No more new years resolutions!

No more certainly makes it sound like I at one point in my life made them. I really have never had new years resolutions because they just seem like a way to set myself up for failure and self-loathing when I don't achieve them. So I am starting a new tradition, birthday goals. I say goal because it is going to be centered around doing something I have been putting off or something I have wanted to do for a while and felt like it wasn't possible. Thirty-five seems like a good year to start this for some reason. Maybe it is because after 25, when you can rent a car, there really aren't any positive monumental birthdays. I have always been a huge fan of birthdays. I want them all to be monumental and plan on taking the next however many I have exactly that way. So this years birthday goal is to eat at The French Laundry. Yes I do plan on spending some serious money on one meal. I also plan on enjoying every bite of it. Some people spend $200 on a pair of jeans and never flinch and I intend to do the same with one amazing meal. Happy birthday to me!

simplicity

Peas, pancetta, risotto and a great pinot were the perfect start to a relaxing Saturday night. I have been in my new apartment for a month and a half and this was the first meal I cooked for myself. I have been struggling to get over my ridiculous idea that cooking is just too much effort. It wasn't until i put the onion on the cutting board and fired up the stove that I realized how soothing it is to be in the kitchen. Standing there stirring my risotto for 20 minutes was the most relaxing thing I have done all week. Now if someone would show up and clean my kitchen for me it would be a perfect day. Wonder what I can come up with for tomorrow.

The best days are always made by the same things, good friends and great food. Today was no exception. I started the day by meeting up with two good friends and having a refreshing Greek salad on an oddly humid day in Oakland. It wasn't Midwest humid but the air had enough moisture to make you sweat while sitting still. Wash it down with some cold lemonade, long overdue catching up and some laughter and lunch was a success. Moved on to a food festival in Oakland with some new friends where we ate nothing and drank much. Broke out of the comfort zone, tried some new beers, found a few favorites and laughed more. Beer drinking done we headed to Everett & Jones for some much needed grub. Rib dinner, greens, potato salad and some cornbread didn't disappoint. I dare you to find a better meal than the one that includes a menu that is graced with such a wide variety of famous people that it causes folks to trade so they get the photo they want, some Saucey Sistah Ale, inconsequential but entertaining conversation. Never mind that the BBQ is worth writing home about.

Food: Pork ribs, greens, potato salad, cornbread
Beverage: Saucey Sistah Ale
Musical: The Struts

Memories, like the corners of my mind

Misty water-colored memories. Not the best song but it brings back a time and place to many people. A good song, or a bad song, like a good meal can bring you back quickly to a very specific time and place. Combine the two and the memories become so much stronger.

Food tastes better the more senses you use while eating it. Obviously, you use taste when you eat any meal and smell is at most meals as well. Add great decor and you add sight. Put on some complimentary music and you have added sound. I am trying to add a musical accompaniment to as many meals as I can. I find that the days where I pair music with my meal in the same way I would pick a wine it only heightens the experience.

A meal you can't smell never tastes as good as the one that you smell wafting out of the kitchen before you sit down to eat it. A meal at a restaurant with the right ambiance can be more memorable than one at a restaurant that spends no time on setting the mood. I think that if you add the right music to the meal you can really intensify the meal. A great BBQ dinner with some good country music, a great burger with some excellent Rock and Roll, or an Italian dinner with some old crooner are all better because of the sounds that highlight the affair. Taking if from a meal to an event or if done really well making it not only an event but memory that could come flooding back with a smell or a clip from the right song. Try pairing your next meal with the right song or soundtrack and see what happens.