Yodeling Marmots, Moscow Mule mugs and ginger—keeping you smiling in 2015.

Happy New Year! I hope you all celebrated in your style of choice. Traditionally, New Years Day is all about resolutions and hopeful proclamations, along with some contrition and possibly a Bloody Mary or two. Many years ago it was the day I committed to my one and only marathon, and now every year I am grateful I don’t have to commit to that again.

So yeah, resolutions can be a good thing, and health is a worthy goal. Attaining or maintaining it really does start in the kitchen. My brother-in-law (most awesome shopper of all time), gave me Thug Kitchen for Christmas. Tourette’s-like language is its marketing schtick, so be warned, but check it out if you can, and watch the trailer with headphones on or when the kids are gone. I love their no-excuses approach, and the proof that healthy, tasty food does not have to be fancy or expensive or hard to make. (I also like the Moscow Mule mugs that came with it. See Marmot’s perch).

I’ve been thinking a lot about health lately—about how good it is to have it, and how often I take it for granted. It has a lot to do with having spent both Christmas and New Year’s Eves toasting a sick kid with ginger ale, and the days before and between shuttling between the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom with wet cloths, thermometers, ice packs and all manner of fluids.

It wasn’t all bad. Our Christmas Day marathon of SNL reruns (which included introducing my son to Roseanne Roseannadanna and a predawn showing of “The Jerk”) was kind of fun and peaceful and reminded me that laughter really is the best therapy.

The best bonus of the whole deal was that I did not get sick, something I credit entirely to ginger. Yes, here is the point of this ramble, and the reason we chose ginger as the Ingredient of the Month for December. Throughout the long stretch of flu and ear infections I tried out every homeopathic remedy I could find. One desperate night I baked up some onion ear muffs (can you imaging your mother sneaking in at night to press hot onions on your ears?) and, when that didn’t help, garlic poultices. Lets all agree right here to not divulge that the “piece of thin, 100 percent cotton cloth” used to wrap the garlic came from a clean (I swear) item in my top drawer.

Anyhooooo none of it worked, though I did get a sincere “Nice effort, Mom.” 
What did work, at least for keeping me totally healthy, was ginger. Lots of ginger, along with Meyer lemons. (FYI the January Sunset magazine has a feature about Meyer lemons. My ship has come in!)

I’m hard core about ginger, sometimes slicing it and eating it raw. More often though I let it steep in hot water along with slices of lemon. I add honey if I need comfort, cayenne if I need strength and both if I ‘m needy all around. My sister recently turned me on to candied ginger, which gives baked goods and cocktails some exotic zing. Speaking of cocktails and mocktails let’s not forget the delicious role of ginger beer and ginger syrup. 

A hunk of ginger is cheap, easy to store, versatile and the least complicated health insurance you will ever have. And yes, we all need health insurance because, in the words of the great  Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s always something. If it’s not one thing it’s another.” Either you’re mouth’s on fire from chewing ginger or you’re wearing onion ear muffs all winter.

This year we hope to bring you good food, interesting food, all served up with a sense of humor and an understanding that gathering friends is supposed to involve more fun than stress. Happy 2015. Let’s do it up right!