Getting Real About New Year’s Resolutions

Well, another year has flown by and now it’s 2012. For many people, this means it’s time to put those New Year’s resolutions into action. Many classic goals involve improving exercise and diet habits. While we would like to support these resolutions in theory, let’s get real. People make the same resolutions year after year because they never stick! Instead of the tried-and-true, tried-and-failed resolutions of yore, we’ve come up with suggestions to spice up your eating and drinking in 2012… and yeah, be a little healthier, too.

Here’s a look at the four classic New Year’s eating/drinking resolutions…and the ES fixes

1. Drink Less Alcohol

What? No. We can’t even to begin to explain why this plan is destined to fail. But for starters, let’s get real, we even infuse our popsicles with booze. So… come on.

ES Says: Vow to try new alcohols. We’ve all had vodka, but have you tried akavit? Lillet? Aperol? Or, learn to love an alcohol you don’t like. Maybe you had a bad experience with gin in college, but it’s time to give your least favorite spirit the ol’… college try.

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Top 10 Endless Simmer Posts of 2011

We made you laugh, we made you cry, we seriously pissed some of you off. Just another year on the Simmer. Here are the 10 posts readers drooled on the most this year.

10. Chocolate and Salted Caramel Pudding Pops

Popsicles — back before they got naughty.

9. 100 Ways to Cook with Guinness

We can only hope this exhaustive St. Patrick’s Day resource makes up for the anger some of you felt about our #4 ranked post (keep reading).

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Top 10 New Foods of 2011

Another year gone by, another chance to look back fondly at the thousands of things we stuffed our faces with in 2011. After much internal debate, we’ve narrowed it down to just 10 — the very best new things we shoved in our mouths in 2011.

10. Tater Tot Poutine

Montreal’s greasiest, gravy-iest contribution to the food world, poutine officially became a trend back in 2010. It got even more amazing this year when chef Kyle Bailey of D.C.’s ChurchKey had the ingenious idea to replace the french fries with tater tots.

9. Kouign Amann

We first discovered this over-the-top traditional pastry, which is something like a croissant with twice as much butter and sugar, on a trip to Brittany, France this summer. Returning home, we were pleased to find it blowing up in the states. The best version we’ve tasted to far is the one above, from Starter Bakery in Oakland. It has also popped up at Dominique Ansel in New York and Bouchon Bakery in L.A.

8. Nouveau Filipino

Filipino food is among the most far-out in the world, so it was only a matter of time before it got a hipster update. From Adobo Hobo’s Filipino tacos in San Francisco to Maharlika’s spicy arroz caldo in New York (above), we’ll take all the creative Filipino cuisine we can get.

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Grilled Cheese Gone Wild!

Sure, mom’s buttery white bread and American cheese version is a classic, but these days grilled cheese has hit a whole new level. Here are some of our favorite crazy grilled cheese options.

1. Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese

Can’t decide between your two favorite cheesy snacks? Have them both with Simply Scratch’s simply amazing jalapeno-cream cheese-onion-sourdough-colby concoction.

2. Fried Green Tomato Grilled Cheese

Fried inside fried? Yes and yes. Life’s Ambrosia has the recipe.

3. Bechamel Grilled Cheese

You thought rubbing a layer of butter on grilled cheese was indulgent? At Firefly in D.C., chef Danny Bortnick’s cadillac grilled cheese has bechamel sauce spread in between white bread, with garlic-herb butter, aged Cabot, and Gruyere.

(Photo: Dakota Fine)

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Attack of the Meme: The ’90s Are Back

In times of heartache and unrest we reach for nostalgia to calm our shattered souls. And apparently the 1990s heals our collective hearts, as plenty of Boy Meets World and Family Matters references dot the internet.

But my favorite ’90s poster child is Daria and how she decodes the world via food.

3. Dating Advice

(Photo: Creestool)

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Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know Taste Delicious With Chocolate

There’s nothing better than chocolate, right? Or is there? Foodies have figured out that everyone’s favorite candy gets even better when combined with some surprising ingredients. Here are our top 10 favorite crazy chocolate recipes.

10. Avocado

It might sound gross, but avo mixed with chocolate chips makes an amazingly rich filling for Russell Warnick’s chocolate avocado pie.

 9. Eggplant

No, this is not a joke. Just give it a try. Salted fried eggplant drizzled with dark chocolate, from What You Give Away You Keep.

8. Goat Cheese

Chocolate is great. Cheese is great. Why the eff not? Macheesmo makes goat cheese raspberry brownies.

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