All’s well that ends well. After spending over an hour trying to get to my friend’s parents place across town for lunch and being thwarted by NYC transit even hours after the parade was done, I called an audible and went straight to my main stop: my friends who were hosting another family and me for the afternoon/evening. Fortified immediately with a great cup of coffee and a snack to tide me over till we puttered about over apps and then the main meal.
Everything went mostly smoothly and was mostly delicious.
The puff pastry bites (reworked from the dip I didn’t love) were the surprise hit of the app session, and two entire batches were decimated (one batch was for the ill-fated skipped stop).
The mushroom and leek bread pudding and the mac and cheese both worked even better than I had hoped (the pasta in the mac was soaked but uncooked, and I had swapped the bread cubes in the bread pudding for stuffing cubes) and baked up gorgeous. The small sticky toffee pudding would have been better baked fresh, but despite everyone else being a pie eater, there were only two small pieces left (and I only tried half a piece to taste it).
The wines I transported turned out to be very good (the Haut Brion that was expected to be excellent, but was just past prime) and fantastic (the Haut Medoc we had no expectations for, but was a surprise gem), plus a lovely Saint-Emilion and an Oregon Pinot chosen to round out the selection, and we ended with the Sauternes I requested (to my host’s delight – I love it but usually demur on opening a bottle because we feel compelled to finish the whole thing between two of us 
, but there were enough people last night to distribute the damage 
).
A wonderful afternoon/evening with great company, an abundance of delicious food, and festive drinks to accompany it all!
The food:
Kenai / jalapeno cheddar dip puff pastry spirals
Homemade gravlax with lemon spread
Homemade cheese dip with cranberry jalapeno salsa
Tuna spuma / mousse with breadsticks
Butternut squash soup
Dinner
Duck breast (with bourbon cream gravy and spiced apricot chutney)
Turkey with herb butter
Mac & cheese
Mushroom & Leek Bread Pudding / Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Green beans and bacon
Roasted brussels sprouts with labne and pickled onions
Sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce
Apple pie
Pecan pie
Cookies
