Living Richly in 2009
My one resolve this new year is to live with intention, to embrace everything with an attitude of service. Sound strange? Perhaps. But, I like to think that it’s all going to matter in 2009. The company I keep, the company I forego, the dinners I share, the glasses I raise, the miles I drive, the miles I walk, the people I meet, the pennies I pinch, the dimes I spend, the lessons I learn, the glass bottles I recycle, the stories I read, the tales I tell…
All of it will be lived with intention. And attention. And heart.
Or at least, that will be the attempt. I have a sneaking suspicion this is one resolution that may take a lifetime to master. But for me, even a modicum - a minute - of success will equal truly, exquisitely, deliciously rich living.
How do you plan to make 2009 richer and more delicious than last year?
Brooke
Today's been a day for nostalgia. A year ago I was driving down I-540 in Arkansas and waiting for something exciting to happen to me. Now, I'm living, working, writing, eating and drinking in the Napa Valley and creating my own adventures. December, 2008 was no exception. In fact, I started thinking about all the delicious adventures I'd packed into the last month, and I realized I had already gotten a head start on living richly.
December's a great month for one last calorriffic hurrah. A little extra padding is a huge motivation to live healthier in the new year. Especially if your last weeks looked anything like mine. Uh, it was a decadent December...
My December in Food:
- Let Michael Chiarello cook whatever the heck he wanted for our table at Bottega in Yountville, CA. What came out: prosciuotto with fried dough balls and lambrusco (which he shamelessly admitted he stole from an old Italian woman on a recent visit to Italy - the idea, not the lambrusco), the most decadent, wintry-rabbit and chanterelle pasta I’ve ever encountered, pretty good lamb shank, rich short ribs, more calamari than we knew what to do with, and a pecorino pudding with rapini that swept the whole table away. We heart rapini.
- Inhaled strangely intoxicating cinnamon-dusted spaghetti-chili topped with shredded cheddar (possibly the Always Save version of Kraft) at Skyline Chili in Cleveland. And two not so intoxicating but very adorable “Skyliners,” tiny hot dogs topped with the Christmas-spiced chili and cheese. Just like YaYa used to make in Greece.
Ate the biggest balls of matzo ever at Corky & Lenny’s, another Cleveland strip mall favorite. Great soup. Great corned beef. Great pickles. Wish I’d known about the “pastrami between two latkes” before rather than after we paid the bill. My loss is Cleveland’s gain, as I will have to return at least once more to try this deli fare.
Ate my weight in kielbasa during a too-brief trip to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgians will eat this Polish staple at breakfast, lunch and dinner. With hash browns. With rye toast. They will eat it in the car. They will eat it in a bar…especially if it’s in a sandwich stuffed with pierogies.
On New Year’s Eve? Frozen pizza topped with a quarter pound of red pepper flakes. We made up for it with Champagne – Charles Heidsieck’s 99 Brut Rose (someone loves me) . We rang in the new year with Canard Duchene’s nonvintage Brut. There was some Perrier-Jouet in between…and a NV Zardetto Prosecco, just to change things up. Wow. I just read that. I feel supremely spoiled.
And on New Year’s Day, we made up for the freezer food with bacon waffles, followed by a whole suckling pig, smoked on The Bounty Hunter’s smoker the day before and finished on the SEC West HQ grill. Collard greens and black-eyed peas completed the New Year’s “good luck trio.” Health, wealth and success was heaped upon a couple dozen Napa Valley friends. There was football. There was Ro-Tel filled with taco meat. Most importantly, there was laughter and story-telling and lots of hope for 2009 filling every room.
2009. Can you believe it?
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