Happy New Year Eve, everyone! Last year this time, I was in sunny South Australia, battling 100 F weather and my first holiday dinner party. If you are reading this on NYE, I am currently preparing for my second NYE dinner party, and dare I say, it may rock even harder than before. Sure, it will be about 110 degrees colder than it was last year, and I won’t have my Oz mates with me. But I am one year older, one year wiser, and one step closer to a myriad of appliances and food toys. It is about to get epic up in here. But for obvious reasons, this can’t be a post about my NYE 2008 dinner. But it is a post about a dinner party in anticipation of another one. This took place back in October, when a dear friend visited me from NYC for the weekend. I call it Mike’s night. Mike loves Mexican food. So I delivered, but not without the help of the best chef this side of the Mississippi, Lynsi.
An epic chef for an epic meal, and let me tell you, as the night wore on and I had a few too many glasses of wine, this lady saved the food more than once. I bow to her. So while Lynsi and I worked on last minute cooking,
everyone else mingled and drank.
And then came the food. The photos and food styling are not the best, but the food was delicious, so shut up and enjoy my descriptions. First course: Sopa de ajo with avocado and onion
We had a vegetarian in the mix, so that made it fun for planning. I really didn’t want to make separate dishes for the vego, so I tried to make dishes that could easily be changed from meat to no meat. This dish was one of them. It had no meat in it, made from veggie stock I brewed up in my crockpot, and thickened with simply an egg. Second course: Chile rellenos (chorizo potato and butternut squash, onion, and potato) with a chipotle sauce, elotes (corn with crema, cotija cheese, chili powder and lime juice) with salsa and guacamole.
Third course: Passion fruit sorbet with cinnamon-sugar nachos
Fourth course: Homemade truffles (dark chocolate raspberry and caramel crunch) with port
The port was not technically a port in that it was not produced in Portugal, but rather McLaren Vale, South Australia at a winery called Pertaringa. However, it is a fortified wine made from the Frontignac grape in the style of a port. And it kicks just about any traditional port’s ass, in my opinion. And look at all the happy campers.
To a great night and ever better cooking!
~LTG!
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