle which seems to actually care about the quality of meat they serve. Although I might have to count one of their burritos as two servings!

I have no problem eating meat in a restaurant though if it’s of high quality.

7) Purchasing Meat. If given the opportunity, I almost exclusively buy hormone free and antibiotic free meat, and I would say that hormone free is slightly more important to me. As far as beef goes, grass fed is the way to go for me.

I don’t care as much about the organic label. A lot of small farms can’t get it even though they raise exceptionally healthy and happy animals. If the label is there, okay. But I don’t hunt for it. You can assume that any meat you see on Macheesmo will meet these standards.

8) Buy Low Demand Meat. I want to try to buy cheaper cuts of meat from very high quality sources. I think that will be the secret to keeping my grocery bill manageable. These are the cuts that other people don’t want and therefore I can get them for fairly cheap. The good news is that hopefully I’ll make delicious things with them, post the results, and you can do the same! I think the last time I bought boneless skinless chicken breasts was for a Chicken Parm I made over two months ago…

9) Avoid The Dollar Menu. I won’t pay less than a dollar/pound for meat unless it’s literally bones or scraps. It’s kind of an arbitrary number, but it freaks me out that meat is less expensive than veggies. We should demand higher standards and be willing to pay more for it.

10) Fish Counts. Fish counts just like any other meat.

11) Bacon Counts. I tried to use all of my logical and argumentative powers to exclude bacon from my rules, but alas… bacon counts. The good news is that bacon is so flavorful you can add 1/2 serving of bacon to many dishes and it’s incredibly filling.

So, what do you think? Are these rules rational? What do you disagree with? I’ve been talking to a few of you about these issues so I’d love to have a more public discussion. As always though, if you want to email me your thoughts, you definitely can!

Photo by Joshbousel.

“I’m going to spend more time in the kitchen.”

“I’m going to eat healthier.”

These are just a few of the resolutions I’ve read or heard from people over the last few weeks. I hate to say it, but I’m fairly sure that if you have one of the above as a resolution you will most likely fail at it. You won’t fail because you’re a slacker, but you’ll fail because they aren’t really measurable.

I know. Normally, people write resolutions for themselves and it’s not really my place to stick my nose in other people’s resolutions, but I just can’t help it! So here are 12 ways to make your resolutions more tangible. Some are more difficult than others and it’s not a coincidence that there are 12 of them.

1) Bake a loaf of No Knead Bread. I’ve mentioned this before, but over the last few years one of the most significant changes I’ve made to our diet is to make bread every week. It is really easy to get down and takes just a few minutes of actual work. Once you get the basics down you can add all kinds of things to change it up. Here’s the base recipe if you want to try it out!

2) Chop an onion. I’m sure if you cook at all you probably know how to muddle through an onion – crying the whole way. If you chop anything enough times it will eventually get to the size you want. But there’s a right way to chop an onion actually. Learn it and give it a shot!

3) Spice up your kitchen. The next time you are at the store, buy a spice you’ve never used. Then learn a little about the spice. Maybe check out wikipedia as a start. Once you have the basics down, find some recipes that use it! I like to find recipes on Food Blog Search.

4) Dust off a book. Everyone has a cookbook or two that they’ve never opened. Maybe it was a gift. Maybe it was a poor purchase. But here’s the thing. Most of the time if a book makes it all the way to the printhouse there is probably at least a few solid recipes in there. Give them a shot! For me this would mean making something from an unopened Rachel Ray book…

5) Make a dish more difficult. If you have a dish that’s a go-to for you, one that you could make with your eyes closed, spend an extra five or ten minutes to try something new with it. If it’s a pasta dish, add something new to it or make the sauce from scratch. Yes. You’re making it harder, but you’ll learn something in the process!

6) Make a dish easier. When you have a few hours on a lazy Sunday, find a recipe that looks too difficult for you. Don’t go really far out of your comfort zone, but push your boundaries a bit. It might be hard, but it’ll probably be easier than you thought. And it will definitely be easier the next time you make it.

7) Make a soup from scratch. There’s nothing like a nice homemade bowl of soup. Try to make the stock from scratch also if you have time. You’ll be shocked at the quality difference that your soup will have if you start with homemade stock. Heck. Double your recipe and freeze some. Soup is always good and it won’t lose much by being frozen.

8) Get Cheesy. Make some cheese on the weekend! Some cheeses are hard to make and you need special equipment. Some cheeses are easy to make and you can do it with practically no new equipment. I’ll be trying some of the latter variety in a few weeks!

9) Change techniques. Try taking a dish or ingredient that you’ve only had one way and cook it in an entirely different way. One example that’s very common in America is calamari. Most Americans only have it sliced and fried. That’s it. But it’s also good grilled. You can even make a salad out of it!

10) Pancakes! Throw out the Bisquick people. Let’s make pancakes from scratch. It’s not that many more ingredients. Some flour and melted butter and a bit of milk. Maybe buttermilk if you want to get crazy. A good pancake can save a lousy day. If you’re a Ben and Jerry’s fan, check these out.

11) Braise something. Sure it might take a few hours to do correctly, but it’s a great technique. The good news is that it’s basically impossible to overcook something that’s braised. I mean, it’s cooking in its own juices. Brisket is always a good braising subject.

12) Stay Healthy. Pick a few dishes off of this list. They are all super healthy and will help with any cooking resolutions you have plus any weight loss resolutions you have!

If you have a reoccurring resolution, I found this awesome and simple website that lets you track them. You don’t have to sign up for anything and it takes about 10 seconds to figure out. All you do is enter the info and then bookmark the results page and it will update it for you throughout the year and keep you on track!

Photo by Steve Wampler.

I made some good resolutions last year and I think I succeeded at most of them, if not all of them. Here’s a few things that I want to get done in 2010 – in no particular order.

300 Posts – Again! I had this resolution last year and I think it kept me on track writing and cooking and thinking. I don’t want to do more than that though… I think that’s my blogging sweet spot.

Meat Four Times a Week – I had a 2009 goal of eating meat no more than once a day. Two years ago I would frequently eat meat at every meal. I slipped a few times (mainly over holidays) but was generally successful. I noticed only positive things from my meat reduction. I feel healthier and have really expanded my cooking skills with veggies.

I’d rather set a week limit rather than a day limit that way I have some flexibility on menus. This probably means that there will be less meat posts on Macheesmo, but trust me, the ones that I do have will be delicious. I’m not wasting a meat credit on a crappy meal!

The four times a week thing is pretty arbitrary. I’m not basing it on anything that I’ve read. It’s just a way for me to keep reducing my meat intake which I think is important.

Brew a Batch of Beer – I used to brew beer every few months and stopped. I’d love to get back into it though. So expect some beer brewing posts in 2010!

Lose 10 pounds - I think my ideal weight is somewhere around 175 and I’m about 10 pounds over that right now. With some focus, I think it should be reasonable for me to trim off these extra pounds this year.

Finish the book – I bet you didn’t even know I was working on a book! Well, that’s because I haven’t really talked about it much. Don’t worry though, I’ll be writing more on it very soon. I’ve been working on it for about 5 months and everything is coming together nicely. I’m doing all the layout for the book myself so it’s taking kind of a long time, but it’s been really fun so far.

So there ya go! My 2010 resolutions. Do you have any good food-related resolutions for 2010? Leave a comment!

Photo by angela7dreams.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year’s Eve and hopefully none of you have too bad of a headache from champagne. I say that because champagne gives me the worst hangovers and I assume I’m not the only one.

Anyway, welcome to 2010 everyone. If you are reading this, you might as well go ahead and vote for something for me to make this weekend. Kicking off the new year in good health, all of these are healthy, cleansing dishes.

And how about a few links!

10 Healthy Things to Eat and Drink in 2010 – Kick the year off on the right foot with a few healthy things to eat and drink. There’s a few things on the list that you may not be expecting! Except soy. Everyone expects soy to be on healthy lists! (@ Wisebread)

2010 Food Resolutions – I’m posting a few resolutions of my own tomorrow, but Zach and Clay list some great ones here. My favorite on their list is definitely making an aspic. You should subscribe to their RSS just to wait for that post! (@ The Bitten Word)

Beef Treatment – Yet another scathing report of how beef is processed in a particularly gross and unhealthy way to keep the cost down. These days it seems like eating a fast food hamburger or buying a cheap frozen one, or heck even buying pre-ground beef, is basically playing Russian Roulette. The only thing that sickens me more than the deception these companies use to make a buck is that the USDA allows it to happen. (@ NY Times)

Hope you are recovering well from last night everyone. Happy 2010!

Photo by Optical Illusion.

It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve published that many posts this year. I can honestly say that I’ve learned a lot and still have a ginormous list of recipes and posts that I can’t wait to try.

I’ll probably make some similar goals in 2010 which I’ll post closer to the new year. I might take off a day or two over the next few weeks because I’m going to be out of town for most of the time, but no doubt that you can continue to expect fairly frequent posts throughout the next year.

Here’s a few links!

Blog Envy Holiday Dessert Bake-off Party – Bon Appétit invited 15 awesome food bloggers to NY for a night of baking and eating. Bon Appétit, if you’re listening, I’m keeping my entire 2010 calendar clear in case you deem me worthy of a bake-off invitation next year. Just sayin’… (@ BA)

Here for The Cookies! – Betsy and I are actually considering doing something like this for our wedding. We’re planning on making a bunch of desserts from our childhood and piling them high and deep. Should be a good time. (@ NY Times)

Eater of the Year – Get your bid in now for the 2009 Eater of the Year! I’m thinking Jose Garces is going to take it because WHOA LOOK AT THAT KNIFE. (@ Endless Simmer)

What Matters Now – Ok. So this isn’t food related at all, but I found it very interesting and inspiring so I thought I’d link to it in case you haven’t seen it already. It’s a free PDF mini-book. Each page in the book has a theme and is written by a different author. It’s a great read and makes you think about a lot of different subjects. The authors range from popular bloggers to NY Times best selling authors to just generally smart and thoughtful people. Definitely worth a look. (@ Seth Godin)

Have a good weekend everyone and if you’re traveling, good luck!

Photo by Σταύρος.

I’m not overweight, but I’m not skinny. I check in at about 5 foot 10” and 180 pounds (all muscle!). Even still, I always like to start the year out thinking about exercise.

If you are trying to lose weight or go on a diet of some sort, I recommend staying away from what I like to call Ponzi Scheme Diets.

What is a Ponzi Scheme?

You have probably heard about the Madoff $50 Billion heist that has been all over the news lately. It is looking like it will go down in the history books as the largest Ponzi Scheme of all time.

At the heart of it, Ponzi schemes are simple pyramids where the person running it uses money coming in to pay out past investors. The person basically moves money around and skims off however much he/she wants. The schemes require constantly increasing investments or they will fall apart

Consistent High Returns. A more hidden identifier of a Ponzi scheme is the promise of consistent high returns. The only way to get exceptional high returns is to have an equal amount of risk and that high risk should lead to inconsistent returns in the short term. In Madoff’s case he was promising absurd yearly returns regardless of stock market performance.

An Empty Structure. A second feature of these types of schemes is an empty structure. There is no trading, no interest earned on money (they typically don’t keep the money long enough to get interest), and sometimes not even a staff. It’s hard to make money without these things.

What is a Ponzi Scheme Diet?

This is an idea that I’ve been playing around with for a few weeks to try to weed out the bad diet plans out there. HINT: There are a bunch of them. In short, a Ponzi Scheme Diet is a diet that promises very fast weight lost with very little work.

Anytime you are thinking about trying a new diet, look for the three below things. If the new diet has one or more of them, I would be very weary of it.

Quick and Effortless Weight Loss. Similar to how a pyramid scheme promises you quick money without a lot of work, a Ponzi Scheme Diet promises you immediate weight loss with minimal changes to your current lifestyle. People try these out every year and they all end in heartache.

This is the food equivalent of consistent high returns. If you are currently in a lifestyle where you are packing on the pounds, you can’t turn that around without changing the lifestyle. Living the same lifestyle but spending ten minutes a day zapping your belly with electrodes is not going to make you thin Dude.

Tricks and Gimmicks. Some people may disagree with me, but I also don’t love diets that just offer one trick or gimmick. “Just do this one thing”, “Eat this food”, “Walk backwards and sing for 10 minutes a day”… These things rarely work.

The body is an intricate beast and we might be able to trick it for awhile. If you are still living a weight-gaining lifestyle though, but just have some gimmick in it, you are eventually going to continue to gain weight.

Paying for pounds. Besides a book, a nutritionist, a gym membership (or personal trainer), and/or some very basic equipment, you shouldn’t be paying money to lose weight. And in fact, you might not even need any of the above things depending on your experience level. Any diet that says you have to buy some special machine, pre-packaged food, or magical ointment is pulling your possibly overweight leg.

What does work?

Obviously entire books have been written about the subject of weight loss, but here are a few short tips that I think can help.

Keep track. Start a food journal and write down everything that you eat for every meal and snack. This can be in the form of a small notebook that you carry with you or something more techy like a cellphone note. This forces you to be mindful about what you eat.

Work together. I always find it easier to work out if I have other people with me. Start a jogging club, or a gym club, or just share your goals with others who have similar goals. They will keep you honest.

Don’t starve. If you are hungry, then eat. Just be mindful of what you are eating and try to eat mainly fruits and veggies. If you are hungry and you don’t eat then your body will start slowing down your metabolism which isn’t going to help your cause at all.

I know that this isn’t a website about weight loss. In fact, I sometimes post recipes that might destroy your attempts at it, but I do believe in a healthy, rounded diet and I think it is important to keep in decent shape.

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any Ponzi Scheme Diets?

I’m making a number of goals and resolutions this year that are specific to this website and I figured the best way to keep myself honest would be to publish them.

300 Posts in 2009 – Lately I’ve been posting on Macheesmo almost daily and I like that schedule. I don’t want to set a goal of posting every day though because I might find myself writing content without a purpose which is the last thing I want. This gives me a very reachable goal that will still push me to write daily (some posts take more than one day to write).

Get a Camera and Learn How to Use It – Guess what. I don’t even own a camera. I use my girlfriend’s point and shoot digital camera to take 99% of the photos on this site. This has got to change in 2009 because I’ve hit a wall with that camera. I don’t think I can improve the quality of the photos much more without a new one. Also, Betsy might want to actually use her camera someday and then I would be screwed.

So in 2009 I’m going to splurge for a new DSLR and learn how to use it. There might be a period of adjustment where some of my photos suffer, but it should make the site better ultimately.

Monthly Food Newsletters – This is an idea I came up with that I will start tomorrow. On the first of each month I’m going to post a medium length summary of the upcoming month through the lens of food. This will include what things are in season, but also other information specific to that month like holiday dishes.

Good food is made possible by knowing what environment is right for what dish and I want to start each month with that idea in mind. I know very little of what I’m going to write in these bad boys, but I’m looking forward to the research. Hopefully they provide a lot of info that you all will enjoy.

Eating Good Food – This is something that I already do, but I want to kick it up a notch in 2009. I’m not a crazy guy when it comes to processed foods (I like Diet Coke and Doritos), but I only enjoy those on occasion. In general, I eat well and try to pass on good food recipes to you all.

Here are some of the guidelines I’m going to use to help me achieve this:

Organic Meat - I generally prefer organic meat to the non-organic stuff, but I’m making a concerted effort to eat only organic meat and grass-fed beef in 2009. Due to price this will probably mean that I eat less meat in general which is also to my benefit.

Note: I’m not all high and mighty about organic stuff. It’s not a perfect solution, but I do think it is healthier food and I’m willing to pay a bit more for it even if I know some of that increase in cost is due to marketing drivel.

Local Produce – Bets and I already frequent the farmer’s market pretty regularly, but I’m going to up that even more in 2009. When possible, I want to buy all of our produce from local farms to support them.

When pressed, I would choose a local apple over an organic apple that was shipped from California. Most of the time though I don’t have to make that choice and a lot of the local produce is in fact organic.

Anything else? As always I’m open to suggestions on ways to improve this site. If there are things that you think would improve Macheesmo (design ideas, posts, functionalities, etc) let me know. No better time than 2009 to make improvements!

Leave a comment or shoot me an email if you have ideas or food related resolutions of your own.

Photo by TallCJ.