The FIRST resolution is to get the kitchen complete -- that should be March 1 at the latest. Then:

1) Cook more from scratch (good one).
2) Keep messes off the counter.
3) Throw a party!

I agree, first is to complete my kitchen then....

1) Keep it clean, lean, and mean.
2) Take cooking classes and really use the kitchen.
3) Never, NEVER let anyone but me wash my new cookware.
4) Keep home made chocolate chip cookies (with the help from my new KA mixer) available at all times for my new grandson!

Happy New Year everybody!

Resolutons:
1) Start kitchen renovation
2) Plant more vegetables in my garden
3) Start loosing weight with the improved diet
4) Throw a party (excellent one!)

Fun! My New Years resolutions are (kitchen related):

1. Ween the family off paper towels and start using more eco-friendly alternatives.
2. Pickle more veggies.
3. Organize all the new kitchen cabinets.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I had a big year last year, so this year my only real resolution is to get the darn kitchen DONE!!!!

This time last year I thought 2009 would be the year we got the kitchen done, but instead

1. Convert a corner of a shed for a new chicken coop so the rabbits could have the old one
2. Convert another corner of the same shed to a greenhouse in time to start plants
3. Expand garden to 4,000 feet and installed a drip water system
4. Set up a summer kitchen in shed with greenhouse so I could easily process all the stuff from the expanded garden (and rabbits and chickens).
5. Set up a new area for the rabbits since the old coop wasn't working any better for rabbits than it did for chickens.

And last year, with the help of all the veggies and home grown meat from the year before, Hubby and I lost a total of 55 lbs between us. We both need to loose about 10lbs more but changed our eating style and what has come off has stayed off.

I'm going to try very hard this year to NOT get distracted by other projects and concentrate on the kitchen. It is the last room in the house to be done.

Cathy

I am hoping and keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the new kitchen will be done in a month. (It's now month 5 of a 2 month construction job.)
In my new, larger kitchen, everything will have a place, and I resolve to keep it all where it belongs!
I intend to use cloth napkins and cloth towels for wiping up--fewer paper napkins and towels.
With a counter depth refrigerator, I hope to cut down on the number of science experiments we find hidden in the back of the current frig.
And with more space, I can invite guests more often!
Happy New Year, everyone!

great thread!

1) Get the kitchen finished - inclding painting, backsplash etc.

2) Have a party (we all hace the same idea)

3) Be really thoughtful when I put the kitchen back together and put everything in the right spot.

4) Take care of my new counters and teach my teens to do the same.

all the above,
plus a couple resolutions related to my new counter to be, to cut no perforations in it. Here's how:
1. Install one counter first (the cooktop one), get an Oxo soap brush and start using it to convince my S.O. that it's better than a Never MT soap dispenser. Besides, we're not soapaholics.
2. Build a wall mount faucet in a thick shelf and bolt that to the wall near the sink.
3. Replace the plywood counter with a real counter and say "golly, we managed ... without putting any holes in it."
- With an undermount Silgranit sink it's best to have an intact engineered quartz counter surface, without holes. That's what I thought waking up this morning.

All of the above! (Well, maybe not the rabbit coop and homegrown meats, but who knows?)

I use way too many prepared meals, and I'd like to think it's because my kitchen is so inefficient right now. So my goal is the same as many of you, once our kitchen is done, to make more meals from scratch and to use our garden better.

Great question!

On the same wavelength. Get the kitchen reno done. It's my fault because I can't decide on flooring and appliances so resolve to be more decisive!! Also I tend to "clutter" but resolve not to do that so I can see and enjoy my new granite counters. Resolve to have all this done in time to celebrate grandson's 2nd birthday-July 18th.

The hardest resolution-lose weight! Workout more! More veggies and fruits. I gravitate towards chocolate so have to halt that.

1. Finish my kitchen sometime in February
2. Actually cook in my kitchen
3. When actually cooking, cook from scratch and ideally from local and, most importantly, healthy foods
4. Eat out less
5. Learn to pickle, etc. foods for use through our four-month long winter (i.e. buy fewer foods that have traveled more than I have)
6. Have a couple of awesome parties

I've been pretty good about keeping clutter out, or at least not letting it get out of hand (going through papers, clippings, to do lists, mail....once it starts to pile up) since doing the kitchen. I guess continuing to stay on top of it is an annual resolution (as is keeping up with it in other rooms in the house as we complete those as well).

A biggie for me, and one that has been on my to-do list forever (literally!), is to organize my recipes (all the clipped out ones from mags and newspapers, copies I've printed off the web, etc.). I have a pile in my bookcase in the island with my cookbooks, and a basket full of them in our office). For once and for all I'd like them organized in some meaningful way so I can find what I need when I need it, and be able to quickly and easily file a new recipe so the piles don't begin anew. Don't want to throw them all in/on the computer. Want the actual papers to be organized. Just need to convince myself to sit down and do it someday.... :-)

I want to invite more people over, now that our kitchen is done. We had the teaching staff holiday/Bunco party here, and it was so much fun to have 25 people mingling around in the new open areas. I was so happy about that! I posted a while back about having a "thank you" dinner for our wonderful GC and his subs. I'm going to do it! That's my NY resolution.

Also, my resolution is to be really intentional about being a super good grandma. In August we'll get our first grandbaby (Lord willing), and I want to do it right. If only our son/DIL weren't nine hours away!

Congratulations, Donnakay!!

I resolve to stop waiting for stuff to arrive and to actually have a kitchen.

I plan (but not so strong as resolve) to have bi-weekly dinners for family and friends ostensibly for conviviality and to nurture relationships, but also to experiment on them as I learn to do all kinds of things with my gonzo new appliances that were just not possible with the half dead old kitchen.

Cat_Mom, I had the whole recipe problem until one day I decided I'd just had it with the multiple pages of notepad paper with family recipes, and the clipped outs, and dumped them all on my desk. Turned on the TV to interesting but not very visual entertainment, and didn't get my desk back until I'd typed my way through the lot. My recipes directory as all kinds of sub-directories like a cookbook but with my own kind of categories. It makes it SO easy. I do print out ones that need specific following, and keep the print-outs in a basket in the kitchen, where they're handy to give away to those who ask, or to reuse. But when I'm planning, making shopping lists, etc., or when one gets just too grotty, I can print out a new one.

I highly recommend this!!

In fact, I also resolve to type up recipes that I like that are in books, because I can't always find the right one. And since I use them as a starting point usually, remembering the outcome doesn't always help (as in the bread pudding recipe didn't call for poppy seeds...so which one was it now?)

Host dinner for friends/family a MIN. of 1 time each month

donnakay - I'm going to hold you to that "thank you" dinner resolution âº

1. Cook. Alot. I hate being in the kitchen so much right now I have resorted to alot of foraging and take out.

2. Encourage my young son, 4 1/2, to bake and cook (he wants to be a chef! :)

3. Have "family dinners" (with my sister and parents) at least 2 times a month, hopefully once a week.

4. Plant veggies. We have lots of herbs already, but no veggies.

5. Have a real dinner party.

6. Have a HUGE open house after the reno, and another one at Christmas.

7. Sit at the counter with my Earl Grey after dropping hte kids off at school and just be happy to be in my new space!

1. Remove 1955 Kitchen (all of it) to 1-800-got trash (this part is done now).
2. Plan on completing re-do of new kitchen, one wall per month and pay cash (ha ha... let's see where this one goes!).
3. Shop for new Convection Oven, big sink, new larger window with shelves for herbs etc (garden window) and sound system. Everything else, bargain basement or craigslist.
3. Plan an inviting seating area (island with bar stools) for friends to hang out at while I pull off a Nigella Lawson last minute dinner in my new kitchen.

I want to get a new light fixture to go over my kitchen table. I also would like to figure out the downlighting in my range area-- I have the wiring in, but haven't installed the fixtures.

I'd like to teach the kids to help more with post-dinner clean-up. They are great table-setters, and get their dishes to the sink after the meal, but there is a lot more to do. I especially want the oldest two to learn to clean the kitchen, since they are starting to babysit, and need to leave a clean kitchen for their clients.

Our kitchen is DIY, and the process started June 26, 2007!!
This will be the year we finish all the trim, backsplash, and undercabinet lighting. DH is measuring as I am typing this. Maybe, I will finally be able to post some pics!!

My resolutions:

1. Finish kitchen undercabinet lighting (dependent on Kichler and contractor)
2. Really learn to bake bread and make pie crusts from scratch (use frozen ones now). I cook healthy with lots of locally grown food but haven't baked much because of time.
3. Decide what to do about two of my ceiling hugging light fixtures. Do not like them at all (shhh haven't told DH yet that I need to spend more money on the almost finished kitchen).
4. Take final pictures of the finished kitchen.

Good idea plllog, I nominate you to type mine up! I have so many, it would take me days. I'm sure you'd do a much better job...

hee-hee! :-)