Set yourself a few challenges with Olive's essential 12-month guide

Reproduced from the January 07 issue of Good Homes magazine. August 07 issue on sale now. Subscribe now and save 40%.

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

You're also on an endless quest for knowledge, try different dishes, watch food programmes on TV (yelling at the screen when you think the chef is wrong) and keep your foodie address book bang up to date. Let's face it, it's also a little bit about showing off - whether serving a 100 per cent authentic Thai green curry, leading your friends to the perfect carbonara at your local Italian, knowing which gastropub does the best Sunday roast or being on first name terms with your butcher.

Not to say you're a food bore - you don't have to know Larousse Gastronomique by heart or have eaten every single part of a pig to be a 2007 foodie (although if that floats your boat, you'll probably enjoy our more challenging suggestions).

However foodie you are, everyone wants to be that little bit better and that's where our resolutions come in. Scared? Don't be - just pick the options that appeal or go for the easier ones. Feeling fired up? Go for the harder options each month.

January

Intermediate
Read your way out of the ethical food and drink shopping maze with Rose Prince's The Savvy Shopper (£7.99; Fourth Estate; Olive offer £6.99), which details everything you need to know about shopping (at the supermarket and elsewhere) with a clear conscience. Also, bookmark ethiscore.org, a site that allows you to check the ethical performance of various brands, including food manufacturers.

Hard
Change the way you think about cod. Yes, we know, turning your back on the classic chip shop fish is a sacrifice but, unless you're sure it's been caught sustainably - from Icelandic or Faroese waters (where cod isn't under threat) - it's a sacrifice worth making. Worthy alternatives include hake, hoki and pollack, or go for farmed organic cod - try the No Catch, Just Cod brand, at Sainsbury's, Tesco and Booths.

February

Easy
Adopt the latest superfood before it goes mainstream: acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee), a nutrient-rich berry from South America that tastes like a cross between berries and chocolate, with higher levels of antioxidants than pomegranate or blueberries. Try it in The Berry Company's Acai Smoothie (£1.69/330ml, Waitrose and Sainbury's) or in Innocent's Superfood Natural Detox smoothie (£1.75/250ml, widely available).

Intermediate
Landfill is evil - you know that. Reduce your own contribution by buying fruit and veg loose and avoid buying packaged food when you can. For all those occasions when you can't, recycle. The stainless steel Butterfly bin (£129.99; 01442 871296; www.simplehuman.co.uk) has two compartments (one for normal waste, one for recyclable) and is easy to use.

Hard
Learn to love offal - not just liver and kidneys but oxtail, heart, tongue, tripe, pigs' trotters and sweetbreads (the thymus glands of veal, young beef, pork and lamb). Books such as Anissa Helou's The Fifth Quarter (£20, Absolute Press, £20; Olive offer £18) and Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating (£16.99, Bloomsbury; O offer £14.99) will hold your hand through the process.

March

Easy
Learn to love offal - not just liver and kidneys but oxtail, heart, tongue, tripe, pigs' trotters and sweetbreads (the thymus glands of veal, young beef, pork and lamb). Books such as Anissa Helou's The Fifth Quarter (£20, Absolute Press, £20; Olive offer £18) and Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating (£16.99, Bloomsbury; O offer £14.99) will hold your hand through the process.

Intermediate
Really get to know your area's food culture by attending one of the 'meet the producer' events held at Waitrose (waitrose.com) and Booths (booths-supermarkets.co. uk) - check websites for details. The Co-op doesn't run such events, but it does provide instore details about the provenance of the goods it sells. Or visit bigbarn.co.uk to find food producers, farm shops and markets in your area.

Hard
Stop slicing up fruit, veg and meat like a rookie chef on their first day in the job and get your knife skills up to Ninja standard on the day courses at Leiths School of Food and Wine (Knife Skills I, and II, £65 and £95 per person, per course; 020 7229 0177; www.leiths.com).

April

Easy
Scoring eco brownie points is as crucial to improving your foodie credentials as knowing how to pronounce 'bouillabaisse' (bwee-ya-bays). So fit your kitchen tap with a water-saving insert - it gives a spray when turned on a little (for washing fruit) and a stream when on full (for filling a kettle); £4.69 for two from www.doctorenergy.co.uk.

Intermediate
Souffles have a reputation as one of the most intimidating dishes around; make this the month you conquer your fear. Get hold of a copy of Michel Roux's Eggs (£14.99, Quadrille; Olive offer £13.99), which demystifies the technique with easyto- follow recipes.

Hard
Repeat after us: 'I've got worms'. There's no shame in it, especially when they're busy in a wormery, breaking down your kitchen waste - fruit, veg, bread, rice, egg boxes, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells - transforming waste into nutrient-rich plant feed for your garden. The Can-o-Worms wormery (£60, www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) is pretty much idiot proof. Go to www.bbc.co.uk/gardening for more on composting.

May

Easy
Ditch those rip-off plastic packs of herbs from your shopping list and grow your own in pots. If using a seed dibber is too Alan Titchmarsh for you, try Suttons Groweasy Seed Mats. The seeds are embedded in a bio-degradable disk - place in a pot of compost, water and wait for your harvest. Choose from three types of basil, parsley, chives and coriander. Five mats, £2.15 (sutton-seeds.co.uk).

Intermediate
Buying fruit and veg as locally and seasonally as possible is entry-level stuff for a true foodie - it cuts down on food miles (resulting in the expense of less CO2 emissions while in transit) and it also means you get produce that is fresher and often cheaper than you would find at the supermarket. If you can't get to your local farmers' market, visit www.alotoforganics.co.uk and www.soilassociation.org.uk for details of your nearest fruit and veg box delivery schemes.

Hard
Hone your martini-making expertise by signing up for one of the £12, hour-long masterclasses at Christopher's American Bar and Grill, in London's Covent Garden (020 7240 4222; www.christophersgrill.com) or invest in Difford's Guide to Cocktails vol 6 (£9.99; Difford Simon). You'll soon know your classic from your vodkatini.

June

Easy
Gen up on your cheese-cutting etiquette. Don't dismiss it as tiresome protocol - the idea of the game is to slice a cheese up in a way that will allow everyone to enjoy each part of it, from rind to heart.

Intermediate
Already drinking Fairtrade coffee? Do the same for your wine - poor treatment of workers is one of the key ethical issues besetting the industry at the moment. Visit fairtrade. org.uk for info on the labels to look out for.

Hard
Learn how to fillet fish. London's Billingsgate fish market (www.seafoodtraining.org; 020 7517 3548) runs a range of courses starting at £35, or try the various branches of Fishworks, £175 (www.fishworks.co.uk) or Rick Stein's Padstow Seafood School, from £175 (01841 533466; www.rickstein.com). Alternatively take an online class with Mitch Tonks at bbc.co.uk/ food/get_cooking.

July

Easy
Make sure you have at least two olive oils - an ordinary one for cooking, plus extra-virgin for marinating and dipping. Drizzle Belazu's Ligurian Taggiasca over fish (£5.99/500ml; Sainsbury's), and use Marques de Valdueza (£11.95/ 500ml; Harvey Nichols) to make a fruity dressing.

Intermediate
Planning to jet off on a foodie pilgrimage? Offset your flight's environmental footprint by going to carbonneutral. com. It'll calculate the amount of CO2 generated, then offer a range of climate-friendly projects to balance it out. So a trip to New York to dine at Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 can be offset with a £8.88 investment in UK woodland.

Hard
Keep chickens. No, really, think of the regular supply of super-fresh, organic eggs. For £395 Omlet.co. uk (0845 450 2056) will provide you with two organically-reared, ready-to-lay chickens, all the kit you need to care for them, a stylish eglu, plus a mini-course on chicken husbandry.

August

Easy
Go organic with this quick guide to what you should be buying: chicken, pork and bacon (to avoid factory farming); lettuce, spinach, apples, pears, berries, melons, bananas and oranges and grains such as oats (non-organic are heavily sprayed); root veg like potatoes and carrots (to avoid high levels of pesticides); and dairy (see March's suggestion). Avoid imported organic food as the air miles outweigh the benefits of going organic.

Intermediate
Upgrade your holiday reading: try the seminal French Provincial Cooking (£8.99, Penguin; Olive offer £7.99) by Elizabeth David, which introduced the British to the joys of olive oil. Also try Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything (£5.99, Headline; Olive offer £5.50) and Much Depends on Dinner (only available secondhand on amazon. co.uk) by Margaret Visser, an awardwinning food writer.

Hard
Love coffee? Learn to make espresso like a professional barista at the London School of Coffee in Kingston upon Thames (£158.62 for one day; 020 8439 7981; www.londonschoolofcoffee.com). You'll be working with cafe-style machines but the skills you pick up are easily transferrable to domestic espresso makers.

September

Easy
Ensure your meat is always cooked the way you want it in French restaurants by learning these terms.

Intermediate
Finally figure out what shape pasta goes with which type of sauce by reading Valentina Harris's What Pasta, Which Sauce? (out-of-print but available on amazon.co.uk).Alternatively, learn from her direct at her Pasta and Six Sauces course (£65) held at London's Caldesi cook school (0207 487 0750/9; www.caffecaldesi.com).Alternatively, learn from her direct at her Pasta and Six Sauces course (£65) held at London's Caldesi cook school (0207 487 0750/9; www.caffecaldesi.com).

Hard
Learn how to order oysters properly (the season starts 1 September). You'll probably come across two main types. The 'native' has a rounder, smoother shell, with a delicately flavoured oyster and a steep price tag, while the 'Pacific' has a long shell and a large oyster with a sweet but salty flavour

October

Easy
Here at Olive we're all for a little individual interpretation with recipes but we draw the line at making long grain do for any kind of rice dish. Now's the time to equip yourself with a proper selection: Arborio or carnaroli for Italian risottos, basmati for curries and other spicy Indian dishes, Calasparra for Spanish paella. Save the long grain for the dishes in which it shines: salads, stews and casseroles.

Intermediate
Tune into the latest food sourcing trend, foraging in the wild, by learning how to recognise and pick wild mushrooms. Mrs Tee (01590 673354; www.wildmushrooms.co.uk) runs mushroom foraging days (£80 per person) in the New Forest. Some Carluccio's Cafes hold mushroom masterclasses (£20 per person; carluccios.com), or get Antonio Carluccio's bible, The Complete Mushroom Book (£14.99, Quadrille; Olive offer £13.99).

Hard
Love your nigiri, maki and temaki but not sure how to create them at home? Sign-up for a two-hour, one-on-one sushi making course at Yo! Sushi at Manchester's Trafford Centre (approx £40; yo. trafford@yosushi.co.uk). Or, try the three-hour courses at Mika in London (£50; 0207 243 8518; www.mikalondon.com). When you're trained, get the ingredients (except the fish) for a home-made sushi feast at www.mountfuji.co.uk.

November

Easy
Spend a mere £11.49 for a Private Preserve wine preserver from www.aroundwine.co.uk. It works on the same principle as the gas guns used by smart restaurants - just squirt it into the bottle and re-cork. The inert gas forces out any oxygen, radically cutting down on the oxidisation that would otherwise occur. So if you don't finish the bottle in one sitting (it can happen!), it'll keep for a few more days.

Intermediate
Learn how to make one of the original comfort foods on a bread-making course (from £125) at Panary, at Cann Mills, Devon (01722 341 447; www.panary.co.uk). If you fancy teaching yourself at home, check out The Handmade Loaf (£20, Mitchell Beazley; O offer £18), by rising star Dan Lepard.

Hard
Ready to be a hardcore meat freak? Sign up for Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Pig in a Day course (£225; events@rivercottage.net; www.rivercottage.net). Working with the carcass of a whole pig, you'll be shown how to butcher and process it to make your own hams, bacon and sausages. Hugh's The River Cottage Meat Book (£30, Hodder & Stoughton; Olive offer £27) tells you how to cook them.

December

Easy
Learn how to open a bottle of Champagne without turning the cork into a heat-seeking missile. Peel off the foil, then untwist the wire and remove. Hold the bottle at a 45˚ angle from your body (and any bystanders), then cover the cork with a teatowel and grip. Gently twist the bottle round and slightly down so that the neck eases smoothly away from the cork.

Intermediate
Start using this insider tip on getting the table you want on repeat visits to restaurants. If you like where you're seated the first time you dine somewhere, make a note of your table number - it should be printed on your receipt. Then just ask for that number when you make your next booking. Obvious, really, but only when you know how.

Hard
Don't be the one who's responsible for a badly carved turkey - sign up for the Carving for Christmas evening course (£60) at Divertimenti (www.divertimenti.co.uk; 020 7486 8020). Or invest in Sunday Roast: The Complete Guide to Cooking and Carving by Johnny Scott and Clarissa Dickson Wright (£14.99; Kyle Cathie; O offer £13.99) or see our guide on page 135.

Eat more, weight less!

If Christmas feasting has got the better of you, and you're exhausted at the idea of reading, let alone attempting to do any of our 12-month resolutions, may we suggest just one thing: eat smarter and lighter this year. Each of the following suggestions isn't a quick fix, but they all add up to being able to eat more without gaining any more weight. Brilliant.