Some things only look complicated in retrospect. At the time, we mixed this stuff with that stuff, then mixed stuff with other stuff, then Pete mashed something flat and I stamped some things together. After that, it was all gently boiling water and frothing butter. One step at a time and it’s a cinch.

Homemade whole wheat beet and gouda ravioli with brown butter-pignole sauce. You should totally make this.

A friend of Miss Sasha’s takes one giant step to a much better life:

Ask yourself this question: What would you do if you found $3,500? Would you save it? Buy yourself something shiny? Would you take your family on a vacation to Disney World? What would you do?

I found myself asking this very same question this morning … After I added up how much money my family has spent on fast food, take out, coffee and restaurants in the year 2010. That’s right … my family of 6, with a modest military income, spent over 13% of our net base pay on burgers, pizza and coffee. And sadly, that’s only what we spent using our bank cards and credit card – it doesn’t include the times we have used cash or when we moved back to the U.S. from our tour in Okinawa (military paid for that), all the times we used Yen (Japanese currency) to pay for Okinawan food from January until May or the 3-week long fast food fest my husband went on when he went TDY to California in November (since the military paid for his 3-times-a-day In- N-Out habit). I’d be willing to bet that our actual number is closer to $5,000 spent on junk food for 2010.

She’s given it some thought and she’s ready to test her limits:

[W]hat is this whole 365-day challenge thing all about? It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing since early November, when my husband was TDY to California, and was continually eating fast food for 3 weeks straight and kept complaining of how crappy he felt (anyone remember “SuperSize Me” by Morgan Spurlock?). I thought to myself … What if we went an entire YEAR without fast food? No quick bites at McDonald’s, no afternoon pick-me-up’s from Starbucks, not giving in to the insatiable lure of Dominos … Could we do it? Is it really possible to prepare 1,095 meals and countless snacks without relying on a drive-thru? Can we use the time spent preparing meals together as a family, teaching our children not only the value of hard work, but the inherent lesson that a family that spends time together, loves each other?

My answer: YES. We can. It is our 2011 365-Day Challenge. (Is it okay to say that I miss Starbucks already?)

I’m on a similar path, so I know how hard it is to wring the grease out of your system. Grease and high fructose corn syrup have got your number and will keep calling well after your voicemail’s full. Grease is a jealous lover and corn syrup fucks the football team. Baby, grab your wallet and RUN.

Perhaps it was cheating that I quit eating McDonald’s and Burger King eons ago, that I only stop by Wendy’s for salads, the smell of Dunkin’ Donuts makes me queasy and the founders of Domino’s hold political views I find morally repugnant. I’m not completely certain I’ve been to a Starbuck’s. These things aren’t important. I can’t agree not to go out for sushi, Jamaican, Thai, Vietnamese, deli or anything I can’t make myself. But I’m signing on, on my own terms.

1. No McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, no mass produced doughnuts. No lapses, no how.

2. No stupid, expensive coffee unless I’m on a road trip away from my own kitchen, in which case: just coffee, maybe milk, no stupid froth.

3. Dude, I’m working toward all organic, free range/grass fed, whole grain, but most weekday mornings, I eat frozen vegetable dumplings from the Asian market for breakfast. I don’t eat like other people and perfection is impossible. I am prepared to fail at the challenge and learn from failure.

Bonus: Oh. My. God. I am so excited to see people cutting themselves off from poisonous, disgusting corporate fake food and keeping their cash. I love this idea and love the idea of young mommies feeding their children real food. One note of caution: drastic change is sometimes too much and people change back. It might have been easier to buy a good coffee machine and travel mugs last August and get used to both making one’s own and the extra pocket change. Going all in like this takes guts and I admire our reasonably anonymous ringleader for taking the leap.

So whaddya say? What are you ready to try?

Last night, I candied the Buddha’s hand. Since I’d never candied anything, I consulted with Minstrel Boy and found other instructions on Instructables.com. Because I can’t follow a recipe to save my life, it really helped to have photographs I could draw mustaches on. Turns out candying stuff is not hard to do. I have no attention span and I didn’t burn down the house. You can do it.

We're all more glam when Pete's taking pikshas.

Buddha's hand plus sugar plus water plus time equals candy plus syrup.

What is it? It’s a Buddha’s hand!

The golden fruit is especially popular at New Year’s, for it is believed to bestow good fortune on a household. At year’s end–the Japanese who call it bushukan, also buy it. They use it as a decorative ornament and place it on top of specially pounded rice cakes, or they use it in lieu of flowers in the home’s sacred tokonomo alcove.

This fingered citron grows on a small spreading evergreen tree that reaches heights of three to five feet. It bears its main crop in winter, though it may produce a few fruits from “off blooms” throughout the year. American gardeners coddle the frost-sensitive tree as an ornamental and there are a few small-scale commercial growers in California who sell to flower shops and fancy food stores.

Some varieties of Buddha’s Hand Citron have a sour pulp. some none at all, but cooks interested in exotica value the fruit for its aromatic peel. In the United States it has curried favor with western chefs. Gary Palm of The Mission Inn in Riverside, California chops up pieces of rind to add a slightly bitter citrus tinge to fish marinades. Lindsey Shere, pastry chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California uses the candied peel in Italian desserts, such as pane forte. Allan Susser of Chef Allen’s in Adventura, Florida bakes pieces of candied rind in biscotti. It adds flavor that he describes as “kumquat-tangerine” which is distinct from the more lemony flavor of regular citrus.

Once again, we were tooling around the produce section of our hometown grocery store and found ourselves standing in front of a small display. The nearby greens looked wonderful. The radicchio looked like purple and brown death warmed over. Nestled on a lower shelf, we found four Buddha’s hands with little stickers identifying them but no price placard overhead, so checkout was going to be a blast. Checkout was even blastier when the sticker had fallen off, teenagers were running the registers unsupervised and no one could find Buddha’s hand anywhere in the price list. Though online sources suggest this should be expensive, we got it for 62 cents.

What would you do with it?