Saturday, January 1, 2011

Consider it rung

Good morning and happy new year!  Or as my husband calls it, happy arbitrary calendar day!  :)  Yeah, the holidays are way more my thing than his, but he plays along just fine.

We stayed in with a homemade feast last night.  I think we ushered out 2010 in style....or at least good eats.

First up, was an appetizer of bacon-wrapped dates. 


I cut three dates in thirds, removing the pits.  I cut three strips of good, thick bacon in thirds.  Each third of a date was wrapped in a third of a piece of bacon and secured with a toothpick.  I baked them on a lipped pizza stone for 20 minutes at 350.  I turned them once but I don't know if that was necessary. 

Next up was a spinach salad with two spicy crab cakes from Central Market perched on top. 



Their crab cakes are loaded with crab and so flavorful.  I am totally okay with letting them make them because I can't get that quality for the money making them from scratch.  I simply baked these for 20 minutes at 350 until golden.  I sprayed the top with olive oil cooking spray to help with the browning.  The spinach was dressed in Caesar vinaigrette, and the crab cakes were topped with a yogurt, lemon zest, and cilantro sauce made in my teeny processor.  

Our main course was steak and bake. 





We shared a New Year strip with a twice baked potato.  I made the potatoes much earlier in the day then just did the "second" baking while the steak cooked.  The potatoes were stuffed with milk, sharp cheddar, and more of the good bacon.  The strip was seared on a stainless pan then transferred to the oven until it read medium rare on my meat thermometer.  I let the steak rest while I made a sauce in it's pan.  I used a little whole wheat flour on the dripping from the steak for thickener then added veggie stock to make a gravy.  Bleu cheese went into the gravy to make a bleu cheese sauce!  Sadly, the color was basically green because of the blue veins and the wheat flour color mixing.  Don't be fooled by the color though, it was totally delicious!!!

Lastly, dessert!





I made panna cotta for the first time.  I followed Giada De Laurentis's espresso-based recipe but swapped espresso for vanilla and DiSorrono.  I actually made this hours before dinner.  It came out SO good.  Like a cross between flan and creme brulee.  My husband loved them too.  That made my day.  We enjoyed our dessert with my favorite bubbly.

It was such a wonderful meal, spent with my wonderful man and pup.  It was perfect.

How did your celebrations go?

1 comment:

  1. That is one helluva meal! The bacon wrapped dates sound divine! My family wound always make bacon-wrapped soy sauce-soaked water chestnuts for the holidays... they were awesome! :)

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