i hope that your hangovers are beginning to wear off so that you can handle the discussion of solid food.
last night, i rang in the new year surrounded by things i love... food and drinks aplenty.
oh, and my family was there too.
while waiting for dick clark's ball to drop - get your mind out of the gutter, that man is a saint - we snacked and engaged in some well-mannered frivolity. translation: gluttony and drunken tomfoolery.
but before all that, i found myself in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, trying to change the world. okay, that's a bit drastic. what i was really trying to change was tradition. the typical Cesareo new year's eve menu consists of a box of frozen appetizers and whatever is kicking around the liquor cabinet. and while after a few drinks, this may seem okay, it's really not.
and so, in the spirit of new years and renewal, my resolution is to resist the alcohol-induced passivity of my taste-buds and eat only the most delicious of things.
thus, i present you with:
homemade hors d'ouerves, celebratory cocktail and lemon jello shots.
first, i started with the hors d'oeurve fillings. as a clinically diagnosed overachiever, my original plan was to make 6 different kinds. i was then informed by my
the first is a spin on french onion soup. i started by chopping a whole onion and sauteeing it in some butter on low to caramelize them. after about
some thyme and a healthy splash of brandy. whaaaaaat - it's new years! you're gonna be drunk anyway, might as well get a headstart during the appetizers.
the filling is ready when the onions are a deep golden brown. if you happen to be tanned like me, you can use your skin as an onion colour comparison. once i finished comparing colour swatches, i put the mixture in a tupperware in the fridge.
the next filling is very similar to one that my nonna makes for stuffed mushroom caps. she starts by blessing the mushrooms with holy water. aaaaaand that's when i stopped following her recipe...
i chopped the mushrooms very finely and tossed them in a pan with a clove of garlic and a splash of olive oil.
after allowing some of the moisture cook out of the mushrooms and letting those ingredient mingle for a bit (an activity i also encourage for new years parties), i added a palm-full of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. if you do not have palms, it should be about a 1/4 cup each. also, if you have no palms, good work on getting this far in the recipe.
when the cheese is melted and all of the ingredients are well-mixed, that filling is all set. throw it in a tupperware in the fridge.
the next filling is a spin on the classic pizza roll appetizer. even with my pizza connections, i have eaten far too many of these blasphemous imitations in my life.
as penance for this sin (nonna will be so proud) i created a new and improved version of the pizza roll.
for the filling, i started by whizzing up a cup of sundried tomatoes and a tablespoon of pesto sauce in a food processor, then transferred it to a pan to heat up. sauce component - check!
for the cheese component of this glorified pizza roll, i used freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. fancy.
i folded the cheese into the mixture and let it melt a bit, then tossed it in the fridge with the others.
at laaaaaaaast, the last filling has come along: spanikopita. most difficult to pronounce and the easiest to make. i started by crumbling some feta with a fork. here's a picture if you need some help with that.
next, i took some frozen spinach and threw it in the microwave to defrost. then i rung all the excess water out, albeit a little sooner than i should have - my third degree hand burns have taught me patience. then i mixed the spinach and the feta together, throwing in some granulated garlic and oregano.
and that's it for the filling!
next, the shells.
the hors d'oeurves that usually grace our new years eve table are made of puff pastry. so i figured, hey - let's try that! i've seen it on the food network - how hard can it be? well. it's not very hard at all. when you actually buy the right pastry. cut to me buying phyllo pastry by accident :)
hey, it could have been worse. i almost came home with this:
what an awkward family meal that would have been...
alas, i did not realize my phyllo mistake until i had already opened the package and was, thus, screwed.
not wanting to waste perfectly good pastry, i decided to make use of it for the sundried tomato and spanikopita-esque filling. which then proved to be true spanikopita, since it is usually made with phyllo pastry. fate?
but since i hadn't planned on phyllo, i had to refer to an informative source to learn how to use it. no, i didn't pull out my copy of The Joy of Cooking, rather, i consulted youtube.
usually you take the sheets of phyllo, which are thinner than the average olsen twin, and layer them, brushing them with butter in between. since i wanted to finish this recipe before 2012, i opted for the youtube shortcut - pam! spraying that on each sheet before layering allowed me to save several valuable minutes of 2011. after layering 4 sheets, it was time to cut. my wrists, because there was still such a long way to go.
also, it was time to cut the pastry and add the fillings.
for the spanikopita, i cut the pastry into long strips using a Pizza Pizza pizza cutter. everyone has one of those right? then i folded it like you would a flag, just as youtube commanded. easy peasy. if you have ever folded a flag. which i often find myself doing. except that i have never folded a flag before and the beauty below took several minutes to perfect.
for the pizza-esque sundried tomato filling, i took a simpler route by cutting the pastry into squares.
then i folded all of the corners in to make wee squares. like so:
so while i was slaving away with this culinary origami, my mother had made her way to the grocery store and bought puff pastry. directly beside the phyllo pastry. when i write my memoirs, such mistakes will be blamed for my systematic descent into madness. GAH!
anyways, life goes on. and hors d'oeurves must be made.
i started by rolling out the puff pastry to about 1/4 of an inch thick and cutting circles using the highly expensive and high-tech tool known as "the glass."
for the french onion puffs, i put the filling in the middle of the pastry and folded it over, sealing it with eggwash (mixture of a battered beaten egg and a bit of water) and a fork.
sidenote: no eggs involved in this recipe were victims of domestic violence. however, to protect their identities, i have not included a picture of this pastry. or did i forget to take one? we'll never know.
to maximize the french onion flavour, i added some shredded gruyere cheese to the top of these puffs.
moving alonggggg, for the mushroom filling, i made wee pastry cups using a mini muffin tin and filled them.
and that's it! i stuck them in the oven for 30 minutes and moved on with my life.
to the drinks!
turning back the clock to new years eve eve (that's two eves, yes), i was making some jello shots. but not ordinary jello shots. these:
pretty fancy, right? and they're really easy to make. i cut oranges or lemons in half and hone out the insides with a spoon. then i set them in a muffin tin to keep the rinds from falling over and fill them with a lovely alcoholic jello mixture. if you've never made jello shots before, get a life you just substitute half of the cold water requirement with cold vodka or rum or whatever blows your dress up. but please keep your dress down, jail time for indecent exposure is no way to spend the holidays.
after i let the jello set overnight, i cut them into wedges.
these jello shots are great! tasty, fun to look at and infinitely easier to eat than the ones in little plastic cups - which usually result in me making a fool of myself by either covering myself in jello or resembling an anteater as i attempt to extract jello with my tongue.
before you have time to construct a visual of that, let's move along to the celebratory cocktail.
celebratory cocktail: (n) a drink served at a festive get-together, colloquially referred to by the layman as "punch" or, more accurately, "the nectar of the gods." often leads to lowered inhibitions, drunken tomfoolery and good times.
my new year's eve celebratory cocktail is a twist on my nana's classic punch recipe. it's made up of a bottle of ginger ale, a bottle of cranberry juice and a can of frozen pink lemonade. for aesthetic appeal, nana would add some sliced oranges and i followed suit. this non-alcoholic version is delish on it's own and suitable for any occasion, or new years day breakfast (points to self).
to maximize the evening's frivolity and fun, i added a few cups of vodka or rum :)
and then promptly forgot all of the year's troubles and quite possibly the rest of the night.
while i may not remember much after the punch, i do remember making myself several of these plates and loving every morsel.
the fam, members both human and canine, shared my appreciation of the hors d'ouerves and beverages too, leaving no left-overs. other than the ones i stashed at the back of the fridge for myself :D
while the homemade hors d'oeurve route is a much more tedious one than the store-bought appetizer route, it's fun to make your own. and the customization of fillings enables maximum guest satisfaction.
all in all, t'was a great way to ring in the new year - surrounded by family, friends and food.
and so, hungry readers, the culinary meandering of 2011 is at an end. but don't despair, 2012 promises to be just as, if not more, delicious than its predecessor. stay tuned!
thanks for reading! :)
