New Year's Eve Wrap Up

Note: because this blog has evolved into about 80 % food blog, I have decided to add tags for the specific type of food. Once I have gone through and re-coded the last 368 posts you will be able to click on a specific tag i.e. rice and all of the posts which feature a rice recipe will come up. It may take awhile to code everything but I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend (anything to keep me from writing a column for the magazine at work!).

I realized that in all of the excitement of the one-year post I never got around to writing about our New Year's Eve.

We had a quiet time, just the two of us (well, except for when mom popped by about 6:30 for some inexplicable reason - we invited her to stay but she went home). Our plan was to have some martinis, eat a relaxing dinner, watch some movies, ring in the New Year with some champagne, and collapse into bed. With but a few minor exceptions our evening progressed as planned.

In order to stretch things out I planned more substantial appetizers than we might normally have. I knew that Paul would be hungry after a full day of working. We had Paula Deen's sausage balls and mini bacon cheeseburgers with our martinis.

I'm sure that you have heard all about Paula Deen: restaurant owner, cookbook author, and host of food network shows . . . really she is everywhere! LOL You may have even made fun of her - I know I have. I find that her food tends to be simple concoctions that threaten to collapse your arteries upon sight because of the grossly excessive fat content. However, we are traveling to Savannah this spring and we thought we needed to explore southern food so we went with this.

I found the recipe for the sausage balls on the food network web site. I read the comments in the reviews so I made some modifications, as noted below. Because the recipe made 5 dozen (that's a lot of balls) we split it in half. I hate to admit it but we quite liked the sausage balls, perhaps they are a guilty pleasure, like McDonalds.

1/2 pound ground sausage
1 1/4 cups baking mix (recommended: Bisquick)
2 cups grated sharp Cheddar (I had some 5 year old cheddar on hand, it seemed a waste to use it in this recipe but heck, we had to eat it somehow)
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Dip:
1/3 cup mayonnaise (Paula LOVES mayo, almost as much as she adores Velveeta *smile*)
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in a large glass bowl. Mix well with your fingers. The mixture will be very crumbly. Form into 1 inch balls, squeezing the mixture so it holds together, then rolling it between the palms of your hands to form balls.

Place the balls on the baking sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. To prevent sticking, move the balls with a spatula halfway through cooking.

To make the dip, combine the mayonnaise and mustard. Serve with sausage balls

Later we enjoyed a cheese fondue:

Followed by a meat fondue:

For the meat fondue we had chunks of steak, pork, chicken, and miniature meatballs. For the sauces we had a Thai hot chili dipping sauce, horseradish dipping sauce, mango curry dipping sauce, BBQ sauce, and Thai peanut sauce.

By the time we finished dinner it was close to 9:30 and I was ready for bed! ARGH

In an effort to force myself to stay awake I proposed that we play a game. The seductive lure of trivial pursuit (and the thrill of trouncing Paul in said pursuit) drove me through the trough and then next thing we knew it was 11:25.

Paul set out the assortment of our baking and we nibbled on cookies while awaiting the countdown.

Further awakened by jolts of sugary confections, we had no trouble staying awake until midnight and toasting the New Year with sparkling wine (it wasn't French so I won't be calling it Champagne!)

Gone are the days of crowded parties, slurred count downs ( 10, 9, 8, 7, 35, 34, 33 . . . .), broken glasses that some yob insisted on tossing into the fireplace, followed by a 2 day hangover. Call me old if you want, but this was a far superior time!

Comments

[Kim]

Sounds nice. I have friends from college who I see often but we always get together around the holidays for brunch. This year we did it on New Years Eve eve and when I asked what everyone was doing for New Years, it was pretty much, "Just hanging at home." I like just hanging at home but I'm thinking one year soon, we should all "just hang at home," together. :)

[Jerry]

That is the other way I like to spend it Kim. . . hanging out with a small group of friends. Some of our friends went to Las Vegas this year and hung ont he strip. They said it was so crowded you couldn't fall down. I guess I am elderly because I'm just not into that any longer.

[Rose]

Sounds like you had a great time. Mine was just as quiet only I went to my friend Kim's place and stayed the night. More so because of the weather not the drinking!

[Jerry]

Rose - why am I not believing you at all! LOL