God, I Hope So!

Happy New Year everyone! Damn, I'm glad the holidays are over. I have a new-ish gig that allows me to work entirely from home and I thought I would be all, "I GOT YOU CHRISTMAS" this year, but I actually had less enthusiasm and energy to do any of the madness. It all just irritated me, frankly.

I'm starting to order my seeds for this year's garden, but I need to deal with last year's ground cherries, sour cherries, and other frozen fruit-odds-and-ends in the freezer. My larder is looking kinda bare, but I'm still well stocked with tomato goodness.

I have been trying to come up with an exotic flavor profile for the ground cherry jam and took to consulting with my copy of The Flavor Bible to see what would go well with things that taste kinda pineapple-y and mango-y. From what I gleaned from there and the internets, oranges and anise, coconut, banana, vanilla, rum, ginger, lime...great, now I want a Pina Colada! I was thinking a ground cherry, orange, star anise combo....dunno. Oooh, how about ground cherry rosemary? That sort of rolls off the tongue.

I have MAJ home improvement plans for this year, which include upgrading the kitchen with new backsplash tile, a vented stove hood, painted cabinets, and new lights. I've gone over how I'm going to do this a hundred times in my head. I'm ready!

I have a gorgeous vintage Italian brass chandelier that I found on Craigslist that I want to hang in my laundry room, but its 50-year old, low-voltage transformer technology is kicking my butt. I found that it needs a Magnetic Toroidal Transformer....say that five times fast!

All this to include getting quotes for a ground-level deck for the back yard. We need something off the back porch where we can put the grill and not have to trek through wet or muddy grass when we want to BBQ.

I know this all sounds like a lot, so here's to a new year with new goals and new experiences ahead!