Hi all.

I am kicking off 2012 by redesigning my old blog. I thought it was time to redefine my focus for the blog instead of being all over the place (which I was). In my defense, it was my first serious attempt at creating a blog.

So what is this blog all about you say? Why, its in the title of course. This blog will be a place where my food, life and travel experiences come together. This is my effort to keep up with family, appease my creative desires, and organize my life in one nice space. There will, however, be a focus on food in this blog.

This time last year my cooking routine consisted of eating out, microwaveable dinners, and the occasional Kraft mac-n-cheese. This was obviously a result of my college lifestyle, apparently unsure of what to do when mom wasn’t around to make me something delicious. So last year, one of my new years resolutions was to cook at least 1 new recipe a week. I succeeded. I cooked and baked a total of 73 new recipes in 2011.

Here are my top ten favorite recipes from 2011. Clicking on the pictures below will take you to the blogs and websites where I found these recipes. I really recommend trying all of these!

As for my 2012 New Years Resolutions, here are a few of my top goals.

• Develop and redefine my blog (in the process)
• Update blog at least 2 times a week
• Cook at least 2 new recipes a week
  –One of these recipes per week I would like to cook from my new cookbook “Stop and Smell the Rosemary”
• Learn how to lead climb
  –For those of you unfamiliar with climbing, this is where Sam and I would be able to set up our on ropes on outdoor climbs, right now we are still dependent on other lead climbers setting our routes
• Make friends in California
  –We will be moving here in July this year
• Give blood more often
  –Sam has a rare blood type, so we should do this more… it doesn’t take much effort
• Read at least 6 books, just because I want to

That being said, I am a list freak and I know I have a lot of resolutions. Samuel never makes resolutions, which whatever, I guess I’m the resolution loner in this household. It works for me though.

If anyone has any interesting resolutions, I would love to hear them. I hope everyone is enjoying this new layout a bit more from my last. Take care and Happy New Years!