What are you serving for New Year's Eve?

[DaisyM]

Happy Healthy New Year to Everyone!

[docfood]

We stayed home tonight and I made a shrimp, crawfish and oyster gumbo to warm up from the -8 degree temps here in Minnesota. Time to stay home and remember life in NOLA.

[LindaWhit]

On my own tonight - so a simple pan-browned pork chop with mustard champagne cream sauce, rice pilaf, and sauteed Swiss chard with caramelized onions. Some Spanish cava will be the stand-in for champagne. I don't expect to stay up until midnight.

[linguafood]

That's a mighty tasty sounding meal, LW. Happy New Year!

[LindaWhit]

We'll see how it comes out, lingua. If it doesn't? There's always the rest of the cava. ;-)

And a very Happy New Year to you and yours as well!

[Beach Chick]

King Crab Legs
Ahi Poke
Champagne and lots of it..

Happy New Year's

[Njchicaa]

Cheese fondue served with breadsticks and baguette slices. And prosecco. Simple and delicious.

[Gio]

Like many others we are staying in tonight... Our very simple dinner will be antipasto platter with various salame and cheeses, giardiniera, olives, mesclun. Plus garlic shrimp with crostini, and glasses of prosecco to wash it all down...

In the words of Phyllis Mcginley:

"Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy,
Happy New Year, everybody."

[millygirl]

We're hunkering down tonight also. Going for brunch with friends today and picked up some goodies to have tonight - just me, Mr. Millygirl and our pup.

Some lovely cheeses, one in particular I am really looking forward to trying - is a goat - Occitan Lait Cbu - from France. and looks so pretty with a cross design in the ash top.

Shrimp tempura and tuna tartare for later on.....

All that and Downtown Abbey or Hotel Marigold or both :)

Happy New Year everyone!!!

[fabia]

Have invited another couple to ring in the New Year's at home with us. We'll start with some simple nibbles before dinner.
Dinner will start with
-Crab cakes with remoulade and an arugula salad with fennel, oranges and a sherry vinaigrette
Main is:
-Bon Appetit's deconstructed Beef Wellington
-potatoes (haven't decided - could do a mashed potato and celeriac),
-green beans with almonds (would love Cocoa Chanel's recipe for frenched green beans with the maple butter)
-Dessert - Olaf Merten's "Sun, Moon, Stars" - a white chocolate mousse coated with choc. crumbs, on a raspberry and mango coulis to reflect the sun and decorated (hopefully) with dark and white chocolate cutouts of the moon and stars

[LindaWhit]

What a lovely dinner, fabia!

[CocoaChanel]

Hi Fabia,

Mr. Vuitton cooks them up. No recipe, he just concots it up every time.

Basically, a very quick boil of the beans, just to soften them up a bit.

Pour some maple syrup into a fry pan, melt some butter in the pan as well. When it has come to a bit of a boil/thickened a little bit - but still pretty "liquid-y", add in the beans, stir them around to coat, add in fresh ground pepper to taste, add some lemon zest, and stir in slivered almonds. Serve. Enjoy :)

[bunnylicious]

It will be just me and hubby and baby (her first nye!). We were going to go out of town but had to cancel. So we will be staying home . I just got Jerusalem by ottolenghi and tamimi and will be making:
Spinach, date and almond salad
Eggs with lamb
Clementine cake.
The cake is actually cooling now and smells fantastic!

[pikawicca]

That salad is killer.

[pikawicca]

Don't think I've stayed up till midnight for the last 20 years.

[dmjordan]

We're staying in and having steak tartare.

[suburban_mom]

We are heading to our next door neighbor's house for their annual NYE party. I'm brining smoked salmon mousse and crackers. She usually makes pernil, black beans, rice and roasted salmon. Other guests contribute appetizers and desserts.

[BarbaraC28]

Southwestern egg rolls, pizza rolls, T bones ,baked potatoes,tossed salad with balsamic or ranch. Chocolate mousse or Carrot cake because it is also my daughters 16 th birthday.

[MAH]

It will just be hubby, the toddler and me staying in for NYE. I'm thinking of a couple nibbles: smoked trout or salmon dip with pita chips, blue cheese crackers w/fig jam. The little one has requested homemade pizza topped with prosciutto (which will be made with Trader Joe's wheat pizza dough). For the grownups, I'm thinking something like crawfish etoufee or jambalaya themed risotto, because either would delight my hubby. Might do lobster tails stuffed with a spicy crab stuffing... Our main is still very much up in the air. a selection of champagne and wines will be on hand. For dessert we have delicious chocolate cake that is sinfully rich.

[MAH]

I decided to scrap the real dinner plan and just do a bunch of appetizers. smoked trout dip w/pita chips, blue cheese crackers w/fig jam; skewered half rounds of genoa salami rolled around a sliver of pecorino and half olive; lamb meatballs with crumbled feta and ras el hanout; andouille in puff pastry; puff pastry pinwheelse with smoked trout spread (to use up the extra pastry).

We did make the prosciutto pizza for the little one and she helped with the other apps. a fun evening project for her. We ate round one (some of the apps before her bedtime) and then have the second round for pre-midnight nibbles.

Happy new year!

[steve h.]

A modest green salad with smoked salmon to whet the appetite. Later there will be Osetra caviar, lightly toasted blinis and creme fraiche. Laurent-Perrier to wash everything down. We will discuss my many shortcomings and hit the rack before the ball drops - at least that's the plan.

Happy New Year everyone.

[llorberb]

I'm attempting Braised Short Ribs from the French Laundry Cookbook

[iluvcookies]

I picked up a little smoked salmon and an assortment of coldcuts/sausage/cheese--DH and I will be having an antipasto/appetizing graze-fest throughout the day.

[cheesecake17]

Just me, the babe, and hubs tomorrow night for dinner.
Invited to friends for snacks and drinks late, so dinner will be home.

Planning on vegetable soup. (Odds and ends - carrots, celery, onion, butternut, parsnip, turnip)
Spinach and cheese manicotti in tomato sauc r
Salad - arugula and avocado

[JoanN]

After too many parties I wish I had been able to leave earlier and to forget even more quickly, I began a tradition of staying home alone with a steamed lobster and a bottle of champagne. Last year I decided to try Jasper White’s Baked Stuffed Lobster with Crabmeat and a variation on the tradition was begun. Since I have every expectation of being sound asleep before 11:00 p.m., I’ll wish you all a happy and healthy new year now.

[linguafood]

That sounds like a lovely and mighty tasty tradition! A happy new year to you, too!

[linguafood]

After having hosted the last 3 MASSIVE NY'E bashes with up to 80 guests, we've decided to take a break from all that this year. Many of our friends are out of town, so we're spending the evening with friend of ours who has his own little tradition of hosting a "pasta parade" party. Carb-o-freakin'-rama -- but hey, it's the last day of the year '-)

These are the paste he will be serving:

- cavatapi with chorizo and black beans
- perciatelli with meat sauce and fontina
- rigattoni with sirloin and and gorgonzola
- linguine with chicken in peanut sauce
- cheese tortellini with pesto and pine nuts
- bowties with sun-dried tomatoes and scallion cream

My man is making a wild mushroom lasagna courtesy of a smittenktichen adaptation of an Ina Garten recipe, and I will make 'my' Caesar salad (sans croutons, b/c really.... who needs those?). I'm also bringing over TJ's mushroom turnovers for apps.

Other folks are bringing more apps, salads, and dessert.

Should be fun, and WAY less work than the previous 3 years.

[jmcarthur8]

Those pastas all sound wonderful!

[LindaWhit]

I love the carb-o-rama blast at the end of the year, lingua! And hosting 80 people? Yeah, this will be SO much easier for you and the Mr!

[CocoaChanel]

Fondue sounds fun!!

We are grazing on a cheese and fruit platter
- mimolette
- 10 yr old cheddar
- an ashy rind goat cheese
- compte
- various crackers
- fig jam, grapes, dates, walnuts, dried cherrues, acacia honey

For dinner proper:
- grilled tenderloins (which means Mr. Vuitton will have to shovel the 8 inches of snow off the deck to get to the BBQ!)
- roast fingerling potatoes
- french green beans in a maple butter coating and slivered almonds
- a green salad of some sort with a vinegraitte dressing of some sort

No dessert

Bottle of 1997 Pahlmeyer

mmmm :)

[Gail]

Cocktails with Le Roule cheese and crackers.

Fresh dungeness crab Louies followed by New England clam chowder with hot sourdough bread and butter.

My rendition of crazy coffee (brandy, Kahlua, coffee, cream) and cookies.

[barberinibee]

.

[Bacardi1]

It's just hubby & I, & we'll be enjoying the same "grazing menu" we've been enjoying for decades now.

This year's offerings will include American Hackleback, Alaskan Salmon, & French Trout caviar (& yes, I know that those are really considered "roes" & not true caviar, but what the heck - it's New Year's - lol!), whipped cream cheese, crackers, smoked salmon, Lobster Rangoons, baked clams, turkey "Pigs in Blankets", a cheeseboard, lentil soup, & a few other things I'll pick up tomorrow, plus a variety of Proseccos & Cavas in the fridge.

[LindaWhit]

Ummm.....I'm sure a third person won't be noticed, will I? ;-)

[Bacardi1]

Not in the least! Especially since we never finish everything off & end up having the leftovers as appetizers before the big New Year's Day French Cassoulet.

[jmcarthur8]

We are taking a spicy seafood gumbo/soup with us to our friend's house, along with a mixed green salad from our home garden. The gumbo recipe is from an old Bon Appetit Restaurant Recipes cookbook, and originates from Commander's Palace in NO.

Our friend's hubby has many food allergies, so I made some gluten free blond brownies with coconut and pecans for him (and the rest of us). For those who don't have dietary issues, I made a small Red Velvet cake with boiled frosting for my birthday at midnight NYE.

DH is making up a batch of buttermilk-pineapple sherbet to cool off the palate after the spicy gumbo.

[weezieduzzit]

Fondue!

Our neighbors received an electric fondue pot in a Christmas gift exchange and didn't think they'd use it but knew we would so they gave it to us... just in time for New Years Eve!

It'll be a traditional cheese fondue with tiny potatoes, bread, artichoke crowns, andouille, asparagus tips, hearts of palm, shrimp, rare tenderloin, granny smith apples, asian pears and cornichons.

[Emme]

the electric fondue pot i bought on a severely extended business trip this year was the best 30 bucks i've spent on a kitchen piece in a while... it worked for much more than just fondue ;-) enjoy! yum!

[foodieX2]

Maybe I will get some inspiration from this thread! We were supposed to dine at one our favorite spots (Craigie on Main in Boston) but our babysitter has bailed and at this late date our chances of finding another is pretty much non existent.

Right now the plan is go for some early bowling and then come home for game night. Most likely I make some pizza dough and we will do "make your own" pizza with sparkling cider for the boy and the real stuff for us.

[Chazz27]

Very simple. Pork chops, cole slaw, black eyed peas and cornbread. Can't wait either. I'm not superstitious but this is a favorite meal!

[LindaWhit]

foodie, I heard the local Boston-area going rate for babysitters tonight was $30/hour. I think it's probably good you're staying in! :-D

[foodieX2]

Its crazy! Our regular sitter had agreed at her regular rate but then ran into issues with her family. No hard feeling, total legit, but ARGH! We had one option to sitter share but it meant we had provide transportation there and back and it was still $20 an hour! Add to that Craigie prices? Ouch!

Happy New Year Linda!

[LindaWhit]

That's what I was thinking - the 3-4 hours to the babysitter, and then the price of dinner (which would absolutely be worth it at Craigie...but still!).

I should have hired myself out tonight for babysitting. :-)

[foodieX2]

I saw you are alone tonight. You could probably double the going rate!