I love everything about New Year’s Day (not to be mistaken with New Year’s Eve.) I am the quintessential cliche when it comes to making resolutions and seeing a bright shiny future.

I do happen to let loose many of my standards of health when it comes to the holidays. Things get overwhelmingly busy at work and in life so I truthfully eschew heading to the yoga mat as often, usually some sort of annual-right-on-schedule viral infection will throw me off course for a week (hello Christmas morning cold -- still fighting you off!) and of course, don’t get me started on the general holiday glutton. I do get a little carb happy. I mean I got four separate birthday cakes this year, FOUR! And then I made half baked blondies on top of that. And then there’s --- “Sleep? What’s that?”

I love the idea of clean slates, and starting fresh. Whether it’s metaphorical or not, the new year always gets me in the mindset of newness, a reset, improvement, evolution.

And as much research is out there that New Year’s resolutions tend to fall by the wayside and send everyone who made them into a downward spiral of defeat and failure about three weeks into January, it always sets me into the fast lane for realigning my goals for the coming year.

Having this blog has turned into a bit of a journal of sorts and I’m excited to check in again next year and see what I’ve accomplished. As far as 2014 goes, it was not my favorite year, but I did start this blog and I really like it. I’m looking forward to what 2015 has in store for me, I have a good feeling about it all...it’s bubbling at the surface. I can feel it in my fingertips.

For 2015:

start composting

take some classes at the Institute of Culinary Education

use up that gift certificate from LAST YEAR at Broadway Dance Center. I wanna be like dis girl. I’m sure three classes is enough to get me up to speed.

conquer both handstand and forearm stand in yoga

i have dreams of more visits to Austin

visit NOLA

visit San Fran

drink more water

cook more on weeknights (I’m more often than not a #putaneggonit type of girl)

read more books:

I’ve started a by accident tradition of making chicken soup on New Year’s. I just happen to run out of my freezer inventory around this time. I make a big batch and then dip into the freezer as needed throughout the year when the boy or I’m not feeling so hot.

It’s bit of a process, but it’s well worth the time for from scratch soup.

New Year’s Day Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole roasting chicken, rinsed and giblets removed.

2 medium yellow onions

6 carrots

1 parsnip

5 celery stalks

half a bunch of parsley

1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

1 bay leaf (I had to use 2 small ones)

water (enough to submerge bird and vegetables)

salt and pepper to taste

Take 1 of the onions and quarter it. Take 3 of the carrots and roughly chunk them or quarter them into sticks. Cut the parsnip in half separating the fat top half and the skinnier end. Set skinny half aside. Quarter the fat half. Halve the celery stalks and set the halves with the leaves aside. Throw prepped vegetables into a large stock pot. Put chicken on top of the vegetables. Add half of the parsley on top of the chicken. Add the tablespoon of peppercorns and bay leaf. Add enough water to submerge the bird and vegetables.

Bring this all to a boil and then lower to a simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Skim gray scum off the top as needed. Stock is ready when golden brown and chickeny. You'll know what I mean.

Use the time the chicken stock is cooking to prep the remaining vegetables. Dice the onion, carrots, parsnip half, and celery. Finely dice the remaining parsley. Set aside.

When stock is ready, get a second large pot and a large strainer. Put the strainer into the second pot. If it makes things easier, carefully remove the chicken from the broth and set aside. Then take the stock pot and carefully pour the broth and vegetables into the second pot with the strainer in it. This strains out the mushy overcooked vegetables and leaves you with only broth in the second pot.

Now shred your chicken from the bones. If the chicken has been cooked long enough it should practically shred itself. Remove all the meat from the chicken carcass.

Add the shredded chicken to the broth, along with newly prepped vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I also added an extra cup of water, do so if you think it's needed) Bring all to a boil and then simmer until vegetables are tender. About 20 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the finely chopped parsley.

Makes about 8 cups