New Year's Eve

I haven't really been much of a New Year's Eve party kind of girl. I can't remember ever "going out" for the night. I do remember staying at home and watching Dick Clark and fighting to stay awake for the Times Square ball to drop.

Last year, we hosted a murder mystery dinner and that was fun. We wanted to do it again, but it was just too much to get organized. I think that was a blessing because instead, we got together and visited. Joe B. told me that last year was fun, but that he enjoyed being able to catch up with everyone. I completely agree with him.

Visiting is only enhanced when nibbling on something yummy. Last night, we made five new recipes, but I feel like I was sort of cheating as one dish was actually three recipes.

Oysters en Brochette was...let's say, interesting. I found this recipe and thought "okay, how hard can this be? Oysters, wrapped in bacon, and then fried. Simple." Wrong. That part was easy, but the recipe called for me to prepare Creole meuniere sauce first. Again, not a big deal. Turn to page 190. Creole menuiere called for one cup of brown sauce. Turn to page 193. This was the problem. Brown sauce called for beef stock (page 192), but I used store bought. I was already on the hook for simmering two fresh beef marrow bones for 1 hour and fifteen minutes. I made this sauce. It called for a roux. Jerry made it while I tried to strain the onions and such out of the bone marrow soup. Made the "Brown Sauce" and was okay with it. Couldn't make the Creole menuiere sauce because it could only be "held" for 45 minutes. Began to wrap the oysters in bacon. This was like pinning a wave on the sand. Slimy oysters wrapped in greasy bacon and held together with a toothpick are a hit or miss proposition. I worried that they would fall apart, but none of them did (even the ones that were badly done!). Dredged in flour and fried. They were incredible. The sauce, Jerry made while I was frying the oysters, was interesting and it was good, but it was decidedly not worth the time, energy, or effort. Not enough bang for our buck. We will be trying other sauces with this dish, but we will certainly be making it again.

The Jambalaya was really good. Jerry made it start to finish with me only sauteing while he continued to chop onions, celery, garlic and peppers. We learned that the new sauteure pan is PERFECT for this dish and so we think that paella will be wonderful in it as well. We also learned that we should NOT lift the lid when we are told not to. You would think that we would know this by now but evidently we don't. So, here in the public forum, Jerry and I both swear that we will never lift a lid when the recipe says not to. Honest.

Seriously, we did "check" on the rice and we think it caused the temp to drop below where it needed to be in order to completely and perfectly cook the rice. We remember a Bobby Flay episode where he lost a cook off because he did the same thing. The rice sort of cooks too much on the outside and not enough on the inside resulting in a weird combination of mushy/crunchy. Jerry salvaged it and there were no complaints. I wished for more spice, and should have sprinkled some Creole spice on it. I certainly will next time.

The last recipe was for Milk Punch. This is a New Orleans drink that is a tradition during the Mardi Gras parades. It was good...hints of vanilla. People liked it but didn't ask for seconds. Again, there were all sorts of beverages, and a milk based drink does tend to be a bit rich and heavy when eating. That could have been the issue, or it could have been because it was a mediocre beverage. Time will tell. I guess I will make a pitcher/thermos of it and take it to a Mardi Gras parade and see how things go!

Happy New Year!