The Perfect Pantry®

No Kid Hungry (A recipe for the new year)

Every year, on January 1, I make a few resolutions. For the most part, they're personal (exercise more, lose weight, eat dark leafy greens) or work-related (start a new project) or house-related (clean more? compost more?), and for the most part, I've fallen off the resolution wagon by the end of the month.

I have kept one resolution, the same one, every year, and that's to share with you on New Year's Day some ideas about how we can end childhood hunger in the United States by supporting Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign in the year ahead.

Happy new year, from The Perfect Pantry to your pantry

Happy snow on the roof, happy fire in the hearth, happy champagne, happy cocoa, happy long walk, happy parade of roses, happy revels, happy resolutions, happy snow forts and snow angels. Happy first night. Happy first light.

Thank you for spending time here in 2011.

(PS: This photo is from last winter; we haven't had sticking snow here since a freaky one-day storm in October. I couldn't be happier.)

The Perfect Pantry's top 11 recipes of 2011

At the end of every year, when I compile my list of The Perfect Pantry's top recipes, I set some criteria for my choices. This year, I measured each recipe against just one factor: did we lick the plate clean?

Each of these eleven recipes passed the clean-plate test, and left us wanting seconds.

Happy Thanksgiving, from our pantry to yours

Happy turkey, happy tofurkey, happy giblet gravy, happy mushroom gravy, happy sweet potatoes with (or without) little marshmallows, happy green beans with (or without) fried onion strings. Happy do-your-own-thing, relax, read a book, watch football, rake leaves, swing in a hammock, take a nap, take a walk, build-a-fort-in-the-leaves day.