Happy 2012!

Happy New Year, dear readers!

Thank you for sticking around here for yet another year. Thanks for emailing, commenting and even lurking (Hello Lurkers! Say hi!?). Wish you a delicious year ahead filled with joy, inspiration and magic.

I’m late in wishing you, but I’ve good reason. I’ve been traveling quite a bit over the holidays and I finally got home late last night. On our 14 day trip, my husband and I ate our way through Italy, travelling up from Rome to Milan. We did our own little gelato trail in Rome and Florence. Ate the famous panforte in Siena. Bought gorgeous handmade porcelain in Venice. And cooked in the most beautiful house in Verona. Whenever I knew of a bustling market in the city, I’d wake up early to go photograph the gorgeous produce. I learned so many things on this trip: Popping into the back of bakeries, and making friends with pizzaiolo at the forno I’d go to almost everyday in Rome. Getting a vendor at Campo di Fiori to show me just the right way to cut an artichoke.Tasting olive oils from the seasons’s harvest in Florence, and much more. I even surprised myself by developing a penchant for coffee.

For Christmas eve, we were at the Pantheon for the midnight mass and for New Year’s eve we were at Piazza San Marco, where possibly the entire city of Venice had converged. There, we caught some live performances and fireworks over the waters.

Keeping the New Year food goal list from the past two years alive, I’ve updated all the things I managed to do from the goals last year. This year’s list isn’t too long, because I’ve 6 months of training at Le Cordon Bleu to look forward to with something new to learn every single day.

1. Cook and bake a lot in my newly acquired cast iron skillet.
2. Make my version of Mont Blanc.
3. Make an artichoke and pine nut tart.
4. Make the Abruzzo-style pizza base from the recipe I got from a lady in Venice.
5. Harvest olives in Italy in the fall, and then see them through the crushing process to get my own bottle of olive oil.
6. Bake a pumpkin and ricotta flan.
7. Make chausson aux pommes.
8. Perfect 3 salad recipes and make them often.
9. Do something new with garlic.

What are your top food goals?