New Years Resolution or Procrastination?

Why New Years resolutions? Why not mid September resolutions or Spring resolutions? My personal belief is, if you have a goal or changes that need to be made and decide to employ these goals and changes why wait until the New Year? Deciding to do something then saying to yourself well I will wait until the new year to make these resolutions says two things to me.

First, you are not really serious about the resolutions. Why? If you were, you would make the changes immediately. You would not need a start date.

Second, by giving yourself a start date, is just another means of procrastination and is doomed to fail. Statistics show that most New Year’s resolutions fail by mid February.

If you want to set a goal for yourself or change something in your life then do it when you intuitively feel that it is the right time for you, not when the clock strikes midnight. Following your heart and not a time clock will result in success and a happy life. Remember that you have to be in that positive mindset in order to make changes.

New Year's Day Cake Vassilopita

Photo courtesy of whippedtheblog.com

Coming from a Greek and Italian background our holiday celebrations always centered around food. One Greek tradition that I vividly remember is the New Year’s Day good luck cake which in Greek is called Vassilopita. There are various forms of this pastry but I wanted to share with you my Mom’s recipe. The New Year’s Day cake or bread would be baked with a coin inside the batter. Usually a dime though it could be a quarter. On New Year’s Day morning the family would sit around the table and each family member, old to young, would be given a piece of the cake. The person that found the coin in the cake was to have good luck throughout the year. I think I received maybe 6 coins my entire life although I have to say I’ve been pretty lucky. I did not have a photo of the cake so I searched the internet and found the above photo which shows the cake and the coin. In any case I wanted to share with all of you my Mom’s recipe for the cake.

3 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 lb. sweet butter
1 cup sugar
6 eggs well beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbls. honey
1 cup flour
1 cup farina (cream of wheat)
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
3 tsp. baking powder
Dime or Quarter.

Bring the water to a boil in saucepan. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in lemon juice then remove from heat. Cool at room temperature. Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl, Add sugar. Cream 5 minutes longer. Beat in eggs, vanilla, honey and walnuts. Add flour, farina, the dime or quarter ( make sure to boil the coin before adding) and baking powder. Beat until smooth. Pour into a buttered 9 x13 x2 baking pan. Bake in 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and glaze top with honey. Let it set 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy!