As I write this, today is my last day of cooking in 2016. Soon after I type these words, I am off to the store to pick out flowers and some last-minute items to prepare a four-course meal for members of the Grand Forks Country Club.

While many others will be celebrating the old and thinking of what needs to change for the new, myself, and many other chefs in the area, will be hard at work. For us, very little will change.

Maybe we will tell ourselves we will drink a little less, or maybe try to spend less time in the kitchen and more time at home with family. Maybe some will say after this year, it is on to something else, whether that be a new job career or a new kitchen to hone our skills in.

Here is my menu for this evening:

• Amuse Bouche, Last breakfast of 2016: Buttered hash brown round topped with crispy pancetta, soft-poached eggs and spiked sour cream sauce with chives
• Cheese course: Manchego, Tommes de savoie and Comte cheeses accompanied with dried apples, currants, roasted artichokes, crostini and crackers
• Entree Choices: Wild boar rack with whiskey apples, bison T-bone, lobster tail, eggplant rollatini, chicken cordon bleu with creamy mushroom sauce.
• Dessert: Tiramisu with strawberry rum sauce AND Rhubarb Fool with cardamom cream.

Twenty-two years have gone by quickly working in this business. I have missed many holidays at home with family to cook for others. It is what I do.

The coming year, 2017, will not be too different. I am not really into New Year’s resolutions. I do not feel I need a New Year to change, but I do plan on spending more time doing this. Sharing with you recipes and hoping that they work for you in your kitchen.

May 2017 be a year of good food, good eating and a little more time home with the family.  I wish you all the best.