Happy New Year!

How did you ring in the new year? This year we stayed in and cooked up a storm. Some good friends came over to visit and celebrate with us. We kept it small. My old roommate and her boyfriend were in town (they live in Switzerland), and I wanted a chance to sit down and catch up with them and have my favorite wine drinking buddy back for a night. And then our good friend (and other old roommate) and her boyfriend came over for the earlier part of the evening to feast and chat with us too.

As is typical, I made way too much food for just the six of us, but I did scale down my menu several times, and I think this was the least amount I could make while still having enough variety. I always like to serve cheeses -- who doesn't love a good cheese plate? I prefer to have some dishes with meat and some without, something healthy doesn't hurt, and I have to have enough food to fill people up. Yes, I'm one of those.

Here's the spread...

Cheese plate, olives, prosciutto, pepperoni, pesto, bread, and crackers

Bacon-wrapped chicken bites (from The Other Side of 50)

Fried brussels sprouts with walnuts and capers (from Michael Symon's Live to Cook)

Green bean and blood orange salad (from Food & Wine)

Sundried tomato, pesto, and goat cheese palmiers (from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients) and parmesan palmiers (from how2heroes)

Artichoke and fire roasted tomato bruschetta with feta (from Muir Glen Organic)

I also made meatball sliders (from Bon Appetit), but I forgot to take pictures of them! We're having the leftovers for lunch today, so I'll try to get some pictures then.

And the desserts... She Loves Me Cake and chocolate sauce (from Rose's Heavenly Cakes), strawberry ice cream (from Gourmet, August 2009), and pine nut turron cake (from Chocolate Epiphany, December's Chocolate with Francois pick)

And here's a closer look at the pine nut turron cake, which I will tell you all about in an upcoming post.

We had a feast! And we made lovely cocktails with St-Germain and had plenty of Prosecco, Cava, Riesling, and Champagne to go around. It was really a wonderful evening. I hope your New Year's Eve celebration was just as wonderful, and I wish you all the best in 2010!

Alright, time to get off the computer and watch the Winter Classic. Go Bruins!!

Stop back soon for posts about some of the recipes above.