O hello, 2010. Nice to meet you.

Haaaappy New Year blogland! Hope everyone had a great New Year's :)

I ventured out to Arlington to hang out with some friends for New Year's Eve and I brought some tasty treats with me.

A few weeks ago I was contacted about giving Aunt Nellie's Pickled Beets a try - um, YES! Shortly after I replied, a box containing this came in the mail:

Wooooo! I refrained from using them until I could come up with a more creative use than just tossing them in a salad. What better time to get creative than a NYE party??

I wanted something simple and fairly easy so I grabbed a baguette, a log of goat cheese and some Herbs de Provence. I mixed the goat cheese with some Herbs de Provence, a pinch of salt and pepper and smeared it on a toasted piece of bread. Topped it with some chopped up beets and voila. Super fast appetizer! It wasn't as pretty as I had hoped, but it was pretty good. Looking back I might have chopped the beets up a little more so there was more beet per bite.
My other contribution to the party were these Pepper & Corn Pies.

I found these on Kayotic Kitchen and HAD to give them a try. Of course I never follow a recipe exactly as it is written :\ I thought these would be great with roasted red pepper instead of just red peppers so I used that instead. I also did a mixture of gouda and cheddar because I thought it could be fun. I also may have forgotten that I was dealing with gouda...or maybe I had a moment where I thought I was using gruyere and figured gruyere goes well with cheddar. ANYWAY. These could have used either more cheese or some salt...or something. They were super cute appetizers though.
How did you all celebrate New Year's Eve? Any fun treats? Any traditional foods? My mom usually makes a big pot of black eyed peas with ham and I think kale and there are ALWAYS big grapes in the house on NYE. I didn't realize these were considered 'lucky' foods to have while ringing in the new year. Thanks, Google.

I don't typically make New Year's resolutions, but I found myself jotting some goals/a to-do list at work on Thursday. Here are some that made the cut:

1. Explore the world of cross-training. There's no doubt about it. My injury is an overuse injury. There are tons of other cardio activities aside from running and my body will thank me for taking a break every now and then.
2. Learn to like the elliptical machine. This ties in with the previous goal since it is a good cross training option. I need to stop dreading it in order to accomplish my cross-training goal.
3. Complete Kelly's Elliptical Challenge. Wow, these first three could probably be smooshed into one.
4. Run a 10K. I haven't done one of these since 2007 and I'm kinda curious about how I'd do in a shorter race.
5. Make a big decision. Sorry folks, but I'm going to be shady on this one for now.
6. Take calcium supplements. I've tried really hard to stick with taking Viactiv ever since the orthopedist gave me a lecture on taking calcium supplements, but it hasn't worked out too well. I recently learned from my doctor that peak bone health is around 30 so I should probably step it up a bit.
7. Log runs. This is really just for curiosity. I want to get a better understanding of why I have some really bad run days...if it's the type of food I'm eating pre-run, time of day, etc.
8. Don't stress about not blogging. I've found that I start feeling really bad about missing days. I don't want blogging to feel like a chore or an extra job. I started this blog because I wanted to share fun food experiments, running stuff and adventures. If nothing's going on I shouldn't feel compelled to force something out, right? Right.
9. Run a half marathon in 2 hours flat. This most likely won't happen for the National Half, but I'd like it to happen this year. I know it's possible.
10. Try a new food item once a month. Or more. In the past couple of months, I've tried seitan, smoked tofu, spaghetti squash and I don't know what else. I LOVE trying new things. I love cooking with new things. Why not look for something out of my comfort zone every month??

What do you have planned for 2010??