A servantless existence

Today´s brunch: Banana pancakes with mom´s homemade strawberry jam and lots of coffee. Mmmm... Weekends are great for long mornings with a good breakfast/brunch/lunch. 

The other day I saw "Julie and Julia" (and now I read the blog from 2002, perhaps I should pick up the book instead, as it´s loading incredibly slow. It is probably hidden so deep down in the internet archives it can´t understand why anyone would try to bring it out in broad daylight again) and now I would like to cook way through a cook book too! I have been thinking of this for some time now, and combined with 4 simple goals by Elsie Flannigan from A Beautiful Mess, I decided to set some goals for a more rich and happy life, as she puts it.  

1. Cook something new every week. I have so many cook books with recipes just waiting to be tried and enjoyed.  I have two of Andreas Viestad´s books I want to use for this challenge: "Where Flavor Was Born: Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route" and "How to boil water". The last one is focusing on how to use different ingredients, and has chapters on how to prepare meat, make sauces, bake vegetables etc. The first one is a book dedicated to spices, which I love, so the combination of these two should give a good end result. So for the rest of 2010 I will either try a new technique or an entirely new dish every week. 


2. Get up early every morning. Very simple goal, but oh so hard... Me and my roommate even have a jar for "late fees". I don´t want to break the bank on this one, and making it public like this will probably be even more helpful for my discipline. 


3. Journal every day. Profound or ordinary, creative or practical: I will write something down and perhaps glue a picture next to it. 


4. Make a passport holder. A cute passport holder, mind you. And it would be great if I finish it before my next trip:
Destination: Bremen, Germany 
What: Staff trip with YWAM Skien 
Departure: August 30


The guidelines tell me to blog about the endeavor and reward myself when I reach my goals. This means potentially multiple rewards every day! Well, accomplishing these things will be a reward in itself, and I am excited to start!