Sorry it's taken me so long to recap. The good pictures (
of all the girls in their dresses, of me and the BF, of the swanky digs, of the unbelievable view, etc.) are on emily's camera. Because the
'now take one with mine' thing can be done to death I thought I would just steal hers... which I have yet to actually accomplish. Below is Myself, my brother, and a friend of ours from grade school.... who apparently wanted to ring in the new year with the best brother/sister duo since donnie & marie (or so we claim)
I made three yummy appetizers for the party. In googling easy things that would keep overnight or that I could throw together at the last minute I found
http://www.finedinings.com/ for all that you see below. There is some super creative stuff and more importantly.... there are pictures of everything (imperative for someone on my level... remedial). Anyway the first yummy, gooey, app was a grape covered in a mixture of goat cheese/cream cheese/port wine and sprinked with pistachios. On New Years Eve Eve I was so in heaven making things. Despite the fact they were sort of labor intensive (i probably spent 1-2 minutes on each of these little bastards trying to get them semi evenly coated and inadvertently covering myself with cheese and nuts and didn't go to bed until after midnight .... gasp!). The warm gooey cheese was SO RICH, the pistachios were bright green and had a crunch, and the fruit in the middle was unexpected and flavorful. I spent all the next morning e-mail bragging about these, literally the fruits of my labor. Too bad when I got home the nuts had softened in the cheese and the cheese (obvi) no longer warm, made them sort of a cold mush. They were dece.... but not amazing. Plus no one could really tell what they were. 100 times better when eaten immediately than kept overnight. Lesson learned.
Next up we had cucumber cups with a crab mixture (lime juice, zest, cucumbers, scallions, yogurt), in fancy asymmetrical cucumber cups cut out with a mellon baller. I decided to upgrade and not use crab from a can. Too bad I didn't realize that you couldn't buy crab (at this grocery store anyway) fresh that is out of the claw.
My lovely friend and houseguest for the evening (she hails from kentucky) aaaaamy, was attempting to crack them open with a pair of pink pliers I had when I returned from work. Ruined nail polish, frustration, cuts on the knuckle (totally inappropriate tools) later we realized this should only be done with a giant bucket and a tub full of butter with a bib that says all-you-can-eat-seafood. Too much trouble for actually trying to use the crab in a recipe. However the finished product was REALLY good. The lime was strong, but it was a good compliment to all of the other fresh flavors. yummm.
By far the most popular item was the mini baked potato bites. I used red/new potatoes, cooked, halved and scooped with the mellon baller (man i love that thing). There was a mixture of NF sour cream, turkey bacon diced, and scallions that I topped it with. I sprinkled on some freshly grated wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese. REALLY good and the plate was missing several little bites every time I glanced over at the party. Total comfort food, in fun-sized portions.
Below is stephanie pointing to the display (square plates are my contributions) Emily made a dip and so did amy... .everyone else brought booze. YAY teamwork!
The rest of the night included dancing, laughing jokes, a few wardrobe malfunctions (YIKES!), and a lot of festive and noisy hats and horns. Happy New Year!!!
I made three yummy appetizers for the party. In googling easy things that would keep overnight or that I could throw together at the last minute I found http://www.finedinings.com/ for all that you see below. There is some super creative stuff and more importantly.... there are pictures of everything (imperative for someone on my level... remedial). Anyway the first yummy, gooey, app was a grape covered in a mixture of goat cheese/cream cheese/port wine and sprinked with pistachios. On New Years Eve Eve I was so in heaven making things. Despite the fact they were sort of labor intensive (i probably spent 1-2 minutes on each of these little bastards trying to get them semi evenly coated and inadvertently covering myself with cheese and nuts and didn't go to bed until after midnight .... gasp!). The warm gooey cheese was SO RICH, the pistachios were bright green and had a crunch, and the fruit in the middle was unexpected and flavorful. I spent all the next morning e-mail bragging about these, literally the fruits of my labor. Too bad when I got home the nuts had softened in the cheese and the cheese (obvi) no longer warm, made them sort of a cold mush. They were dece.... but not amazing. Plus no one could really tell what they were. 100 times better when eaten immediately than kept overnight. Lesson learned.
Next up we had cucumber cups with a crab mixture (lime juice, zest, cucumbers, scallions, yogurt), in fancy asymmetrical cucumber cups cut out with a mellon baller. I decided to upgrade and not use crab from a can. Too bad I didn't realize that you couldn't buy crab (at this grocery store anyway) fresh that is out of the claw.
Below is stephanie pointing to the display (square plates are my contributions) Emily made a dip and so did amy... .everyone else brought booze. YAY teamwork!
The rest of the night included dancing, laughing jokes, a few wardrobe malfunctions (YIKES!), and a lot of festive and noisy hats and horns. Happy New Year!!!
