Good luck in the new year - we all want it, right? Well, I try to edge the odds in my direction by making the good luck soup each year.

This year I tried the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Kalyn's Kitchen. I was really glad I chose this recipe because it was absolutely delicious!

In recent years New Year's Eve has just been another night - no special celebrations. I hate driving anywhere that night, so staying home was the obvious answer.

But now we have a really nice local restaurant just a few miles away, and they were offering a special New Year's Eve dinner, so two of the couples on our street decided to join us at the Grand Oak Steakhouse at Highland Springs Resort.

We had an early reservation, so early that it wasn't even dark yet.

But, first things first - the wine. Only two of us are drinkers, so I brought a bottle of 2000 cabernet to drink.

Either a 3-course or a 5-course meal was offered, with two choices for each course. To taste the maximum number of courses, Bill chose one and I chose the other, except for the entree. Here are the food photos and descriptions from the menu:

Pre-dinner snack (maybe amuse bouche?)
Cauliflower creme (smooth as silk and delicious)

Course #1

Trio of Salmon (Salmon roe on blini, tartar and olive wood smoked Balik lax with beets and fine herbes)

Twist on Waldorf Salad (Escarole, endive, candied walnuts, apples, celery root and gorgonzola cheese)

It has kind of become a tradition that we get together with our friends Palma and Brad during the holiday season. This year we had lunch at a beautiful Palm Desert restaurant, Cuistot.

Palma and I shared a bowl of Wild Mushroom soup, as did Bill. I just loved the little pot that it was served in.

And the soup was definitely to die for!

I thought my entree was the most unusual thing on the menu. It was called the Cuistot Lunch Box - it was served on a square plate with four sections. A small soup and salad, the entree that day was salmon and spinach topped with pastry. Last but certainly not least was a small raspberry creme brulee. I love trying small portions of several different items, so this was perfect for me.

I was excited to participate for the third year in the foodie gift exchange organized by Katie of Thyme for Cooking.

Last year my gift came from a blogger in Germany. This year I was thrilled to receive a package from Australia - from Kate of Manningroad.

Kate sent me an assortment of Australian spices:
Australian Bush Herbs
Aussie Meat Pie Spice
Australian Bush Pepper Blend
Murray River Pink Salt
Wattleseed Roasted
Mixed Spice

I need to read up on all of these spices to see how they should be used.

She also enclosed a darling little silver spice spoon and a recipe for Lemon Butter, which I intend to make very soon:

Ingredients:
180g butter, diced
2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp grated rind
4 eggs, beaten and strained

Method:
Combine all ingredients in top half of double saucepan. Stir over simmering water until mixtures thickly coats the back of a wooden spoon. Pour into hot sterilized jars. Seal when cold. Serve on toast, scones, or in pre-made tartlets with coffee shards.

Thank you so much, Kate!

Why is it that almost everyone makes resolutions for the new year? And, most of the time, breaks them not long after January 1st.

A major portion of them are about losing weight and eating healthier. Check - that's one of mine again this year. I want to lose at least 10 pounds before Bill and I go to Paris in May. That way I can try every flavor of Macarons I see!

But, just as important, I want to get back to blogging. Like a lot of people I got "writer's block" about six months ago. Heck, I didn't even finish blogging about Venice when I was there. I am going to remedy that and finish my trip blog posts.

See, if I promise to do that here in writing, I will have to follow thru. And following thru is important in life.

I had just a couple of restaurants that were must-do's on this trip, and Osteria La Zucca was one of them. A lot of my Slow Travel friends have been there and raved about the food.

So, I was really, really happy that Shannon and Kim chose La Zucca for our Monday night dinner.

All of the rave reviews were confirmed - the food was wonderful!

We started with a couple orders of Pumpkin Flan. Wow and double wow! It was wonderful!

I then chose a Lasagna special, but I am not sure what kind it was. I will check with one of my compadres and post later about it.

We also shared an assortment of vegetables.

And we shared three different desserts.

The weather gods are smiling down on us - Rain was originally predicted, but a gorgeous day dawned for our tour of the Venice lagoon.

We met our guide Andrea and the boat captain on a little canal-side calle (we had to switch the location because the trash boat refused to move), and off we went.

Our first destination was Murano where we cruised down Murano's main canal past lots of glass factories like this one.

Lots of great views.

It was the first glitch that the weather gods had thrown at us, but it was a doozy - a really rainy day. But our GrapeHops tour leaders took it in stride and made today a museum day.

I had dragged along my raincoat because the weather forecast had predicted rain, so I actually got to wear it. And I was glad to have it because it just poured and poured.

We took the vaparetto down to San Marco and visited the Correr Museum for a couple of hours. Although a much smaller museum than Accademia, we really enjoyed the intimacy of it. Here are a couple of links with museum information.

Http://www.tickitaly.com/galleries/correr-venice.php

Http://www.venetia.it/m_correr_eng.htm

Http://www.venice-sights.co.uk/museo-correr.htm

Then off to lunch at a fantastic restaurant, Taverna San Trovaso where I had my very first taste of Fegato alla Veneziana (liver Venetian style), served traditionally with polenta. It was yummy.

But wait - the day is not over yet! We hit a couple of wine bars and then dinner at Shannon's favorite pizza place. I had Brie & Walnut pizza because it sounded unusual. Yum, it was great!

And here is Kim and me enjoying a little vino with our pizza.

I absolutely hate moving days! Of course, who doesn't. Hauling your heavy bags around is just not fun. And the 77 steps of our pre-tour apartment didn't help.

It took two trips to get everyone's luggage transferred to the apartment that we would be staying in for a week on the GrapeHops Venice Tour. Whew! We deserved a little Prosecco!

Once our tour-mates Kevin, Jill and their daughter Megan arrived (and we rested up a little bit), Shannon and Kim had a special surprise for us.

The Arsenale in Venice is a huge shipbuilding dockyard from the glory days of La Serenissima. It is closed and inaccessible to the public except for a couple of special events during the year. This weekend happened to be one of those special events.

Here are a couple of websites where you can read about the Arsenale:

Http://www.venice-sights.co.uk/arsenale.htm

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Arsenal

We got to see some very old ships like this one that was built for a Doge - very posh and ornate.

After my Brunetti walks, I met Kim and Shannon and we headed back to meet Palma's vaporetto. Up those 77 steps again and we were good to go to dinner.

Here's Palma and me.

And Shannon and Kim.

We ordered the most glorious large platters to share.

This is the seafood platter.

And here is the meat platter.

What a great dinner! We sat out on the campo after dinner and enjoyed the warm beautiful weather and the ambiance. After all, this is Italy!

One of my major goals on this trip (as if you didn't already know) was to do the walks in "Brunetti's Venice" book by Dr. Toni Sepeda.

The first walk began with the location of the first book, "Death at La Fenice". I didn't get to the famed opera house until 1 pm because I was looking for a power cord for my laptop - I have since found the power cord (so happy about that).

So, I did the tour of La Fenice with audioguide. It was quite a beautiful place, which is remarkable since it burned down three different times - in 1774, 1836, and 1996.

I only completed the first two of the Brunetti Walks today because I kept getting lost and backtracking, but here are some of the sights I did find from the book. I will add the specific book comments later.

La Fenice Opera House

Hotel Fenice behind the opera house

Fantin Fiori, the most expensive florist in the city, where Signorina Elettra ordered her weekly flowers

On the other hand, Biancat (Brunetti's favorite florist) was nowhere to be found. I had the street address from Donna Leon's website, and all I found at that address was this dress shop. No other florist in the area.

Day #1 in Venice ended with a mini-GTG with Ruth and Martin at their lovely Dorsoduro apartment overlooking the Grand Canal.

But first we met up with Kevin and Jill from Australia, who will be our companions on the GrapeHops tour beginning on Saturday. Their daughter Megan will be joining up with us tomorrow.

Here is a photo of the view from Ruth and Martin's living room window - pretty spectacular!

And here are Shannon and Ruth, authors of the wonderful "Chow Venice" book that so many Slow Travelers have used to choose great places to eat and drink in Venice.

After enjoying the view (and the company) for awhile, we headed over to Ruth's favorite pizza place for dinner.

I chose an unusual-sounding pizza with arugula (one of my favorite things), raw beef, and balsamico. Sounds strange but very good.

And the wine . . . You knew there would be wine - right? Shannon was thrilled to find this particular wine there - Ottin Pinot Noir. And she was right - it WAS delicious!

Day #1 dawned, and I had good intentions of beginning my Brunetti Walks, but reality won and I knew I needed to get organized first.

Shannon had things to do, so Kim and I headed down to Campo S Maria Nova to try to get our WiFi up and running. We had signed up for WiFi thru Venice Connected. So, instead of walking thru Venice, here we are:

Later we walked along the Fondamenta Nove and enjoyed a drink overlooking the water. Out in the distance you can see Isola di San Michele, the cemetery island.

Later we met Shannon at a new wine bar where we sampled some white wines from the Veneto area. Here's Shannon and Kim:

People experience jet lag differently - some get over it quickly and for some it lasts for several days. I was lucky to have Shannon around because she kept me up thru a nice dinner and then for several more hours more to be able to sleep thru the night and get acclimated to Italy time.

I arrived in Venice on Wednesday evening, and Shannon met me at the airport to help me with my luggage (thank you Shannon). We took the Alilaguna boat into the city and even had a little wine along the way. What a beautiful entry to the city that is!

The apartment that I am sharing with Shannon and Kim for my first three nights is not too far from the Fondamenta Nove - great location, but the downside is that it is up on the 4th floor (5th by US standards), and there were 77 steps to get up there! Yikes!

We walked to dinner at a great little place that Shannon knew, Da Alberto and had three of their evening specials, two pastas and steak with gorgonzola, which we shared. The gnocchi with salmon was especially good.

Hoochie was not a happy camper. She can always tell when we are leaving on a trip, and she hates it. But she didn't know that Bill was staying home with her this time and that she wouldn't be alone. Here she is with her brand new peanut butter flavored bone - a bribe so she would know that I love her.

Like a lot of people, traveling to a destination is a chore - not fun at all. But it's something that must be endured in order to enjoy the vacation.

I did have the benefit of traveling business class this time - it cost me a ton of AmExp points, but it was definitely worth it.

I was on an early afternoon flight to Denver, then to Frankfurt. After a five-hour layover there, finally to Venice.

Ontario Airport was pretty deserted - good for me but bad for the airport economy. I hate going to LAX, so I hope Ontario can survive the decline in travel that it seems to be experiencing.

I had never flown thru Denver or Frankfurt before, but I was really impressed with Denver but not so much Frankfurt.

The international flight from Denver to Frankfurt was on Lufthansa, my very first time on one of their flights. The Business class cabin was lovely, and the bonus was that I had no one sitting next to me. In fact, the row in front of me just had one passenger on each side. I asked the flight attendant why someone hadn't been upgraded to those seats, and she said that they didn't do that. Huh? Very strange . . .

Frankfurt was huge and congested, and I had to go thru security several times during my five-hour layover. Not that I ever left the terminal because I didn't. My carryon contained all of my electronics, and they hand-searched it twice. I cannot find the power cord to my computer, so I can only assume it wasn't put back after the search. Now to find a new power cord in Venice . . . I may have to post blog episodes on a public computer without photos. Stay tuned!