A "Duckadent" New Year's Celebration

Joanne

Happy New Year everyone…. to kick off 2011 I decided to start writing about the food I eat.  There are many good cooks in my family and we have a passion for food.  Our lives revolve around food: consumption management, menu planning, sourcing ingredients, grocery shopping, preparing meals and talking about them afterward.  What fascinates me most now is watching my childrens’ palates evolve and observing what friends like to eat.  Encouraging children to appreciate the joy of food, respect it’s preparation  and balance consumption with indulgence is an aspect of parenting that I find rewarding.  I am doing this daily blog mostly as a diary for myself, but maybe others will find interesting tidbits and be inspired.  By going on-line, I’ll be motivated to maintain it.  Plus, now that my New Year’s guests encouraged me to do it, I have followers.
A “Duckadent” New Year’s Celebration
What I like about our New Year’s tradition is that it’s a party that carries over into the next day.   Our third annual play date and sleep-over guest list expanded – a total of 8 adults and 8 kids with the youngest guest 7 months old and the oldest guest 87 years young.  Together, we enjoyed Sonoma fois gras paired with Nicholson Ranch ’08 late harvest chardonnay (who needs a French sauterne, this was a match made in heaven) and smoked duck breast, deviled eggs, fresh squeezed lemonade, salt and pepper Kettle chips, uncured beef cocktail franks with Annie’s BBQ sauce, leek soup, eggplant lasagna with meat sauce and béchamel sauce, cabbage salad, chocolate soufflés….
Then we had homemade donuts at midnight.
The first thing I did this morning was get out the flour and yeast for bagels.  That was before coffee.  Brunch on New Year’s Day was served to 13 of the remaining guests at just after noon:  Idaho home fries cooked in rendered duck fat, two varieties of homemade bagels-rye and white with the works; poached farm eggs, smoked Atlantic salmon from Maine; fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juices.
In France, there is an expression, “J’ai les dents du font qui baignents.”  Now everyone is satisfied, sleepy and happy…. what a decadent way to start 2011. Ducky! Bonne Année!

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