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.