That’s my first of what I’m sure will be many carafes of caffeine-free iced tea of this month. This was a round of raspberry zinger. It’s meant to replace my usual glass of wine with dinner. The role of beer will be played by seltzer. Why? Well, as part of my New Year’s resolutions, I’m giving up all alcohol for the entire month of January. At this very moment, that seems kind of like an eternity but I’m determined to get through it. If you really want to know my full rational on the matter, and see my complete list of resolutions, you can check that out on my other blog here and here. My food-specific resolutions are:
- Eat at one of David Chang’s restaurants
- Learn how to make tamales
- Master the art of gnocchi
- Make a vegan dinner one night each week
Those are all fun, right? And, just to show you that my first night off the sauce wasn’t all herbal tea, here’s the pizza Dan and I made:
We started with our usual pizza dough, but then loaded it up with good toppings: sweet fennel sausage, sun dried tomatoes, red peppers, onions, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, AND ricotta. Here’s a tip for those of your enamored of the perfectly crisp crust: let the pizza rest on a rack–not in direct contact with the pan–for best results.
If you are interested in reading about my experience cutting out alcohol for the month, I will be blogging about it daily at What I Weigh Today.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy New Year! Cheers to you for quitting drinking alcohol for a month. You can do it! And going to one of David Chang’s restaurants is a great resolution. We went to Momofuku Ko last year and it was worth the long wait.
(oops– correction: we went to the noodle bar. so good! Still dreaming of those steamed pork buns.)
I’m a big fan of replacing booze with ice green tea. So easy to make, so good for you!
The tip about putting the pizza on the cooling rack in the oven: genius! Great resolutions, all of them. I gave up alcohol for a month or two several years ago and it really changed my relationship with the stuff. The hardest part for me at the time was going to nice restaurants and not drinking. I felt like some waiters gave us lesser service since they knew they wouldn’t be able to tack a $70 bottle onto our bill.
I have definitely noticed that service declines when your table isn’t ordering alcohol! I’m glad you shared your experience with taking a break from booze. I think it’s going to be a positive experience for me too!
Hi Rebecca:
The cooling rack pizza tip is for after the pizza comes out of the oven, not while it’s in the oven. We bake our pizzas on a pizza stone, but you should rest a pizza after it comes out of the oven, so the toppings have a little time to set up. When you rest it on a baking sheet or whatever, the bottom sweats and it can make the crust a little soggy. The cooling rack prevents that.
I am doing no alcohol Monday-Thursday again this year. I kind of gave up on that resolution round about October last year, but I’m back on track. Great idea with the raspberry zinger – I love a zinger.
I think that’s a good policy. Maybe I’ll try something like it when I wrap up my month of abstinence.