Happy, happy New Year to you all! It's time to cook and bake up a storm for the holiday! As our gift to you, we've gathered up some yummy - and not too difficult - recipes for you to try out. Something from Katie, Ina, Ken and I, and friends along the way.    

First, before you dive in, we want to share our special secret recipe for holiday dinners: Crown S Ranch Standing Rib Roast. So simple and yet so delicious! Here's how to make it: Holiday Roast - Grassfed Beef.  

Most important, you must cook mindfully and with love! That's the secret ingredient in anything you make. Without love, it just doesn't taste as good. What better way to show your love than through cooking or baking for your family and friends?  

We'll see you next year!  Take care, eat well, and be well! 

It's hard to stick to a diet around the holidays. I don't even bother trying to count calories, but I do aim to eat sweets that are more wholesome indulgence than bodily poison. That means steering clear of high fructose corn syrup and the modified oils and starches you find in packaged foods.

Here are a few yummy treats to try and enjoy:

Holiday Baking on a Budget (There are multiple recipes here, including pecan pie!) 

Cover It In Chocolate! 

Whatever your winter holiday - Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza or Winter Solstice - good food with family and friends is the best way to come together. Our healthy living correspondent, Ina Denburg, continues a family tradition that has been in place for nearly 25 years. Combining elements from Hanukkah, Christmas, and earth-based Solstice celebrations, Ina and her family celebrate for three nights. She says:

We don't prepare anything too amazing - just good food and lots of people to devour it!

Here are some of Ina's special meals - mostly meatless, but you don't have to make them that way:

Winter Solstice Breakfast: Buckwheat Pancakes (A great start for the celebration day!) 

Red Lentils, Roasted Tomatoes, and Dill Soup 

French Lentils with Roasted Red Peppers, Goat Feta, and Mint 

Get Squashed! (Only Ina could serve 6 varieties of squash and a pumpkin in the same meal!)  

From the Pacific Northwest, we have nettles, salmonberries, kale, and "wild yeast" bread.

The salmonberry (left) was once a widely used and significant plant to the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. Native people gathered the berries and they were eaten plain, with salmon meat and eggs, occasionally made into jam, and dried.

Nettles (left) superficially resemble mints, with square stems and opposite leaves. The leaf blade is oval to heart-shaped, with scalloped edges. Wild nettles, while certainly challenging to harvest, make a very nice soup!

Here are a few recipes for you to try, though you'll have to wait until warm weather to find nettles and salmonberries:

Salmonberry: Food, Medicine, Culture from University of Washington students studying ethnobotany. Simple yet very sophisticated!

Getting Nettled: Stinging Nettles, Nature's Bounty from Ellen Kuhlmann, wild plant forager.  

Wild Yeast Whole Wheat Bread from Jack Jenkins, Country Living Grain Mills. 

Bake Your Own Kale Chips - these are super simple; and kids love to eat their veggies!

Italian-Style Pizza - a great way to use all those summer vegetables, from the garden or CSA.  

Happy cooking! And as Julia always said, "Bon Appétit!"  

Cascadian Grain Conference, Jan. 12, 2013, Tacoma WA  More information here. 

Organicology 2013, Feb. 7-9, 2013, Portland OR

Registration Deadline: January 15, 2013. This event usually sells out! More information here.