Sea Urchins & Other New Year's Resolutions

Hi, hope you had a fun New Year's. Mine was spent playing in the sunshine at a local park (hurray!) and then watching the Alvin & The Chipmunks movie (nearly two hours of my life I will never, ever get back). Yes, children were involved.

It's okay. As I mentioned before, New Year's and me? Not so much.

For the past few days, I've been perusing the online world's lists of resolutions. In fact, my head is spinning from them. I've culled together a few that spoke to me for your enjoyment. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Ruth Riechl wants me to eat more sea urchin in 2008 because "it's the sexiest flavor on earth." How did I miss this all my life?

2. Food + Wine, in its Best New Ingredients posting, says mackerel is making a comeback (as tartare for instance) and poulardes (roasting chickens) should be milk powder-fed.

3. Maggie Mason, writer, blogger, mother, world traveler, has a husband with a penchant for adventurous meat-eating. He and she recommend matambre: an Argentinian beef dish. It's like a flank steak filled with vegetables, eggs and herbs that can be boiled or oven-roasted. Matambre can be served warm as a dish, or cold as deli meat. Ponderous.

4. Sarah Hepola resolves to stop crying in restaurants. Sort of.

5. And finally, my friend and publisher, David at the Wooster Book Company, resolves to use fewer abstract nouns. I just love that.