New Year's Eve Ideas

With Christmas just behind us, it's time to start thinking about New Year's Eve, although that isn't a big deal in this house. For inspiration, here are a few guides to help you out:  New Year's Eve Recipes for a Crowd from Food and Wine magazine, Most Elegant, Festive New Year's Party. Ever. from Epicurious, and at Cooking Light, when you click on New Year's, it brings you to Holiday Open House Menu.

New Year's Eve Ideas

New Year's Eve isn't a crazy time in this house, but if you are looking for some special ideas, Bon Appetit has it covered with New Years Eve, including the scary-sounding How to Drink (and Eat) Like a Russian.

New Year's Eve Menu Ideas

New Year's Eve isn't a big deal in this house (although I'm sure the lovely lobster tails on sale at Whole Foods for $6 will be involved), but if you are looking for inspiration for a celebration, here are a few guides to help you out:  New Year's Eve Party Ideas from Epicurious, New Year's Eve Recipes from Food and Wine magazine, and Sweets and Sparkling Cocktails for New Year's Eve from Saveur.

Weekday Dinner Ideas, Including New Year's

With the holiday, this is no ordinary weekday, but time still remains awfully tight.  Tomorrow night being New Year's Eve, we'll do a special dish I've been wanting to try from the November issue of Cooking Light, creamy lobster pappardelle.  Whole Foods has beautiful lobster tails from Maine on sale for $6 each right now, which is my motivation for the dish.

We need some lucky food for New Year's Day, and our usual is Mark Bittman's rather healthy spin on hoppin' John, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens, from the New York Times.  I take his suggestion to increase the meat and greens to make it a stew, and usually make my own corn bread to go one the side (although the corn bread you'll find at Whole Foods is pretty darned good too, in a pinch).

We'll simplify for Wednesday, just sauteed pork chops ($2.99 a pound at Sprouts through that day), with microwaved russets and some big green veggie on the side.

Then we'll reprise the soup that really is a stew for Thursday, making life even easier.  It will be a week of salads, too, since they'll be on the side for everything but Wednesday.  Last time I looked, organic spring mix was still a steal at Sprouts at $3.99 a pound.

Have a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve, and beware the possibility of snow and wackos out on the road.

Lucky Foods For The New Year

Everybody could use a boost to get the New Year off to a good start, and there are traditions around the world about foods that can in theory help.  Here's a link to my prior post about great articles from Saveur and Bon Appetit, and you can add to that this one from Whole Foods, much briefer but just out.  You'll see common themes among them, and I don't swear allegiance to the prosperity aspect of the luck, since I got laid off since eating these "lucky foods" a few years ago, but I believe there were other aspects in that layoff that indeed proved to be fortunate.  I'll probably stick with the black-eyed pea tradition.

New Year's Eve Wishes

Best wishes for a happy and safe New Year's Eve here in Boulder. And batten down anything outside that could possibly move, with the winds we're expecting today. If you need to do any last minute Whole Foods shopping, you might consider the Baseline, Ideal, or Superior stores. I was at Pearl Street yesterday, where it was already getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot, with people madly angling for spaces, and I doubt it will be any better today. I'm all set for tonight's linguine with crab, lemon, chile and mint and think I made the right decision buying prepared crabmeat for it. Although Whole Foods has Alaskan king crabs on sale for $16.99 a pound this weekend, I opted to pay a whopping $34.99 a pound for Dungeness crabmeat that's ready for the skillet, and still think that was a smart move. The whole crabs are super handsome, but by the time I finished cooking and shelling them, I'd probably waste enough for the price to equal the prepared stuff, not to mention all the time that would go into the process. So I've given myself the gift of time for New Year's Eve! Happy, happy.

Weekend Dinner Ideas

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day make for a pretty big weekend of dinner plans. But before we get to the holiday stuff, the really big shrimp that Sprouts has for $6.99 a pound are making me think of something fun and a little festive for tonight, smoky shrimp and grits from Food and Wine magazine. Although the recipe calls for medium shrimp, we'll make it special with those gigantic ones at Sprouts.

Moving on to New Year's Eve tomorrow, there are many temptations out there. Both Sprouts and Sunflower are pushing surf 'n turf, with lobster tail sales and a multitude of steak sales. Then there's the Alaskan golden king crab sale at Whole Foods, too. I've decided to bypass all that to try a new recipe in the January issue of Bon Appetit, linguine with crab, lemon, chile, and mint. Of course I could cook and shell those crabs on sale at Whole Foods myself, but I just don't think it's worth the effort when you can spend a little more to have it already done for you with prepared crab meat (provided it's very good quality). To start the evening off, I'm thinking about smoked salmon rolls with ricotta and chives. Together, that's plenty of effort for an evening that will also include champagne.

We have a tradition of eating something "lucky" on New Year's Day, and in this house, that's Mark Bittman's spin on Hoppin' John, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens from the New York Times. I'll adjust the amounts to be sure there will be some left for later in the week. I'll also increase the greens, which will probably be a combo of spinach and collards, to make it more like a stew, as Bittman suggests. There will definitely have to be homemade cornbread to go with this, and one of my favorites is green onion corn bread from Bon Appetit. With a salad on the side, we'll hopefully get 2012 off to a great start!