Repeat after me – I am not a quitter - I am not a quitter. Well I guess “life” happened since my last blog post, as I have blissfully ignored the fact I haven’t yet completed my list of lessons.

Ah, what was I thinking when I came up with the notion of writing about 52 lessons learned? One lesson per week of my challenge - that should be a piece of cake. Okay then maybe I just have a bad old case of writers block.

I love sprouts, but they don’t lend themselves to vivid and colorful descriptions. They are not sensual and they aren’t complicated. They’re green.

It won’t be long and that very last local apple will finally be eaten.

A new report is generating buzz in the natural foods industry. The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group which pushes for sustainable and organic agriculture, tested a number of natural and organic cereal brands and found that many of the cereals labeled as natural contained evidence of genetically modified products (GMOs). Further, the report suggests that “natural” cereals may contain pesticide residues.

An article in USA Today about the declining number of independent grocery stores in small towns across the country is a compelling argument to buy local.

While I truly love to cook and bake and take on “never made before in my kitchen” kinda projects, prior to this I had never kept any kind of diary, especially not about my life in the kitchen.

Here’s a glimpse into my 52 weeks of inconvenience, primarily cooking or baking for just the two of us (although some food items became gifts, while others were served to our dinner guests.

There’s a routine I think I’ll miss, and other parts that I hope will stick, like the discipline I learned in planning out our food options each week. My year of inconvenience is technically over.

I’m almost at the end of week 52 as I’m writing this post, and feeling a little sad that this adventure is almost over. Or is it? I mean once you start something like this does the adventure really ever end? It is food we’re talking about, and while I learned a lot about cooking from scratch over the past 52 weeks, there is still so much more to learn. So my question is, should I keep blogging? What do you think?

The inspiration I drew upon this week was a recipe we published from local chef Jan Kelly from the restaurant Meritage. We gave Jan a challenge of one ingredient that she needed to design a meal around, and that was kimchi. Jan of course even made the kimchi from scratch, so I figured, why don’t I try?

We began our adventure in Santa Fe at the local farmer’s market, with the purchase of red chili powder, fresh goat cheese with green chili, German butter potatoes, farm fresh eggs, a giant bunch of rainbow chard and multi-grain bread. I was having a blast.

No whining, no complaining, no sniveling as the Irish say.

Look at me, all proud of my pasta. This from the girl who has been resenting it since the last failed batch a few meals ago.

A Year Of Inconvenience in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

So here I am now with those 42 weeks behind me and only 10 more weeks to finish the year. My freezer is pretty well stocked and I have my regular routine of bread or cracker or granola baking planned out so I’m no longer in any panic for food essentials.

And yogurt – well I really never considered making it at home since it’s a product well within the limits of my rules – however everyone was saying it’s just so darn easy and economical – so I had to try my hand at it.

I had to ask some of the same questions of myself when I started this project, like is a condiment a “food” or is it a “seasoning?” Am I going to make my own mayonnaise and barbeque sauce and ketchup? Can you even make your own mustard?

Here's a great idea for local libraries - maintain a lending collection of seeds for local gardeners.