What are you making for New Years Eve or Day??

I am concocting a chocolate trifle made with brownies. I'll probably also make an artichoke dip and maybe crushed Oreo and cream cheese balls dipped in white chocolate.

Gosh, I need to go on a diet. Soon!!!

The three of us (bride, me, and the pooch) are having a quiet evening at home, with no cooking. I'm planning to stop by Pastoral for good cheese, pate, and bread, then onto Petsmart for some special NYE treats. Planning to wash it down with Perrier Jouet Fleur de Champagne, 1999 and Qupe Bien Nacido Hillside Estate Syrah, 2003. Just water to go with the canine treats.

We're going to have our traditional New Year's Day meal of crab legs and garlic butter. Probably a nice cheese plate as well.

I picked up a few beautiful double lamb rib chops last night. I plan on marinating in lemon, oregano and oil and then searing and gently baking them. They'll be served with mashed parsnip potatoes from my winter CSA and some beautiful locally-grown red cippolini onions that I'm going to roast and lightly coat with good balsamic vinegar.

Before dinner we're going to snack on smoked salmon, dill, and crema on toast points.

I have a couple of bottles of inexpensive Spanish wines to go along with everything (a cava and a tempranillo).

Happy New Year to all!

Best,
Michael

(Mods: Should this be in Shopping and Cooking?)

The wife and I are going over to some friends for dinner. We are all cooking together so no one is stuck doing all of the work. I have made Moroccan Style Beef short ribs that will just need to be reheated. They have been braised with dried pears, dried figs, spices, prune juice and wine. They will be served with honey glazed butternut squash. The recipe is out of the Bon Appetit cookbook.

My wife was in charge of dessert and she made Peanut Butter Cheesecake that will have a fried banana topping, it's out of last months bon Appetit magazine.

Appetizers of seared scallops, bruschetta, garlic cheese bread and a flat bread with caramelized onions and blue cheese.

Should be a good meal.

Tonight: I still have to go pick up a couple of lobsters, as well as get to my meat market for some prime beef. Beyond that, a salad, and probably baked, or steamed red potatoes.

Tomorrow: Baked ham for an early dinner, sides TBD.

King crab legs, potatoes from the last Oak Park Farmer's market and too much garlic butter!

Salad, sourdough bread (from a starter brought from Ohio in a covered wagon in the 1800s), and soup of as-yet-indetermined nature (until I get a chance to shop, that is).

Braised boar ribs over my first try at homemade gnocchi (luckily we're only cooking for each other), steamed mussels and clams, and the best bottle of Champagne I can find in our storage room downstairs. Yum!

Pork tenderloin with roasted sweet corn puree and rosemary roasted potatoes, beet salad (adapted from Batali's beet bruschetta recipe) in Parmesan cups, and an apple pie.

All of this will be accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol.

Traditional cheese fondue. Maybe some nice pears for dessert.

toria wrote:crushed Oreo and cream cheese balls dipped in white chocolate.

I made the Oreo "truffles" for Christmas using the Candy Cane Joe Joes from Trader Joes, dipped them in dark chocolate and topped with crushed candy canes. They were a huge hit. Very rewarding for something so easy to make.

I'll be making a chilled cucumber soup, a garbage salad(red onion, bacon, corn, cucumbers, red pepper)and deciding between making a honey mustard, a ranch, or a vinaigrette, steaks(strips for the boys and filets for the ladies) with a pan sauce(red wine, shallots, bacon, herbs, and cream), some type of potato(the gf's department) and hopefully tapping into the champagne before midnight.....

I hope everyone has a great and safe New Year's!

For the fourth or fifth year in a row (it becomes a blur), we're hosting a New Year's Day open house offering football and chili. This year's vegetarian chili is coming from the Sept. 2004 Bon Appetit (vegetarian black bean chili.) We are returning to LTHer YourPalWill's delicious meat chili (recipe here.) Mr. X will whip up a batch of jambalaya using the America's Test Kitchen recipe. Add some beer and 30-40 people and we're set!

Because of tomorrow's craze in our house, we opted for the prix fixe dinner at Uncommon Ground on Devon. We enjoyed it a lot last New Year's Eve, so we're going back.

Happy New Year to all!

Just put brownies in the oven for dessert - using the recipe posted at
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydi ... rec-2.html
Unfortunately, I didn't read this commentary until AFTER I had put them in the oven. Oh well...
http://cake0rdeath.blogspot.com/2008/08 ... wnies.html

I'll also be making a pumpkin pie while the oven is hot, just using the can of Libby mix recipe

Dinner tonight is lobster (I may try the butter poached version someone posted in the lobster thread... ) wild rice pilaf, green beans, sugar snap peas sauteed with campari tomatoes.

Tomorrow night is a roasted chicken - either the Zuni or Keller version, brussels sprouts, a salad, leftover rice pilaf, leftover brownies and pie.

I'm picking up some stuff from Dirk's today. Looking to keep it simple but very good so we're going with some cocktail shrimp to nosh on, a dozen kumomotos, a couple of pounds of mussels and maybe some clams to steam up, accompanied by baguette. And to wash it all down, a bottle of Bollinger. That's about it! Maybe a salad too.

Happy New Year!

We are going to a small potluck and bringing some sides. I think our friend is picking up barbequed chicken and ribs for the main dish or something so these should fit in well.

-Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (hostess' request)
-Tomato pudding (husband's request)

I might make a Lemon Buttermilk Chess pie as well since I have ingredients left over from making it at Xmas and it's pretty easy.

leek wrote:Just put brownies in the oven for dessert - using the recipe posted at
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydi ... rec-2.html
Unfortunately, I didn't read this commentary until AFTER I had put them in the oven. Oh well...
http://cake0rdeath.blogspot.com/2008/08 ... wnies.html

The brownies turned out fine, no graininess. They might not be the platonic ideal of brownies, but I think they taste swell. Next time I would use a little less sugar. I also only had semi-sweet, not bittersweet chocolate, though some prefer the softer chocolate taste.

Sounds like yummy stuff. I'm glad to hear the Oreo balls were a huge hit. Mine will be dipped in white chocolate.

I've made the chocolate trifle. Baked a pan of brownies and tore them into chunks. Lined a glass trifle bowl with them and layered basically with a chocolate mousse and then whipped cream and another layer of the same. Its now sitting in the frig for at least eight hours. I'll top it with some garnishes of whipped cream to make it pretty.

Frankly, I am kind of getting sick of all the rich food and stuff. I'm beginning to have a taste for salads and vegetables....it could not come soon enough. My New Years resolution is guess what??? To lose some weight!!!

Going to a party with de-luxe deviled eggs
topped with a choice of red caviar or brunoise of honey ham...
Maybe I'll post a pic later after I have them assembled.
They are my go-to guilty pleasure.
Everyone says- "oh no" I can't eat eggs...
but they are always the first things to go..

I'm doing the appetizer.

Crispy sweatbreads & seared fois gras with a red wine & demi glace reduction.

Still working on the garnish.

irisarbor wrote:Going to a party with de-luxe deviled eggs
topped with a choice of red caviar or brunoise of honey ham...
Everyone says- "oh no" I can't eat eggs...

Not everyone. I'd be all over those.
I always forget about deviled eggs as an appetizer. This is a great reminder. Do post a picture and notes if you get a chance.

We usually have dinner at my mother's every year. For some reason it's always the same dinner which is home made spaghetti and a layer salad. Also, since she's from the south, there are always black eyed peas on the table the first day of the new year- to bring money.

I didn't realize you were asking for eve too -- Tomorrow's still soup and bread (looks like tortilla and ciabatta, respectively, maybe a creme brulee for dessert), tonight was

Salad with dates, bleu cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette
Sweet Potato Agnolotti with Sage Cream and Prosciutto (from French Laundry Cookbook)
Lamb t-bone chops from Costco, seared then oven-roasted with a garlic, kalamata, lemon zest bread crumb mixture atop.

I will be having grilled salmon and/or Cajun boiled shrimp. I am also cooking mustard greens, collard greens, sweet potatoes, baked potato casserole, blackeyed peas, and homemade bread. If the weather remains sunny and around 65, I will try making 2 batches of peanut brittle. There will be 8 of us and 2 puggies. They like shrimp, but mostly chicken, so I will also have to boil some chicken for them. Guess you can tell by now where I am from.

A very good New Years Eve dinner, Lobsters from Supreme Lobster(steamed in beer, garlic cloves, salt & lemon), 5 oz filets from Polancics, baked potatoes, and salad.

Lobsters pre steam:


Into the steamer:


Done, ready for splitting

Hi,

I made a stack of buckwheat blinis last night. I butter both sides of the blini, the flip side in the pan while the 2nd side browned, who was buttered once on the stack. When they were done, I put them in a preheated cooler for a trip to my Mother. Each blini was filled with salmon roe or lox trimmings (very convenient and economical for this treatment), then a dollop of room temperature sour cream and rolled.

A bottle of Russian Champagne was served with these blinis. We couldn't remember how this bottle was acquired, but it was practically devoid of bubbles. The fermentation collapse also made it almost impossible to open the bottle. After sometime, I still got the bottle to open. The champagne did not verge on vinegar. It tasted like a so-so wine. We had a glass each with the balance ending up in a pot sometime soon.

I brought along a black-eye pea salad with ham in it, but it was rejected because everyone was full. However not too full, because date-nut fruitcake was not declined and seconds requested.

Mom called this morning to report how happy she was with her party.

Regards,

The butter poached lobster was good, but not necessarily worth the work. Cooking and dismembering the lobsters freaked me out (they still move when dead!!) and I don't think I'll do it again.

I made a citrus cream sauce to go with it, and didn't salt it enough. Plus it just didn't taste citrusy enough. Next time I think I need to put the zest in too and steep that for a while. I saved it, and will probably use it for the base of the lobster bisque I'll be making with the shells and body meat.

I'm frying a couple thick slices of my country ham, and will make Red-Eye gravy to put on the stone-ground grits cooked with cheddar cheese and porcini mushrooms. Also making James Beard's baking powder biscuits. There will be a lot of butter consumed today.

We are down in Houston with G Wiv and Mrs. Wiviott staying with the other Blooms. Everyone loves to cook and we celebrated the end of this miserable year with a blowout meal.

We wanted to eat a light lunch so we boiled some lobsters and served them with a salad, enjoyed of course with some nice champagne.

The main event began later that night with an assortment of tapas presented by Gary, including pretzel toasts with salmon and creme fraiche, swedish rye crackers with serrano ham and butter, and crostini with white anchovies and pickled south african peppadew peppers. His most inspiring and creative hors d'oeuvre however were cocktail wieners wrapped in dough and baked. Delicious!!!!!!

I made foie gras with poached apples, in honor of the lifting of the Chicago ban.

MsRev made a salad with watermelon, feta, arugula, and a bunch of other delectable items.

Our host John, grilled beef tenderloin and it was accompanied by MsWiv's roasted veggies and my smashed potatoes.

Dessert was Jan's terrific Meyer lemon semifreddo, made with lemons fresh picked from her tree.

We hope this great meal is a harbinger of a much better year to come.