2010 Resolution Review:
1. Continue to increase creative output, and if enough suitable work is ready, submit to at least two publications per month. Writing-wise, I kept this up for the first few months of 2010. I wrote a bit more, submitted to a few journals (nothing published), but I lost momentum as projects at work bled into my evening hours. Art-wise, I took a watercolor class and produced about eight paintings. Overall, not a total success.
2. Maintain a daily journal. Also kept a journal up for a little while in 2010, but ultimately stopped.
3. Increase the balance in my savings account. Well, I do have a savings account, but those funds are wedding-only.
4. Take care of myself, both physically and mentally. This means regular check-ups at the doctor and maintaining a healthy work/life balance. I now have a primary care physician and dentist. I also had my wisdom teeth removed after years of putting it off. The health work/life balance was lost mid-year, but has recently been regained.
5. Attend more cultural events in New York. Overall, this was a success. The average was probably 2-3 events or excursions per month. (The Spider-Man musical counts, right?)
6. Go on a culinary adventure at least once a month. Not accomplished. There were adventures, but not on a monthly basis.
7. Cook dinner or have leftovers four days a week. Related: Bring lunch to work four days a week. I met the cooking requirement almost every week, but rarely brought my lunch to work. Lunch usually consisted of a cheap salads from the glorified bodega by the office, and on stressful days (see: most of last year), a box of junior mints.
8. Post here at least twice a week, ideally three times a week. Oh, definitely not.
9. Redesign my personal website. Done.
10. Go on weekend adventures. Montreal? Jersey? Boston? Anything’s game. Accomplished. A few weekend adventures included trips to Thomas Edison’s house, Teddy Roosevelt’s house, apple picking, the Jersey Shore, and more.

Resolutions for 2011
1. Finish planning the wedding and maintain my sanity.
2. Stick to a strict budget to save for aforementioned wedding. No credit card debt.
3. Related to three: Cook four nights a week. Bring lunch at least four days a week. (This starts next week with the arrival of my ridiculous bento-style lunchbox from Amazon. I may have also purchased a backup set of red inserts with my Christmas gift cads, because god forbid I carry/wear/eat out of anything that isn’t red and/or black.)
4. Post on Apartment Dining at least twice a week.
5. Read fifty books. I’ll be tracking my progress on GoodReads. (This one is inspired by my friend Alison’s quest to read 100 books in 2011. Check out her list of favorite books from 2010.)
6. Learn how to draw.
7. As finances allow, attend more cultural events in New York.
8. Document more. The next year is going to be fun, stressful, crazed, and momentous.
9. Maintain a work/life balance. Work in the evenings when it’s needed, but devote more time to creative pursuits.

Are you cooking something fabulous this weekend? Let me know in the comments.

I’m looking for new dishes to try in my kitchen. What’s your favorite food? Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn more about or try to make? Which impossibly difficult dish do you want me to attempt and document every moment of the success or failure?

E-mail your suggestions to mo@apartmentdining.com (or post in the comments) and include:
-First name and last initial
-Location
-Dish
-Reason for suggestion
-A link to your website (if you have one)

I’ll pick out my favorite submissions, research them, cook them, and then post all of the results here.

After almost a year on the web, the time has come for Apartment Dining 2.0.  The redesign a few weeks ago was the beginning of a complete revamp of the site’s design and content that will start in earnest this week. (If you have any doubt about the seriousness of this statement, note that I have made a brand new logo. I clearly mean business.) What else in in store for the new AD:

1) A regular posting schedule. New posts will be going up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ll occasionally post things in between, but there will be three guaranteed posts per week barring sickness and/or injury.

2) A new tone. Let’s face it: my writing here has been a bit dry. When I started this site, I wanted to be informative and keep the focus on food, but as a result, I removed much of my personal voice from my writing. Moving forward, I want to sound less like a cookbook and more like myself.

3) New content. I’ve been trying to branch out beyond just posting recipes and that will continue in the coming months. From new restaurants to personal photo galleries of dinners and events, I want to Apartment Dining to serve as a view of my life through the lens of food rather than being strictly about food.

I’m excited to have a revised mission for the site and hope that a more disciplined posting schedule will lead to many new discoveries in my kitchen.

Questions? Concerns? Something you’d like to see on the site? Let me know in the comments.