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Good Taste: New Years Lez-o-lutions

Everyone’s calendar-driven virtuousness getting you down? Pull up a chair, because there ain’t no asceticism going on around here. The Good Taste New Year’s Lez-o-lutions are all about packing the most pleasure into your mouth. Like most quality pleasure, it’s so satisfying that you don’t need to binge on it. Moderation just comes along with true satisfaction. Here are some suggestions on how to buff out your kitchen skills, tone your tongue, and snatch up the best wine finds (a cute label only goes so far).

We all have culinary dropout zones. For years, I heard that potato ricers made the best mashed potatoes. And for years, I felt intimidated by roasting a chicken. This year, I experimented with a ricer, and found that the potatoes were just divinely fluffy afterwards. I also found a chicken-roasting method that I love (and repeat often). What are your Waterloos? What do you want to get on top of?

If you want to master the art of mixing classic cocktails, or cooking gluten-free meals, and live in the Bay Area, then you are in luck. Culinary Institute of America graduate Melissa Lavrinc Smith, a bi sommelier and chef in the Bay Area, is a co-founder of PopUpEdu, “Home Ec for Grownups,” a series of underground classes on food and bevvies.

If you want to forge ahead at home, pick up Amanda HessersThe Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century. Within: commonsense, thoroughly tested recipes for most concoctions in the American culinary canon.

And if you’d like some saucy kitchen wench energy along with your impressive yet easy dinner recipes, get Nigella Lawson‘s new cookbook, Nigella Kitchen: Recipes for the Heart of the Home.

I wish I had some awesome Sapphic tie-in here – but a quick internet search reveals only this dismal bit of super-hetero 411. When asked what physical attributes she likes in a man, she told an Esquire reporter, “Hairiness. I like an animal. Hairy back, hairy everywhere. I don’t understand why a woman would want to be with a hairless man. If I was going to go for someone smooth, I may as well be a lesbian.” Um OK. Maybe her next kitchen assistant needs to be a hot dyke sporting low-riders and a happy trail?

Laura is a passionate devotée of pasta, and she’d happily eat it every night. If I have it twice a week (and I often do, especially when the farmer’s market is booming and I have lots of heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil goin’ on), I start to resemble a stuffed shell. I decided to order a spiral vegetable slicer so that I could make “pasta” out of zucchini and other vegetables. I was prepared to glumly shovel healthy hippie food into my mouth while Laura feasted on a Sopranos-worthy bowl of angel hair and pesto, but it was actually delicious. I think my ratio of zucchini strands to actual pasta was about 80:20, and it was so good. Like, better, in a way – because of the bit of crunch, the added texture. It didn’t hurt that the pesto (homemade) was bangin’.

I also ordered The Geometry of Pasta, which gets really geeky about different pasta shapes, and pairs them with the most appropriate sauces. Red pepper and whiskey sauce with radiatore pasta? Oh, yeah!

I hate mispronouncing anything – especially when ordering wine at a restaurant. Wine names can be so tricky! Take “Gigondas,” a French Southern Rhone wine blend (made up of a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre). You’d think the final “s” is silent, but it’s not. Complicating matters: The first g sound is soft, the second one is hard. So it’s like, zhee-gon-dahss.

Melissa Lavrinc Smith is also a font of wine wisdom, as she’s the creator of Enotria Guide, an iPhone app for wine pronunciation.

Don’t have an iPhone? It also comes in CD format.

When I lived in New York City, I spent some time with wine geeks of the highest order, and my awesome take-away from that experience was a list of the best cheap and cheerful wines. I’ve added my own over the years, and here they are:

Organic: CalNaturale’s Cabernet Sauvignon, in a TetraPak, mind you. $7 (and you get 30% more wine, as it comes in a liter size)

Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, $14

Chateau Bois de Lamothe Cotes de Duras (red), $6 and La Ferme Julien: red, white and rosé $6 (both available at Trader Joe’s)

Rosemount Shiraz, $8,

Les Violettes: Moillard Cotes du Rhone, $11

Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone, about $18 but currently $13

And now for sommelier Melissa’s recommendations:

Bubbly: “Fleury Carte Rouge Champagne. Just about as good as they come and only $40.”

If you’re looking to drop about $100 on a gift or special occasion bottle, she recommends “Dunn Cabernet from the Napa Valley – look for the Howell Mountain bottling.”

Fun flirty bottles: “My faves are Bitch Grenache from South Australia, $9 and Kitten with a Whip Dry Creek Valley Rosé.” only $12

“Going to a dinner party or throwing one? My money is on Prosecco, Gruner Veltliner, and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. They’re affordable, pair remarkably well with food, and are unique enough to appreciate without being too cerebral. My picks are Drusian Prosecco ($15), Gruner Veltliner by ETZ ($12) and Domain Drouhin Pinot Noir ($35).”

So now that you’ve got some tips for a stellar year of better eating, drinking and cooking, tell me about your taste-based resolutions. And Happy New Year!

Candace is the co-editor of Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women (Seal Press, 2010), and Ask Me About My Divorce: Women Open Up About Moving On (Seal Press, 2009). She is currently working on a memoir-with-recipes for Seal Press called Licking the Spoon. Candace is also the features editor at Mothering magazine, mama of two, and enamorata of smarty-pants Laura, her live-in recipe tester. Follow Candace on Twitter @candacewalsh.

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