Tom yum soup and other yummy things

As a follow-up from last months blog on resolutions, I feel I should update everyone on how things are going. Some of the resolutions are going very well and some are sucking.
I managed to make it through a month of fruit and veggie smoothies, minus one day when I just couldn't stomach it. It was harder than I thought..... The no desserts for a month was not as hard, but sad to say I only made it 3 weeks. I was at work and a coworker gave me a chocolate danish and told me how much he appreciated my work and was obliged to eat it. The next night at Bob and Marlene's when I was offered chocolate raspberry cream cake, I couldn't say no. I mean, I didn't say no.
As for the other resolutions.... better late than never, I say. I'm five weeks behind on my 52-books-in-one-year resolution, but I have four books on the go and I expect to finish some soon. As for exercising every day.... sigh. I manage about half the time. This morning I finally started my swimming program with Caleb and Mimi. when it was still dark I walked over to the rec center (6:30, people!) and swam for an hour with them.
However, I am making headway with one of my resolutions: learn to cook 10 new things. This is no 'Julie and Julia' blog, folks, but from someone who used to hate cooking I think I'm making progress, and in the process, having fun.
I started with a creamy white bean and broccoli soup (A healthy version of cream-of-broccoli). Creamy, smooth, delicious! Robin and I loved it and I made it twice. the only bad part was when I blended the soup as per the recipe: I poured it into the blender in batches, put the lid on and pressed 'high'. I guess the steam from the hot soup expanded to fill the blender and the pressure caused the lid to pop off and spray green soup all over me and the kitchen. It even sprayed down my spice rack before I could push 'stop'.
Then I made Spanish rice for the first time- rice cooked with chorizo sausage and peppers- what a novel idea! I followed that up with smoky corn chowder with bacon. I don't think I've ever had corn chowder before, and my stomach did a little turn when I saw the creamed corn (thanks, Len); but it turned out delicious, and, well, smoky. That was my first time cooking with leeks and I discovered they are sort of like onions but don't make your eyes sting.
Last Sunday I cooked root vegetables and chicken with braised fennel. I'm still not sure what fennel is, but Sam and I agreed that it's better than celery but still probably best cooked with something else, not by itself. Fennel has a delicate licorice taste but it's not stringy and not quite as boring as celery. If you cook it with enough butter and sugar, I discovered, it's palatable. Maybe next time I'll add it to a soup or a salad.
Then this week I made tiramisu for the first time. I don't really know what tiramisu is, either, but I've figured out that it's extremely fattening. The recipe I made called for 35% cream and mascarpone cheese (very expensive, by the way- about $12 for 454g) but it slides down like silk and leaves you feeling warm inside. I skipped the coffee liqueur in the recipe and added coffee instead so it wouldn't completely put us to sleep.
My seventh new recipe was pink deviled eggs. I've had deviled eggs before, but these ones called for a bit of tomato paste in the egg filling, and I added some relish instead of chopped pickles. The net result tasted like eggs filled with thousand island dressing. Robin and I scooped out the filling and just ate the eggs.
Today's recipe was Tom-Yum soup, whatever that is. It's a delicious looking soup with chicken, shrimp, lime, coconut, fish sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms and chili. I have no idea where Tom yum soup comes from but it has a slightly Asian look to it and I'm anticipating eating it for dinner tonight.
Robin's getting a little bored with soup, I think, so maybe next week I'll try something a little more solid.
I still have made zero progress on improving my Spanish or Italian, and I haven't finished my deadly infection board game, but there are still 10 and a half months to go and I am optimistic that much will be accomplished.
In another week I'm turning 27 and the fact that I will be in my late twenties might compel me to write another set of resolutions for the next three years. Who can tell.