BEET PASTA
As you can see from the photo, this is something I’ve made in the past, but after cooking, the color completely faded away!   I intend to try that pasta again, adding a higher proportion of pureed beets to the dough.  Should be a fun project!

CROISSANTS.
I’ve made croissants in the past, and even blogged about them, but my attempts have been a disaster. I would like to get better and make a batch that would come a little closer to the great croissants we enjoyed in Paris.   My hope is to follow the footsteps of the  amazing TxFarmer, a regular contributor at The Fresh Loaf Forum.  Check out her write up on croissants by clicking here.

BAGUETTES
I feel pretty comfortable making sourdough boules, but shaping a baguette is a skill that requires a lot of practice and patience, that virtue I lack.  This year I would like to master the baguette, following the authentic shaping instead of the improvised methods I’ve used in the past.    I have my favorite recipe to practice with, and will use this nice video to get the shaping right.

CODRUTA’S CHEESY FLATBREAD
About a year ago, I got to know a food blogger through a comment she left on the Bewitching. Even though she blogs in Romanian, I haven’t missed a single of her new posts ever since (thank you, Google translate!).  She is an outstanding  baker and a while ago posted a recipe for a flatbread full of childhood memories. Imagine a bread re-created after 30 years of first tasting it!  I simply must make it!   Check out her article about it here (she has the translator tool right on the site, so pick your language and enjoy it).

FISH WRAPPED IN POTATO SLICES
I’ve seen them in cooking shows, I’ve had them in restaurants a couple of times.  Never attempted to make them at home, but always wanted to.  Of course, I’ll need to find the best possible quality fish, and a tried-and-true recipe.  Anne Burrell comes to mind…

CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
I never thought much about them, until a dear friend served us a chocolate mousse decorated with her homemade candied orange peel.  I loved them so much, she brought me a small jar with the leftovers from the dessert, and I had to use all my self-control not to wolf down the whole thing.   I must make them soon, very soon…

ALFAJORES
When I was in graduate school in Brazil, Silvia, a student from Argentina worked in the same lab.  Once a year she would travel to Buenos Aires, and it never failed: when she arrived back, she would bring a couple of boxes of alfajores to the lab.  We would go absolutely crazy for them!  I’ve seen recipes in the net, and always wanted to make them.   Maybe this will be My Year of the Alfajor!

And, the “best” for last:

GENOISE CAKE
There. I said the dreadful words. Many years ago I suffered a public humiliation serving a strawberry genoise cake at a party. I never ever attempted to make it again.  You may wonder what made me change my mind.  Believe it or not, it was Tony Horton, the fitness guru, developer of the P90X.   I recently started his new P90X2 program, and the first routine has an exercise that Tony struggles with.  He is obviously a strong, ultra-fit guy, but his balance is not the greatest.  This particular exercise requires considerable balance and strength in legs and core.   Before demonstrating it, he literally screams:  “MY NEMESIS!  I WILL CONQUER THEE!” And, he goes for  it, hopping around, struggling, but following his own motto of “do your best”.

So, I will follow his example and “CONQUER THEE!”  Not sure who will be my genoise teacher, maybe  Tish Boyle?  She better be ready for this herculean task…

So, these are some of the cooking projects I have in mind for the near, and not so near future.  What about you?  Any fun cooking plans for 2012?

ONE YEAR AGO: No-Fuss Coffee Cake

TWO YEARS AGO: Swedish Limpa

But, 2012 arrived with new ideas! My stepson Casey developed a cool halftone calendar that comes with empty circles, and each day you fill a circle with a black pen (a Sharpie marker works fine).  On his site he offers quite a few options of images, for instance this Mona Lisa version, shown in the photo of his partner, actress extraordinaire Carly.

It took me only a few seconds to choose my image: Audrey Hepburn, with her unique aura of charm and beauty.  You can see all available images for a calendar or poster here.   Audrey’s image is in the bottom row, “Icons”.

Casey also made it possible to design your own calendar, from a photo stored on your computer. Just follow the instructions on his site, and you can get a unique product for you or a special friend.

So, where does the fitness fit in?

I will use my halftone calendar marking the days I exercise with a dark black dot, and leaving the other days blank.   At the end of the year, I’ll take a photo of it. Hopefully I’ll have exercised often enough to see a distinct image.   But, one could use it for all sorts of activities:  do you want to skip drinking a few nights of the week?  Mark the alcohol-free evenings!  Study that foreign language you love so much?   Meditate?  Or, forget about keeping score, just pick an image you love, and have fun watching it form, one day, one dot at a time!

ONE YEAR AGO: A soup for what ails you

TWO YEARS AGO: Let it snow, let it snow, eggs in snow (a favorite dessert of ours!)

After a flight of less than 5 hours from San Diego, we took our first peek at  Maui,  an island that’s much less developed than Oahu, …which is a good thing for a tropical paradise…  The pilot made some sadistic turns banking sharply left and right, but the views were spectacular.

We drove straight to Kapalua at the northwestern part of the island,  and installed ourselves in a little cottage on the Kapalua Bay Golf Course, with a great view from our balcony and a pretty cozy and functional kitchen (to make any food blogger happy!).

Speaking of food, we ate exclusively fish and seafood during our stay, mostly sushi and sashimi, which were spectacular, as expected…

We took hikes together, enjoying magnificent views…
…and saw  a woman doing yoga poses facing the ocean, in almost complete solitude at this magical place called Dragon’s Teeth.

We laid down by these palm trees sunbathing for a long time (don’t tell our dermatologist!), letting our thoughts go wherever they chose to go…

We played a lot of golf on the Kapalua Plantation course, where the PGA is currently playing the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.  It was so tough that that it brought the best in Phil and the worst in me… but that is another story, that shall be told another time…

Notice his golf ball zipping through…. pretty cool!

We’ve traveled together to many places, but more often than not, our travels are linked to work.  This was a strictly fun trip to celebrate Phil’s birthday,and the beginning of 2012.   The year could not have started on a better note!

MAHALO!

ONE YEAR AGO:  The Getty Museum

TWO YEARS AGO: Crowd Pleasing Pulled Pork

Part  of the deal of the Versatile Blogger Award is to say 7 things about yourself, so here it goes:

1. I was a premature baby, stayed in the hospital for 40 days inside an incubator, but for the first few days they kept me together with a Chinese-Brazilian baby, so that his body heat would keep me warmer.  I’ve always wondered who this baby was, and where he is now, as in some way he helped me survive.  Could that explain my passion for all things Chinese?

2. Every year I buy one of these calendars and use it to log my exercises. I’ve kept my exercise records since January 1998, and each month for the past 15 years I strive to exercise more than 50% of the days.

3. I am a compulsive list-maker, not only because they make me more efficient, but because I have a thrill when all  items are checked-off.

4. I love to dance, and we started 2012 dancing our hearts out at a party in Maui.  Phil is the first partner I have who also likes to dance, until dating him, I was always by myself on the dance floor.

5.  My favorite animal is the elephant.   They are amazing creatures.

6.  My weaknesses:  cookbooks, earrings, and black dresses.   Cannot seem to have enough of them.

7.  I am the personification of a  honey badger in the golf course. All it takes is two bad shots in a row.  Corollarium: Phil is a saint.

The award also requires that you nominate 15 other bloggers…  Well, I am bailing out of that part, and instead I invite any blogger who would like to reveal 7 things about him/herself, to do so.

Thanks, Sharyn!  It was fun to think about what to “reveal”  here…