Festive New Year's Day

I always like to have a special meal on New Years Day.  I think starting off the first day of the New Year with good food is an indication of how you will eat the rest of the year!

Growing up,  my mom's side of the family always had a big potluck on New Year's Day.  Though we would see most of them over the Christmas season it was New Year's Day that the extended families would all gather.  My mom was the oldest of 8,  and there could be easily 30 people or more in attendance.  The numbers kept changing over the years, as new family members were added by birth or marriage or some moved away and could not always be around for New years, like me.

But there was always lots of food no matter how many people attended.  My mom and aunts were all great cooks.  The potluck always had perennial favourites, plus some new dishes every year.  To run out of food would have been a fate worse than death for this group, everyone could eat (with seconds if you wanted) have a night lunch before you left for the evening and come back the next day for leftovers.

I miss those family get togethers,  so that is probably the same reason I like to have a special meal on New Years day though with a smaller number of family.

After all the cooking over the holidays,  I wanted something that was fairly easy to make but still seemed special.

I veered away from my holiday themed cookbooks and grabbed Micheal Smith's Back to Basics

Now you might think a "Basics" cookbook is not going to work when you want something "special", but as you will see I was able to put together a very nice meal with a fun twist for the dessert, that did not require a lot of work or ingredients.  Many of the ingredients were already in my cupboard.

I started with Bottomless Pot of Steamed Mussels.  Mussels are one of my favourite quick suppers when I don't have much time, pick them up on the way home from work with some crusty bread and within about 10-15 minutes of getting home supper is ready.  This time I tried a "new" flavour combination to cook them in - wine.  Though I have often eaten mussels cooked in wine at restaurants, at home I usually stick with seasoned water.  It just made them a little more special

Then we turned to the main course of:

Pan Seared Scallops with Tomato Caper Relish

Prosciutto Roast Asparagus

Whole Wheat Spaetzle with Baby Spinach 

The asparagus and scallops were simple to make and very tasty.  The spaetzle was tasty, with the spinach adding a nice contrast, but I was a bit disappointed in the making of the spaetzle.  I don't have a spaetzle maker, but the recipe provided instructions on how to make it using a colander. I did not have a lot of success with this method.  I guess, my dough was a little too stiff for making the spaetzle in the colander , so I ended up with uneven pieces as I just dropped bits of the dough in the water.  It still tasted very good if presentation was a little off!

I finished off the meal with a fun dessert.  After all the cakes, squares, chocolates and fancy desserts of Christmas I wanted something sweet but fun.  So I settled on Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake!  

The toasted marshmallows gave the milk shake a nice smokey flavour.  I thought it would be kind of sticky and gooey but the marshmallows blended into a smooth drink. 

 It made for a relaxing ending to the meal.

Everything on the menu was tasty and easy to make, the only downside was that many o the dishes required last minute prepping or cooking just before serving.  For me it made the meal a little more hectic than I would have liked.  But I would certainly make all the dishes again, but I think I will try to find a spaetzle maker before I try it again.

As for the book itself Back to Basics,  it was actually the first time I cooked from it.  I am not sure how it came to be in my collection.  I am guessing I just picked it up one time, but it doesn't even look like I cracked the spine on the book which is unusual.  I do have a couple other Michael Smith so may just have picked it up because it was a Micheael Smith.  I hope to features some of this others soon.

The cookbook  has been out a few years, but still available for print,  I would recommend adding it to your collection if you don't already have it, as it provides, like the name says, a lot of basic dishes that everyone should know how to make but adds some fun twists to make them ore special.

Christmas Tea

In the lull between Christmas and New Years it is nice to just take an afternoon to relax with neighbours and visit. A little food always helps the conversation flow, and an afternoon tea fit the bill.

Christmas Teas of Comfort and Joy came into my book collection I think threw a gift exchange / yankee swap of some sort. It has little stories to go with the 6 different menus featured in the book.  Each menu is for a different type of occasion.  There are lots of victorian style pictures.  It is a cute little book to look through over the holidays.  

I have never made anything out of the book before,  it was kind of a coffee table book that I put out at Christmas.  Many of the recipes are based on using packaged mixes that are enhanced, but it can give someone any idea for a tea, though some sounded interesting.  It was more fun to look at the book than make anything, as I felt it was more of a novelty book than a cookbook.

I decided this year it would be one of my cookbook picks and rather than selecting my own menu, I picked one of the pre-set menus from the book.  When we typically think of an English Tea or a Victorian tea, we think of dainty sandwiches, small tarts (both sweet and savoury), scones with clotted cream and jam and one-bite sweets.   Though some menus fit more into this category I picked a menu that didn't match this concept.

I picked the Family Traditions Tea Party, which featured the following menu:

Fruit Salsa

Assorted Cheeses

Christmas Tree Bread

Ham Filled Sandwich Spread

It was an easy menu to put together,  I did add some of my Christmas sweets (which you have seen in other posts) to round out the selection.  People could eat as little or as much as they wanted. 

If I made the fruit salsa again I probably would cut out the brown sugar,  it also had apple jelly in it which I think would make it more than sweet enough.  

The dough for the bread required little kneading and only one rise before baking.  The recipe did call for icing but I skipped this step so you could have the buns either as a savoury or a sweet option depending on what you ate with it.  

Afternoon teas are a relaxing way to spend an afternoon with family and friends.  This menu and really all the menus in the book showed really you can offer anything you like for "Tea". 

Boxing Day Feast

I spent the Christmas holidays with my brother and his family.  It was a wonderful time to catch up with family,  I had the opportunity to see both my nephews and their families.  As well as some of my sister-in-laws family.  I have 3 great nephews/nieces, age 7, 4 and 1 years of age which added to the festivities.

To ease the workload everyone takes turns with making a main meal.  My turn was on Boxing Day and I grabbed The Complete Christmas Book from Canadian Living.  After having our fill of Turkey on Christmas I tried to go in a totally different direction and choose fish for the main course, with a sit down appetizer.

I have been trying very hard to actually follow the recipes as printed.  I have a tendency to make some edits.  I have been doing good up until recently, but the edits were just minor!

To start the evening off, as people arrived I made the White Cranberry Mulled Wine, it provided a nice  light warm drink that helped remove the chill from being outside.  I served the mulled wine with some sweet & spicy nuts.  The nuts were not in this recipe book.  I had them earlier in the month at a potluck and just loved them and had made several batches over the holidays.

As mentioned the next course was a platted appetizer, so once everyone was at the table we served the Mushroom Cheesecake with a small green salad.   This was a twist on a typical cheesecake, most at the table had never had a savoury cheesecake.  It made for an interesting appetizer.  A small portion went a long way and the mushroom provided an earthiness to the dish. Even my 1 year old great-nephew enjoyed some of the cheesecake!

The main course was a Seafood Salmon Roulade.  I served it with Asparagus with Lemon & Hazelnuts and festive rice (white rice with chopped green onions and red peppers).

To make the the salmon roulade you had to basically butterfly a salmon fillet.  Which is easier said than done.  If you every tried cooking at someone else's house it is always add an extra challenge because you don't always know what they have to cook with.  Fortunately my brother also enjoys cooking so he had good sharp knives which made the job easier.  Once butterflied you stuff it with the seafood (shrimp/scallops) mixture and roll it up to bake.  It is served with a Lemon Tarragon Beurre Blanc, that is why in the picture you can't see the "jellyroll" of seafood in the salmon. 

I had planned to make Green Beans with Lemon & Hazelnuts, but when I did the groceries there was no green beans but a great sale on Asparagus.  Just goes to show it is easy to make substitutions when needed.  

To round out the meal, I wanted something light to serve with the holiday sweets that are abundant this time of year.  Earl Grey Pots de Creme was just the ticket with a small ingredient adjustment.  I had "Nutcracker" tea bags and thought that would add a seasonal flair to the dessert.  The Pots de Creme where baked in some of my mother's china tea cups.  

You rarely see China Tea Cups being used anymore,  as a child I remember attending baby and bridal showers with my mom.  The hostess always had out her best china cups.  When we travelled Mom would often get a tea cup as a souvenir.  In the days before disposables, china tea cups were the "in" thing.  Now they hide in the back of cupboards or on the shelves of second hand stores, as people declutter.  

Maybe we can start a trend as move towards more reusables and bring back the China Tea cups!  It is nice to see them out being used.   I have a friend that gives them a second life as candle holders, or if you are a "Fancy Nancy" fan, like my great-niece and having a tea party for your 4th birthday - you need china tea cups - the real thing!

Happy New Year

The beginning of a new year is always a time to reflect on what has been and look forward to what is to come.

I started this blog as way to celebrate my 50th trip around the sun.  My goal was to prepare a menu from 50 cookbooks that I already owned, prepare the meal and document the outcome.  Hopefully trying recipes I have never tried before, and trying something new (new technique or new food item).  I am a quarter of the way into this and I have reviewed 17 books, which is more than I thought I did and I have two more I still have to write about from the Christmas holidays as well as todays menu.  So if I keep up this pace I will certainly meet my goal!

What have I learned - it is more work than I thought.  Sometimes the two hardest things is narrowing the selection down to a few recipes to make, and having to move onto another cookbook when there is some many other things you want to make in the one you are on.

I have also become more aware of the work that goes into preparing to cook,  we often forget this in our day to day meal making.  Writing up shopping lists, actually checking the cupboards to make sure you have an item and not assuming it is there (I have been caught a couple of times, when I discovered I was out of a staple item - now I always check), picking up the groceries, putting them away and then planning ahead.  Some recipes required prep to be done a few days in advance or taking meat out of the freezer to thaw.  It is not like I wasn't doing all this before but I certainly have been more conscious of it lately.

Once the meal is prepared, remember to take the pictures before I eat; and this is all before we get to the actual blogging of the meal!

I admit the pictures are usually taken just before I am sitting down to eat. I don't waste a lot of time fussing because I want to eat while it is still hot 😀 and they are totally un-edited.  Though I think that will be one of my goals for 2020 - learn how to use a photoshop program!  As my pictures don't always do the meal justice.

So other than improving the photography,  what else do I have planned.....  not sure.  I do feel that each time I do this I am getting better and the most important thing is I am having fun 😋.  As mentioned I am off to prepare a special menu for New Years and will tell you about it soon.

Thank you for reading I hope you have found something you've liked.

I hope 2020 brings you peace, joy and happiness, as well as lots of great food.  Enjoy!