Resolved...

Everyone makes New Year's resolutions, and most of us are terrible at keeping them. For my part, I'm pretty sure the only New Year's resolution I've ever kept was my 2008 pledge to start flossing my teeth on a nightly basis. Still, regardless of the 4% success rate I've maintained in following through with resolutions in my 25 years of life, I still managed to come up with a pair of New Year's resolutions for 2011:

1. As I was reading through my posts from 2010, I discovered that I didn't try a single new recipe in the last year that wasn't for a dessert item. That means I spent a whole year in a cooking rut, and didn't even notice it. Therefore, I've resolved to start working through the piles of recipes I've cut from magazines and newspapers, and start sifting through all the online recipes I've book-marked over the past few years. Time to get back to experimenting in the kitchen!
2. As soon as the weather improves, I'd like to return to the project I started in August of visiting some of Chicago's most historically and aesthetically significant houses of worship. I want to see the remaining churches on my list, and continue searching for new ones. Chicago is an amazing city, and I want to continue exploring its hidden gems in 2011.

So there you have it folks, in print, for all the world to see. Hopefully with a little outside accountability, I'll be able to follow through this year, and bring up my resolution success rate...