New Year’s resolution

For those of you looking for a practical resolution, I suggest the following. These, in fact, encourage you to eat.

First, resolve to eat out once a month at a small, local restaurant. It’s the kind of economy where we should support small businesses. Instead of hitting the McDonald’s across the street, check online and see if there’s anything else close by that does good food cheap.

Second, learn to cook something new. Beef bourguignon, green curry with eggplant, roast chicken, whatever. Find something you’ve always wanted to master. Buy the ingredients, schedule it in and just do it.

Third, pick up a cookbook you already own but haven’t cooked from yet. We all have at least one that has sat on the shelves unloved and unused. Put some stains in that bad boy, and give it some new life.

And finally, go to a local market. Try Elliott’s Natural Foods, Taylor’s Market, Corti Brothers, the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op or one of the many certified farmers markets. Support small businesses while also checking out the interesting and new foods they have for you to try.