Hope everyone had a safe and fun NYE celebration!
P and I decided to stay in and make ourselves a 5-course dinner. We had never done this before so it was quite a treat. We came up with a menu pretty much off the top of our heads and despite not too much planning we both loved our choices. Our menu consisted of the following:
Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Bruschetta
Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail
Walnut Cranberry Salad with Sliced Apples
Filet Mignon with Brussel Sprouts and Potato Hash
Blood Orange Sorbetto
I’m really glad NYE was on a Saturday so I could go shopping Saturday morning and not have to worry about ridiculously long lines. I remember a couple years ago NYE was on a weekday and I went to Trader Joe’s after work to pick up TWO items and every single checkout line extended to the middle of the store. I almost left the store, but I reluctantly got in line. Thankfully everyone in the line let me skip ahead of them because they felt so bad that I was only buying two things as opposed to a full cart of food like everyone else.
This year I did most of my shopping at Trader Joe’s, but went to Whole Foods to get the shrimp, basil, and sorbetto. P bought the meat at the LA Farmers Market at one of the meat stands (the one closest to Bob’s Coffee & Donuts). Here are some photos from the night:
I cooked the brussel sprouts based on a Michael Symon recipe and they looked so nice and green until I forgot about them and they got kinda charred….oops! This was my first time cooking shrimp for a shrimp cocktail and, just like you would expect, it was pretty easy and I was able to cook it earlier in the day and then chill it in the fridge until we were ready to eat it. I was going to follow this Alton Brown recipe, but in the end followed a much simpler recipe found in Mark Bittman’s cookbook, ‘How to Cook Everything: The Basics’. The main course looks kinda sad in the photo, but it tasted great! We’ll definitely buy meat from the Farmers Market again because the price wasn’t that much more expensive than at the local grocery store, but it tasted way better!
Happy New Year, friends! Hope 2012 is a great year for everyone!! 🙂
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