New Year’s Eve

Who would have thought the kids could play outside on New Year’s Eve – with no coats?  Can you tell that Crawford loves his new farm equipment?  He made me take a picture of it.

For the past several years – we’ve made the choice to stay in on NYE and host a progressive dinner party.  We decided to do this because 1) you’d pay way too much for a nice dinner out tonight 2) my food will be better than anything you’d pay for – and I’m not bragging – it’s just too many people so restaurants get sloppy 3) we can drink as much as we want and no one has to drive.

This year did not disappoint.  Let me just preface by saying I love to cook and I love to entertain – so this is my perfect way to ring in the NY!

First Course:  cheese tray for snacking (the marcona almonds and pear preserves with blue cheese were a nice new addition).

Second course:  roasted portabella mushrooms with polenta, blue cheese and balsamic reduction

Third Course:  seafood bisque

Fourth Course:  spinach salad with pancetta and fried goat cheese

We took a break between the Fourth Course and our entrée – to put these wild party goers to bed!

Then it was time for the main course.  Bo got an amazing beef tenderloin that Pops filleted and let me cook for them.  It’s funny – I don’t eat beef – but Bo swears I cook the best steak he’s ever eaten.

Main course:  beef tenderloin fillet with a shitake soy-ginger sauce; truffled rissotto; parmesan asparagus

My variation – tuna steak for me   Notice – we ate on my china.  Bo and I will have been married for 12 years in May and I’m embarrassed to say – we had to take the price tags off of the china because I’ve NEVER used it!

By this time – it was like 10:20 so when we cleaned up our mess – we watched the festivities in NYC and tried to stay awake.

Scooby couldn’t hang.

We rang in the New Year Eastern time – 11 pm!

We just couldn’t go to bed with out the final course.

Dessert Course:  Chocolate angel food cake with Nutella creme anglaise

We then all got tucked in – right about the time it was 12 am CST.  And that’s when it happened – the fireworks started.  Conlee started crying (thought it was fireworks!).  Then Pops (who was in a deep sleep) thought someone was shooting at him.  So he jumped out of bed and persisted to fall and scrape his arm. 

Once we got everyone settled down and patched up – we settled in for some much needed sleep!   We just like to keep it interesting around here