Happy New Year everyone! Mrs. P made a delicious surf n turf with blue cheese topped filet mignon and broiled lobster tail, with a side of delicata squash topped with hot honey. We started with prosciutto and jamon wrapped around Humboldt fog cheese, toasted slivered almonds, and fig jam. We also had blue cheese stuffed spicy peppadew peppers. For dessert we enjoyed Caroline’s decadent caramel came. It all went great with an excellent Chateauneuf Du Pape. We also enjoyed our usual espresso martini (not pictured) with the appetizers.
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Squeaking in under the 2024 deadline with the annual monster mac-and-cheese.
Here incorporating a pound of dried pasta, a pound of WSU Cougar Gold white cheddar cheese, a half-pound of Velveeta, and a few ounces of Pecorino Romano. With 6 cups of whole milk, a stick of butter, a half cup of flour, tabasco (secret ingredient), and some seasonings, total weight is 7 lbs – we’ll be eating it for a week.
Served tonight with Uli’s brats and salad greens in vinaigrette. Stand-by for leftover photos, and bring on the New Year. Congratulations to us all!
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My sentiments exactly!
Peace & warmth through the new year!
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Appetizer of Red Cat cheese from local Birchrun hills farm with various radishes. Intended to make Creamy Cider Braised Chicken and Leeks from the Dec/Jan Bon Appétti but work interfered. So fried rice with collards and salmon because that’s what I had!
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Thanks… but most of my meals consist of looking for items on sale or clearance, then trying to make something out of them. The whole time hoping that Sunshine likes whatever concoction comes out of those sale/clearance items.
Oddly, the only thing on sale this upcoming week is potatoes and cheese. So there will be a shredded potato and cheese casserole at some point. I’ll dig the freezer and see if I can put some type of protein in it (chicken or pork or something).
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Marinated vegetable salad (cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and black olives im an evoo, lemon juice, garlic and oregano vinaigrette), bagel, ricotta and smoked salmon. Hot chocolate and tiramisu for dessert. Happy New Ye9er everyone!
Dinner was paired with a Fever Tree elderflower tonic recommended on this thread earlier this month or last and it’s probably the best non alcoholic drink I’ve ever had.
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So, I’m posting the next month’s thread a bit early, but I doubt I’ll make it to midnight. (Although fireworks have already started in my immediate area, so I also doubt there will be much sleep over the next 2 hours or so!.)
The January 2025 thread is here.
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Cioppino? That’s supposed to be made from odds and ends, and so it was. Shrimp, bay scallops, calamari, salmon, halibut, potato, in a fish stock and tomato broth. I used the TJ’s fire-roasted tomato with diced chilies. The fish stock was long-frozen salmon and shrimp tails I’d saved up.
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NYE dinner chez nous. We’d planned this dinner for a couple months now - saw a vid of a Brit chef making Pommes Boulangère and immediately told the BF he had to make them. Couple days process - made his own beef stock yesterday (first time), then worked on the rest of the dish today - caramelizing onions, mandolining the potatoes, then layering onions, potatoes, stock, “clarified” butter (just microwaved in this case - Brit dude said it wouldn’t matter in the end - and it didn’t), and fresh thyme, making a cartouche (parchment paper cover to allow steam to get through, then placing a plate on top, a weight, and into the oven she went. Pulled out several times to baste further with stock and beurre…
Honestly, I kinda thought it might turn out too oily and not seasoned enough but i was wrong on both counts. It was a delight! Sweet/savory, the potatoes were still intact but ultra tender and creamy. A really great, rustic, yet special occasion dish.
My jobs were sous-viding the teensiest beef tenderloin ever (1/2 lb), making sauteed zuke ribbons with parm, and roasted red pepper anchovy & garlic boats. Happy to say the beef turned out just about as tender as the potatoes (sous vided at 135 for about 1 hr. 10 min., then seared)! Our only small complaint was it wasn’t as juicy as we’d have liked (being a tenderloin) - needed a jus, but that was easily remedied with some of the stock we heated and seasoned.
I found a wine we’d had for the first time (and carted across Europe to bring home when we lived there) in Provence in 2005 - Mas de Gourgonnier. And while this wasn’t the same as that first one (non-vintage, non-reserve), it made a lovely pre-dinner toast. With dinner we had a really wonderful Zin - Ridge Three Valleys Sonoma County.
And i made dessert - a rarity for me: a fudgy chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. Plenty leftover to take to my sister’s this weekend.
Gearing up to having a few glasses of bubbly in-house and then maybe a cocktail or two at our local to ring in the NY.
happy new year, HO’s!!!
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Shrimp & mussel chowder. I sauteed leek, fennel, garlic & carrot seasoned with Old Bay, added a splash of wine to deglaze, then added potatoes, chicken broth and a shrimp bullion cube. When the potatoes were done I added milk, the shrimp and mussels. Before serving I added cream and a pat of butter, smoked paprika and fennel fronds. Toasted garlic baguette and Holiday French 75. There will be prosecco at midnight. Wishing everyone a safe & Happy New Year.
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And lotsa ‘holiday sauce’! Yum!
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I had the sparkling lemon last night. Tasty!
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Good to hear! Those Fever Tree tonic waters are available in every grocery store everywhere where I live and I’ve always wondered if they were any good. After seeing it recommended here and trying it myself, I’m hooked.
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I enjoy Fever Tree elderflower a lot as a replacement for a gin and tonic. My grocery store has it on special sometimes and I hope yours might too.
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NYE dinner was smoked salmon spread with a glass of bubbles (not pictured), dayboat scallop succotash with a frizzle of speck on top, and the last slices of a purchased Christmas chocolate and mocha cake.
May we all have happiness, health, kindness, and full plates to sustain us in 2025!
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This is precisely why I like it so much. I gave up drinking over the summer and I miss the taste of gin and tonic so that tonic scratches that itch. Interestingly I don’t miss wine at all.
The Fever Tree tonics go on sale often - the one I had last night was on sale recently.
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Now that looks good!
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Those look great!
Just made those at Christmas! (for the dietary restriction Folks).
I always use a strachy Potato, since that is how I was taught to and because I do not like the sweetness that Yukons and others give to the dish. I also use Leeks rather than Caramelized Onions for the same reason.
Chicken Stock also works well
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interesting about the leeks! i actually bought sweet onions for this, because i do like the sweetness. and we used russets.
and that’s good to know about the chicken stock because we always have homemade chick stock on hand!
