A reset for the new year

January came and went, and, with it, some of the bright, shiny new-ness that comes along with turning the leaf on a new year.  However, I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself or anticipate a ho-hum year.  It’s early days yet, and January set the tone in many ways for a shift in priorities and, well, just a shift in general.

Starting at a new school in January was TOUGH, I won’t lie, but it’s also good for me to stay busy.  The jury is still out in terms of this new ‘gig’.  At times, I think that it’s definitely just a stop-gap measure, while other times, I contemplate staying on for a bit longer and seeing where it takes me and what I can learn from it.  The answer to that last question, honestly, is “a lot”!  But are these the skills that I want to develop long-term and is this the population with which I want to work long-term?  Those questions remain.

With the new start – to the year and school – I looked at January as a time to hunker down, work on honing different habits and routines, especially those of a domestic nature.  With colder (but not polar vortex-cold) temps, I almost always made one dish a week that we could stretch out and let the flavors sit and improve as the days went by.   Some of these are old favorites, such as Nigel Slater’s Bolognese sauce from Food52, or a rift off of this butternut squash chili.  Just an aside – in the fall of 2017, we bought a quarter of a cow, and we are STILL eating our way through the beef!  It was way more than we needed, but it’s convenient to have in the freezer.  I also tried out a few new recipes, and some of the standouts were this instant pot curry and a Thai-inspired soup (although the recipe says that it is Thai-style, I’d hesitate to use that moniker).  While those two recipes were good, and I wouldn’t hesitate to make them again, the stand-out from my try-new-recipes push was definitely this Vietnamese-style beef stew (Bo Kho).  It won’t stay on a ‘weekly rotation’, but I can see it as a monthly regular.  I made it on a Sunday, and we pulled it out on my birthday, which was a Tuesday in January, and it felt like quite a special meal!

Speaking of my birthday, I wasn’t really looking forward to it because it’s sort of a humdrum year as I inch closer and closer to one of those MAJOR milestones.  But maybe moderating my expectations helped because it was such a nice celebration.  Michael and I went out the Saturday before and tried a pizza place in Boulder (that also has 2 places in Denver) – Pizzeria Locale.  I know, pizza, how boring, but the food was fantastic as were the drinks!  We tried different amaro-based drinks, and this has opened up new options for us.  I know, while other people engaged in dry January, we were trying out other options.  I think that I accidentally sent us down this rabbit-hole in December, when I gave Michael an Italian amaro for his birthday.  We had it on the shelf for the past month, looking at it and wondering what to do with it (I know, great gift?).  Inspired by the drinks at Pizzeria Locale and the conversation with the bartender, who let us try a few tastes of different amari.  We’ve since embraced the amaro trend full-on, although we haven’t invested in every type out there (which would possibly bankrupt us).  The book, Amaro, is a great guide/resource, and we’ve played around with a few recipes.

In terms of active/outdoorsy goals for the year, I decided to put the world of triathlon on hold for a bit.  I don’t plan to sell my tri bike (yet?), but I was ready for a shift in priorities and also experiences.  Last year, I felt that I didn’t ski enough OR train enough in the winter, so sidelining triathlon seemed like a choice that I could live with.  I’ve been thinking about a few trail races in the area, and that was going to be the focus of 2019.  Skiing in the winter and spring, running in the spring and summer, and hiking as much as possible!

On that note, I got back to running in January, after taking almost all of December off, and skied 6 times.  Not a bad beginning – especially with days like this: