What's For Dinner #89 - the Dawn of a New Year Edition - January 2023

How does 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months goes by so quickly? Weren’t we just extolling the newly green grass and new buds on the trees, tossing off the heavy winter coats to enjoy the warm sunshine, and fresh new vegetables in the markets? Sure seems like it.

But we’re in the middle of the darkness of winter, with countrywide storms affecting a lot of us. (Although there’s lots of sunshine in New England on the first day of the new year!) Hopefully people are still able to enjoy cozying up to warm fireplaces, and are enjoying all of the warming, homey, comfort foods that you desire.

Depending on where you are, we’ve got 3-4 more months before the green grass and buds start showing up on the trees again, so what good food are you all cooking as we start afresh in a New Year?

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We partied with our friends yesterday from 3:30-8:00 p.m. There was lots of champers:

And this for the kids:

I brought the latter three bottles and TJ’s potato pancakes with whitefish roe and sour cream, ahi tuna tartare with avocado, sesame rice crackers, and Sriracha mayo sauce, baked Brie with bread, and pistachio Pannetone. Forgot the olive and artichoke tray again.

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We played our annual First Night show at one of the churches early evening to a packed house :slight_smile: - perfect time for me to bungle a song I’ve been doing for 30 years :crazy_face:

Friends of ours hosted a black tie soirée with tons o’champagne & prosecco and various charcuterie & cheeses. We brought a big ole bowl of homemade eggnog. My feet are killing me today - thx, stupid heels!

As for WFD tonight, looks like we’ll be starting in on our first tray of Talluto’s ricotta ravs. I’ll probably make amatriciana to go with.

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Last night was “Horsey Dervies” as my coworker calls them. Here are tonight’s hors d’oeuvres: the ubiquitous Pigs in Blankets (wouldn’t be NYE without them), BFs pasta chips and coconut shrimp (both in air fryer), mom’s spinach and Feta pinwheels, and my fried green beans with garlic aioli.

To drink: Usually ring in the new year with a Martini but the last few years have been shit, so here’s a Manhattan.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

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I think you have some kind of olive curse!

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First dinner of the new year was a freezer find from the end of last February: slow cooked cicerchia beans (followed the directions on the back of the Rancho Gordo bag) with wine braised hot Italian sausage added at the end and spinach. Had over orecchiette with a little pecorino and parsley. The beans are currently out of stock at Rancho Gordo, but I am probably going to get some more when they come back in. Really good!

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Happy new year! Pork chops and sauerkraut as one does, plus homemade applesauce and roasted Brussels sprouts.

Not shown: dessert of gingerbread cake with wildflower honey ice cream.

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Shiitake-Leek Galette with creme fraiche, thyme and Dijon mustard in a whole wheat dough. Served with a simple red cabbage salad with roasted pecans and a walnut oil/sherry vinaigrette



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Tonight was my own version of ramen. Two cups of chicken stock, yellow and orange peppers, snow peas and tofu stirfried in sesame oil and garlic, ginger and soy sauce added for seasoning. Noodles are included of course :wink: Next ime I shall have to remember to use veggie stock to make a vegetarian meal.

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Or just a bad memory when rushing!

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I had a couple slices of pizza I heated up for a playdate, and some leftover tuna tartare with rice crackers. Vegetables tomorrow.

ETA: Hosting relatives is so tiring. Even the good ones.

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A beige-ish meal.

Pork loin roast, with a mix of freshly minced rosemary and parsley with dried thyme, minced garlic, s/p, and olive oil all blended together and slathered all over the roast. Roasted at 425° for 20 minutes, then turned heat down to 350, glazed multiple times with some Cider Hill Farms’ apple cider jam, and finished cooking to 135° internal temp. Pulled and covered with foil for 15 minutes before slicing.

Served with Yukon Gold potatoes seasoned with olive oil, s/p, paprika, and dried thyme and roasted in the convection oven until crispy. Boiled carrots, tossed with s/p, buttere and ground ginger. Homemade applesauce to get the apples off my counter.

Wine. And some Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints for dessert.

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That looks really good

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Aushak (Afghan leek dumplings) with warm meat sauce and cool yogurt garlic sauce. A little too much garlic - no vampires will be bothering me any time soon! I really love these but rarely see the fresh wonton wrappers they require around here.

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That looks sooooo good!!!

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Talluto’s ricotta ravioli with Priano vodka sauce turned amatriciana: sautéed the last of the center cut Aldi bacon, 2 half onions I had lying around (one red, one yellow), added some RPF, splash o’red, a lil tomato paste, the vodka sauce, boom. Delicious, and very filling. We ate the entire box of 12 ravioli :scream: :pig_nose: :pig_nose: :pig_nose:

The salad on the side (Aldi gem lettuce, English cuke, radish, avo, blue cheese with mustard vinaigrette) probably eliminated any calories from the pasta, right? Right??? :rofl:

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I made a Korean radish soup. It’s supposed to involve radish, garlic, fish sauce, salt and beef. I omitted the beef. And then I thought, you know what would improve this? Egg! And spinach! And shrimp! And I was right.

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Was hoping to ring in the new year with a special meal, but I am still COVID positive after ELEVEN DAYS of illness (nine for DH). Also, both of us have experienced a diminished sense of taste over the last three or four days (weird that it took so long to hit us, but there you have it), so it didn’t make sense to go to a lot of effort. We had a big antipasto-ish salad with lots of Caesar dressing and the champagne we were too tired to drink last night. Tomorrow is DH’s birthday so we’ll see what he feels like in the morning, but right now he’s not interested in any of his usual faves.

On the bright side, both of us have lost 5+ lbs instead of gaining them over the holidays. Silver lining, I guess!

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Singapore noodles.
Screen Shot 2023-01-01 at 6.08.44 PM

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Greek-style lentils / fakes,
Braciole, and stuffed mushrooms for NYD dinner.



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