New Year's Eve Menu

I don't like to go out on New Year's Eve.  There are too many variables I can't control.  Sometimes we go to the neighbor's, but this year we decided on a quiet dinner at home.  Being New Year's Eve, I wanted something nice, but I didn't want to be stuck in the kitchen all day and night, particularly since I was recovering from a cold that had me in bed most of the week after Christmas.  I "appropriated" a menu from a local restaurant and made a few small changes and alterations.  Here's the menu and then our adaptions:

FIRST

Bruschetta

 Grilled Italian bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, served with a diced tomato, basil, and garlic medley

SECOND

Salade d 'Endives

Belgian endive tossed with walnuts, raisins, and gorgonzola cheese

THIRD

Raviolis au Quatre Fromage

Four cheese ravioli baked in creamy white Alfredo sauce

FOURTH

Soupe à l'Oignon

Traditional French Onion soup of beef broth with caramelized onions and croutons finished with cheese gratinee topping

FIFTH

Poulet Provencale

Breast of chicken sautéed with mushrooms and brandy cream sauce

SIXTH

Bomba de crème glacée

Classic vanilla and chocolate gelato separated by cherries and sliced almonds tossed in cinnamon, finished with a chocolate coating

The Bruschetta was easy.  I made it as an appetizer for Christmas and made another small batch for New Year's Eve.  It took just a few minutes to make.  We picked up a baguette at the grocery store and topped the Bruschetta with some Greek feta.  It was hard to limit ourselves to just a few pieces.

For the salad, I chopped some endive, topped with walnuts, craisins, and Gorgonzola, and dressed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  The sweet craisins were a nice contrast to the bitterness of the endive.  I think it would have been better with a light vinaigrette.

Here, I screwed up and served the soup instead of the ravioli.  We ended up having two cream sauces in a row, but it was okay since neither of the sauces was overly rich.  Soup is easy since you can make it ahead of time.  I found the French Onion Soup recipe on my beloved Epicurious.  I followed some of the suggestions in the comments and used red wine instead of white, beef broth solely instead of beef and chicken, and added a dash of balsamic vinegar, thyme, and a bay leaf.  I should have used white wine and some chicken broth like the recipe said.  The substitutions made the soup heavier than I would have wished.  Another thing that marred it was the fact that we didn't serve it with bread or broiled cheese in the soup.  I know:  can you even call it French Onion Soup without doing that?  This was the low point of the meal, but still not bad.

I took the easy route and bought refrigerated four-cheese agnolotti and Alfredo sauce.  I felt a little guilty since Alfredo is SO easy to make, but I blame it on still being a little sick.  It actually tasted quite good.  The sauce was reminiscent of Stouffer's boil-in-a-bag Fettuccine Alfredo that I used to love back in the day, so I had pleasant associations with the taste (should old acquaintance be forgot?) even as I recognized its shortcomings.

We were starting to get full around this point.  Although we'd been careful about portion sizes, it was a lot of food.  We each had a full bowl of soup, which was a mistake.  Half as much would have better.  We still had a little room left for our main course.

I wanted Veal for the main course but couldn't find any in the grocery store at 3PM on New Year's Eve (poor planning on my part).  Chicken doesn't scream "special occasion" to me, but I really wasn't in the mood for a fillet or seafood so chicken it was.  The recipe I used was Chicken with Mustard and Tarragon Cream Sauce.  I used boneless chicken breasts and added mushrooms to the sauce.  We should have pounded or filleted the chicken, but that's a quibble.  I substituted whole milk for half of the whipping cream and used dried tarragon (again, being lazy).  The sauce was fantastic!  We will definitely make this again but with fresh tarragon next time.

Luckily, ice cream was for dessert because ice cream's not even like eating.  It just slides down your throat, so even if you're full it's okay.  I combined sliced almonds and cherry-soaked Craisins (a mistake--I meant to pick up dried cherries) in a jar, sprinkled cinnamon on top, covered, and shook well.  I tested an almond to see if I had enough cinnamon.  I served the mixture alongside a scoop each of Breyer's Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream and drizzled it all with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.  So delicious we had the same dessert every night for the next week.

We started the night with a white Burgunday, which paired well with the first courses, and then opened a vintage Champagne we bought at a wine dinner a few years ago.

All that food helped temper the effects of two bottles of wine.  It was an enjoyable way to end the year.  I think we've started a new tradition, too.