New Year's Eve Menu Ideas For A Crowd At Home?

Greetings Forumites,
I am planning a dinner for New Year's Eve for about 12 people and would love your collective wisdom. I tend toward make-ahead options like tagines, braises, roasts, etc, and our crowd eats chicken and fish but not red meat or pork. For example, last year I made a roast side of salmon with a brown sugar and Indian spice glaze that was delicious and complexly flavored, but super easy to actually get on the table. Any and all suggestions quite appreciated!

Cioppino? The epicurious recipe has a make-ahead option, you add the seafood at the last minute and serve.

I work for a recipe website and JUST put together a list of recipes for a New Year's Eve gathering in your home.

Personally, I think your salmon from last year sounds fabulous. Maybe this year consider a chicken in champagne tomato sauce dish?

Here is my menu planner: http://www.recipe4living.com/Common/Art ... x?id=65370

I used to do a yearly formal-ish New Year's dinner and we started off with a creamy crab soup, and after serving the bowls to the table, we poured a little dolop of Sherry in each.

A delicious soup a nice little touch.

TC

What are forumites making for dessert this NYE? Is it too 1980's to do chocolate grand mariner mousse?

I suspect that the 1980's was the heydays for many of us, so I say go for it. (Though I personally am not a big fan of orange and chocolate.)

For the last 20-odd years, we've gotten together with 3 other couples for appetizers and a sit-down surf-and-turf dinner consisting of grilled beef tenderloin and then my shrimp scampi Gambino-style from 'The Mafia Cookbook', which actually has some solid recipes, one of them here:

http://ofbooksandwomen.blogspot.com/2009/12/shrimp-scampi-gambino-style.html

It works best with about 25-30 ct. shrimp (bought at Heinen's frozen but peeled & deveined), laid out like little soldiers on a baking pan, and I spoon the mixture on top. Unlike the recipe, I bake them for about 15 min, then high broil until browned. They're never disappointed, mostly because there's enough butter in there to seize up a horse.