The Worst Thing About New Years…
The worst thing about New Years is dating everything 2009 for the next 2 months and having to cross it out. Seriously, I’m going to be doing that into March. But if that’s the worst thing about 2010, I’m guessing it’s going to be a good year 🙂
Isn’t it the case that whenever you’re hosting you forget something? For us, it was good parmesan cheese.
Parmesan Cheese
My dad and I ran to the store(in a snow storm) to grab a hunk. I also quickly looked for nutritional yeast while we were there but couldn’t find any 😦 I guess that’ll be one new thing to try in 2010! I also may have been convinced to come along by a McDonalds’ coffee–just saying.
Our guests called to say they’d be here more 5-ish because of the snow, so I definitely needed some snacks before party food.
Oatmeal With Mighty Maple
Red Delicious Apple
Oatmeal and peanut butter will still be a theme in the New Year; please, nobody fret. We laid out the appetizers…
Apricot Glazed Baked Brie
Savory Cheeseball
Whole Wheat Red Pepper Foccaccia
…and soon they were here. Can I just say that we demolished these? I think there was 3 slices of foccaccia left, 1/2 of the hummus, and 1/3 the cheeseball and… that was about it.
Whole Wheat Red Pepper Foccaccia, Apricot Brie, Dr. Kracker Hummus Maximus Crackers
I ate this times about 2 because I went back for seconds on them all. The bread was so good! It was a Food Network recipe–just store bought whole wheat pizza dough brushed with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper and topped with onion and parmesan. Could it get much simpler? I also really liked the Hummus Maximus crackers; I don’t know that there was anything specific about the flavor I could pinpoint as chickpea, but it was definitely unique and worked well with the hummuses. We did a very early toast.
Toasting Glass
Everyone had champagne except for me and their 4 year old boy, who had milk. Can you guess what was in my glass?… Black Cherry Zevia 🙂 And I wouldn’t have had it any other way(This, naturally, led in to the conversation of how something could be natural and diet soda and why my shirt matched my beverage ;-)). Once we were done with appetizers, we moved on to the main course.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Homemade Meatballs
Roasted Carrots And Turnips, Sirloin Roast, Roasted Broccoli, Homemade Whole Wheat Potato Gnocchi
Our guests were Korean and love their vegetables and red meat; can you tell we tried to accomodate that 😉 Everyone seemed to love everything, and there was nothing bad here. Our guest’s husband was soooo happy that the gnocchi was whole wheat because that meant “his wife would let him eat it”. Haha! Have I mentioned how much I love these people?
Roasted Brussels And Broccoli, Homemade Whole Wheat Gnocchi With Meatballs
This was my plate; I chose the 3 or 4 things I wanted and made a more-or-less normal dinner. I knew I’d be seeing this all for leftovers next year, anyway. You can pretty much assume I at 4 times the brussels and broccoli as pictured because that’s what I kept going back for more of. For the first time, my mom made her meatballs with all-natural ingredients so I made those my main course instead of the sirloin roast that the rest of the table had. They were so soft and moist they melted in my mouth! The gnocchi were also very good, too.
After dinner, we laid out the desserts.
Peanut Butter And Chocolate Gluten Free Brownies, Peanut Butter And Chocolate Biscotti, Italian Bakery Bought Cookies, Tiramisu, Wine, And Newman's Organic Decaf Coffee
At first I was honestly too stuffed for anything but coffee. After a few cups and about 30 minutes of sitting and talking, I had room.
Peanut Butter And Chocolate Gluten Free Brownie, Tiramisu
This was my dessert plate. Oh My God, did these gluten free brownies turn out good! They didn’t even stick to the pan and were super super fudgy. I was worried 3 tablespoons peanut butter chips wouldn’t make a difference but you totally got the peanut butter flavor. Our guests brought a homemade tiramisu made with hazelnut liqueur. It was good! I appreciate that they made the cake bottom instead of using HFCS-laden ladyfingers. We’re not sure what happened with the top layer, which was rather thin, but overall the flavor was there.
Our dessert conversation ran through everything from my bacon milk chocolate bar to beliefs in God. The good thing about good friends and family is you can argue and disagree and everything and it won’t matter 10 minutes later 🙂
Our guests left around 9:45 to go home, put the little one to sleep, and spend time with their grandparents. Within 30 minutes, we had the house back to spick and span and our PJ’s on. We actually got a call from our neighbors to come over to their house but we were exhausted and did not want to think about leaving the house. Oh well, we’ll see them sometime this year.
Tiramisu, Peanut Butter And Chocolate Gluten Free Brownie
I made a snack plate. Seriously, these brownies are addicting! I’ll be making another batch before I know it. We watched Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin since we’re such fans of hers and wanted to see what she’d say. Good thing no drinking games around here because there are a ton with her and we’d all had been wasted.
Tiramisu
At 11:58 I unapologetically went back for another scoop of this dessert. It was last year, so it totally doesn’t count anymore, right 😉 And, of course, we watched the ball drop. After that, though, we pretty much went straight to different rooms and crashed. Midnight is a stretch for me!
So far, the New Year has been filled with laziness, not-working out, and baking. Excellent 😀 How long can I reasonably keep this up? We shall see… Actually, I did wake up at 7, but since no one else was alive I felt free to sleep for another 90 minutes. After coffee and a shower, I decided that my banana goodness bread would be my first dish of the decade. Whether it’s a new home or a new decade, I think homemade bread just says “welcome”. I mushed bananas, sifted flour, and stuck it in the oven. While it was baking I had my first breakfast of the decade.
Pumpkin Oatmeal With Vanilla Almond Butter And Strawberry Yogurt Frosting
See? Things don’t change overnight! That’s partially why I haven’t made any resolutions: I do that enough day-by-day that I feel no pressure to do it year-by-year. Anyway, I wasn’t too hungry and this was late so I kept it simple with delicious, Springtime flavors. I love my salty sweet 🙂 Eventually the bread was done.
Banana Goodness Bread
Another perfect loaf 🙂 This time I swapped out the flaxseed for wheat germ and sprinkled vanilla sugar over the top for some crispness–beautiful. Then my grandmother came over for a New Years lunch. It used to be our tradition when I was a little kid to have chinese take out every new Years day with my grandparents. Instead, we had leftovers, which were 10 times tastier anyway.
Roasted Vegetable Medley, Sirloin Roast, Banana Goodness Bread
Was I supposed to hold off on slicing into that bread? I’m sorry; I think I missed that message 😉 I portioned out 3oz of meat and then loaded up on bread and veggies.Yum! I kind of wish I had the sirloin last night when it was freshly cooked and dripping red but oh well–that’ll happen again in my life sometime. The bread was simply perfect. The key to a crispy stop is a little sprinkling of sugar and it is sooo worth it. Today it sounds like we’re “getting out” because it’s going to snow for 3 straight days, so I’ll be curious to see where we wind up.
A coconut bliss ice cream giveaway! Never tried this but it sounds delicious.
Food Makes Fun Fuel 
Okay seriously that apricot glazed brie looks amazing! I want some now!! Can you overnight that to Texas?! haha! Glad you had a fun new year’s eve…welcome to 2010!!
Kelly
January 1, 2010
Yummy baked brie!!! It looks fantastic. 🙂 And I will probably write 2009 for the next 3 months. Heck, I still write 1996.
Jessica @ How Sweet
January 1, 2010
foccacia is the best! good luck finding nooch, it’s great stuff :). love that your guest wanted the gnocchi to be ww so his wife would let him eat it! and i definitely ahve that same problem with writing 2009 on everything and having to cross it out–lame!
Stef @ moretolifethanlettuce
January 1, 2010
midnight was a bit of a stretch for me too haha. looks like it was a yummy party 🙂
marathonmaiden
January 1, 2010
happy new year evan! nothing like bread to start the year off right.
Lynn at The Actors Diet
January 1, 2010
WOW, that bread is drool worthy.. YUM!!!
I wasnt a fan of the hummus maximus crackers either.. out of all the flavor it was def my LEAST fav.
Hope ya dont get too much snow! 🙂
Abby
January 1, 2010
The Peanut Butter And Chocolate Gluten Free Brownies look to die for. I am ALL OVER That sometime soon. Real soon 🙂
And the banana bread action….yum!!!
Happy 2010 Evan!
Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga)
January 1, 2010
Alright, you made it to midnight!!! You did better than me 😉
Your eats look good. I’d like to try those gluten free brownies!
Anna
January 1, 2010
You so not mess around with your grub.
lpskins
January 1, 2010
HAHA!!
I love that your new year is filled with “laziness, not working out, and baking”…you don’t know it – but you just made me feel so much happier and not so hard on myself 😉 – Thanks…
And the brownies look delish! – did your guests like them? I did a review on Almond Butter Cookies from a vegan cookbook a few posts ago…yum! But now brownies are looking better…
Do your parents eat like you by the way? They seem very accomodating taking you to the stores you want, I assume they eat like you??!
Oh and it’s still the Holidays so extra desserts and midnight snacks are TOTALLY acceptable haha !! Cheers.
eatmovelove
January 1, 2010
I finally started writing 2009 on things !.. It’s going to take me forever to get in the habit on writing 2010! I could eat that whole apricot and brie cheese! Best app ever.
Julie
January 2, 2010
You are totally right about writing 2009 and crossing it out. So annoying! Ah well, probably the worst part about a new year. I made banana bread on Thursday! So good. Happy New Year Evan!
Erin
January 2, 2010