Over the weekend, I crossed off the first thing on my list of 30 by hosting a pasta-making (and eating) party at my apartment. So much of what I love about food is sharing it with other people. That’s why in all my ice cream making madness, I rarely keep a whole batch at home. (Save for mint chocolate chip. I’ve never learned to share that one as my co-workers can attest.)

That’s why when I decided I wanted to learn to make fresh pasta, the second part of my goal became serving it to a group of friends. If I had my way, I would entertain at my apartment every weekend, but that’s not always feasible. So, I took advantage of a quiet Saturday to invite two friends (Alicia and Kelsey) to come over to make pasta with me, and then had two more friends (Heather and Julie) join us to taste test.

Here are a few of the highlights. Thank you so much to everyone who came, and to Kelsey for taking the photos.

For a long time I’ve been resistant to the idea of starting a blog. I didn’t think I had anything to say that hadn’t already been said or couldn’t be covered on my blog for Real Simple. But this is different. This blog is distinctly my voice and my experiences.
I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person. I knew that I wanted to work for a magazine by the time I was 16. By 22 I was working at my dream job at Real Simple. However, in the past few years I’ve lost that sense of drive to achieve goals I’ve set for myself. This list is an attempt to regain that passion and sense of achievement albeit on a smaller scale than landing my dream job.
Without further ado, here is the list, presented to the world on my 28th birthday, which gives me exactly two years to complete all 30 things. I can’t promise that posts will be frequent, but they will be an entertaining chronicle of the next two years.

The List
1. Go to Europe
2. Go wine tasting on the North Fork
3. Crochet the pink & grey blanket
4. Take a road trip
5. Buy a bike and ride around Brooklyn
6. Live by myself
7. Make French macarons
8. Have a picnic on Governor’s Island
9. Walk home from my office in Midtown to my apartment in Brooklyn
10. Learn to temper chocolate and make homemade Klondike bars
11. Go to a show at UCB
12. Attend a meditation service at the Zazen Temple in my neighborhood
13. Get a dwarf Meyer Lemon tree and get fruit from it
14. Create & frame a piece of embroidered or cross-stitched art
15. Learn to curl my hair
16. Ride in a helicopter
17. Take a sailboat tour around Manhattan
18. Take calligraphy class
19. Be silent for one whole day
20. Go to an opera and a ballet
21. Have something published in a small print magazine like Anthology, Remedy Quarterly, or Kinfolk
22. Read all the novels by Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park)
23. Make jam of some kind
24. Take a knife skills class
25. Design and print something on a letterpress
26. Write my book proposal
27. Take a vacation by myself
28. Make homemade pasta and serve it to friends
29. Send one piece of mail per week (If you want to be on the list send me your address.)
30. The last one is a secret. I’ll reveal it after the fact.

Want to join me as I tackle one of the things on this list, or have something unique to offer with regarding a particular goal? Contact me here. And know that your support is wildly appreciated.