New Years Eve – Eat, Drink, and play PS3
For the second year in a row, it has snowed on New Year’s Eve day, making it hard for people to get where they plan on going. This year was a piece of cake compared to last year and Mike and Christine made it over to our house with no problem. Their arrival was made even more exciting by the orange box they presented to us – Veuve Cliquot! Totally trumped whatever “champagne” we had for the evening.
The food theme for this year was Italian, and I think we did it with panache. Mind you, there was only four of us!
Appetizers
- Antipasto
- Soppressata and parmesean
- Tomato & mozzarella tart with a basil crust. Christine made this and it was delicious. I will have to get the recipe from her and post it. We managed to finish off the entire tart.
Main Course
Christine is a vegetarian so I wanted to make something that everyone could enjoy, but wanted to avoid just pasta and sauce. She had made these delicious eggplant “meatballs” for a party and they were fantastic. I found the recipe and thought I would make them and serve them with tagliatelle pasta and fresh bread.
The recipe is courtesy of the Boston Globe Magazine and this article. I have also posted the recipe in the recipes section of this blog.
I will say this – good thing these taste as good as they do because that are a pain in the a$$ to make. We started the night before by roasting the eggplant. The next morning I put together the mixture. This was the easiest part thanks to the food processor. I let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours and then started the painful process of putting these suckers together. While the mixture did thicken, it was sticky as can be. It was really hard to mold the mixture around the cube of mozzeralla and by the time I was done, I had eggplant mixture all over me, the counter, and nearby appliances.
Andreas was nice enough to take on the next step – the frying. We have an electric frying pan, so we were able to get the temperature to the correct setting. We did not use the recommended amount of oil, it just seemed like too much. By the time he was done, the were more of a patty shape than a ball shape, but they were delicious. He also made a nice marinara sauce to finish the cooking process.
I rediscovered this great Italian shop in Hyde Park called Tutto Italiano. I picked up the antipasto, pasta and two delicious sandwiches for our lunch there. On my way home I stopped by BC Baking Company for fresh bread, cannolli and Italian cookies.
Everything came out delicious and it was so nice to ring in the New Year with good friends. We spent the night playing cards and a couple rounds of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe on PS3. When the clock struck midnight, we went outside and banged pots and pans to ward of the evil spirits (or something like that), and enjoyed that fantastic bottle of Veuve.
Hope you all had a great time celebrating!
January 12th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Steven and I have been cutting down on the amount of meat that we eat, primarily due to what we have read about how meat contributes to the global warming problem. It’s not hard, actually. Last night we had a vegetarian meal of pasta and a yummy mushroom sauce. It was quite enjoyable.
These meatballs sound devine! Maybe we can make them while you’re here! Did I read correctly that there is a little surprise piece of mozzerella in the middle? NICE!
January 18th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Fun Times! Those “meat”-balls were the gift that keeps on giving. I really enjoyed them as left overs, too. Thanks for hosting the event. We had a great time. Though watching Dick Clark makes Mike a little sad, the alcohol helped him to cope with his grief.