Resolutions, Twitter and Cacciatore

From Rasmussen:

It's 2010, and 39% of Americans say they plan to make a New Year's resolution.

According to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 54% will pass on a first-of-the-year resolution this time out, but seven percent (7%) haven't made up their minds yet.

Among those who are making resolutions, 93% say they are at least somewhat likely to keep it. Fifty-three percent (53%) insist they are very likely to do so.
Although women are slightly more likely to make resolutions, men claim to be more likely to keep them.

Men don't lack self-confidence, but I do wonder how closely reality aligns with their claims. The Baron doesn't make New Year's resolutions...that I know of. On the other hand, I never met anyone who can calmly point out all his own faults, uh, I mean character traits, without being defensive about them. He laughingly told me opnce that a friend of his had been appalled to see a picture of the Baron in which he was wearing two different kinds of plaids. Unlike the Future Baron, clohting is neither an interest nor a skill. Thus, he still has me check his ties to make sure they pass muster before he enters the Hive of Scum and Villany for a meeting or conference.

New Year's resolution: my technophobe self and I have decided to acquire Twitter skills. It will be a good way to check on blogs that fall through the cracks. No need to do anything as outré as actually remembering them anymore; now I just add favorites to my list and check in occasionally to see who is blogging about what. Easy peasy...though I can see the tweets becoming long pages in no time. Still..better than what I'm not doing now with one foot nailed to the floor. I guess I'll just have to figure out how to delete the old history.

The future Baron is coming home for the evening. Time to scrounge up a few things and teach him to make chicken cacciatore. He's becoming tired of his limited menu maybe? It's fun to teach old tricks to young dogs. It's especially nice to have a young person around who is motivated to learn to cook cheaply.

Of course he will be bringing some red wine I never heard of; then he and the Baron will whinge about the fact that I will steal a small glass to use in the tomato sauce...along with capers, lemon, green peppers, pesto, and mushrooms. Oh, and my secret ingredient.

One time an Italian woman showed me how to "dress" pasta. It's simple, but truly wonderful. Drain the pasta but not too well. Rub butter on the surfaces of the hot pasta pot before putting the pasta back into it. Toss the hot pasta with the juice of at least one lemon and one tablespoon or more of sweet butter. Then, using a coarse setting on the pepper mill, grind lots and lots of pepper, tossing the pasta at intervals.

You can serve the pasta plain or with whatever sauce you've prepared. If plain, use some parmesan and a bit more butter on individual servings.

The fB also making the trip home so he can learn to iron handkerchiefs correctly. For some reason, he's taken a liking to linen handkerchiefs. This may have started during his bout with pneumonia and swine flu. Paper kleenex weren't up to the job, plus they leave lint on everthing.

Fortunately, I had a stash of his father's and grandfather's handkerchief collection in the ironing bag (a place I normally avoid). In addition, I found an attractive wooden box in his father's top bureau drawer that fits the handkerchiefs perfectly. All in all, a nice Christmas present, especially since I found a tiny ironing board he can store in his closet and use on the kitchen table or his bureau.

It's a lot of work to be a bon vivant when you're poor and you don't have a valet. His great-grandfather had one but those days are long gone in our family. Sure wouldn't mind a ladies' maid meself. Perferably one who was patient and liked to read aloud and didn't mind my truly awful strew. I'd have to call her Saint Something-or-Other for all of those virtues.