New Year's Cooking?

[The Nid Hog]

Anybody making any special menus for New Year's Dinners?

My wife is from Tokyo, so she's already busy at work making mochi. We have a home mochi making machine, which looks like a cross between a rice cooker and a bowling ball cleaner. Mrs. Nid Hog started last night by soaking the short grained sweet rice and this morning she steamed it and ran it through the pounding cycle of the machine. You end up with a huge ball of dough made from steamed sweet rice that's been pounded into a glutinous mass. She separates those into smaller biscuit sized discs. These will end up being served in a variety of different ways. Some will go into a thick stew of chicken and vegetables that we'll eat on New Year's morning. Others will be fried or grilled. My kids like them with melted butter, soy sauce and toasted nori (the sheets of processed seaweed that are used for sushi making). They also like them rolled in kinako, a powder made of ground soybeans and suger. Some might wind up in bowls of cooked and sweetened red beans too.

There's a wide variety of "osechi ryori" or traditional New Year's foods too, but my wife and her family don't like them much, so we'll probably pass on them his year. However, we will have homemade noodles of some kind on New Year's Eve--the shape of the noodle is thought to be an auspicious sign of long life.

Although my wife is from mainland Japan, we picked up some nice tempura recipes living in Okinawa and we'll probably make some of those too. The Okinawan batter is thicker than what you normally find in mainland Japanese cooking. I think that we'll be frying prawns, vegetables (kabocha squash, carrots, peppers, lotus root, maybe bitter melon and whatever else the kids are clamoring for--maybe sme slices of Spam!) and a neat treat that we discovered in Okinawa--several long green beans wrapped in sliced cheese and ham, then dipped into batter and fried. Maybe a big pot of oden too--various kinds of fish cakes, kombu (seaweed) bows, hard boiled eggs and sausages (another Okinawan addition) cooked in a thin broth.

I've already stocked up on beer, sake, shochu and awamori, plus a couple of bottles of champagne for New Year's Eve. I'm going to crank up the "FieLDS Dynamite!! 2009" MMA tournament on New Year's Eve to get into the spirit of things, and we'll start eating and drinking. Hopefully we've laid on enough stock to get through the weekend!

[TravelingMan82]

We are having Prime Rib.

[JPM]

For New Year's Eve and New Year's Day we have a couple staying with us. I am grilling lobster tails with a little olive oil, salt & pepper on New Year's Eve. I got a really nice proseco to go with it.

New Year's Day is a prime rib rubbed in olive oil, fresh rosemary & thyme, garlic and salt & pepper that I will smoke with some hickory wood. I'm going to serve that with some roasted baby potatoes and carrots and some sauted spinach. I think I'll look for a spicy chianti to go with it.

[Storer50]

Im having white chili and many different liquors

[Jasonian]

I'm making pizza (x2) at home from scratch.

We've got a French rose brut from the Loire valley as well. (for later)

I'm looking forward to it.

(which reminds me.. I need to make the dough today)

[ouch]

We are having Prime Rib.

When is prime rib not a good choice?

[Luc]

I'm going for the traditional Aussie Prawns on the barbie this year! I was told that a Mexican Fiesta was not right... I don't see why not

[Jim]

It all sounds delish!

[Mpugh77]

We'll be having a pork roast, blackeyed peas, cornbread, and collards probably with lots of Texas Pete.

[Carlin]

I'm having whatever work is feeding me. I'm on waitstaff for the premier catering company in Houston. It's sposed to be an extravagant night ($4mil just on entertainment...)

[Confuzius]

Going to a pot luck.
Bringing lasagna: home made pasta from scratch with prosciutto, mushrooms and cream sauce.
Might also make meatballs, we haven't decided yet.

[ratcheer]

I am having a Manhattan cocktail and am just about to start making my family's New Year Eve dinner. I am being lazy and several of these items are frozen or prepared by the store, but I think it will be interesting and tasty:

(Store prepared) Shrimp Cocktail
(Frozen) Lobster bisque
(Frozen) Crab cakes - I will sautee them
(Homemade - ta da) - Creole Remoulade sauce
(Frozen) Twice baked potatoes
And a tossed salad of fancy greens

For dessert, excellent lemon ice box and chocolate cream pies, from a local barbecue restaurant.

I may be lazy, but I can hardly wait.

Tim

[Euclid]

I'm making hopping john to share with my neighbors tomorrow. Its good stuff.

[KaiserKrebs]

Going to take the family to my parent's place for roast pork with sauerkraut, and potatoes. We've had the same New Years day meal for the last 25 years or so. Somewhere my mom had read of an old tradition where eating pork on new year's day was to bring luck, and prosperity for the new year. Don't know if this is really a German tradition, German-American, or Pennsylvania-Dutch type tradition.

I have all those groups in my geneaology, so it seems to fit regardless. Tastes amazing with a good beer, especially if it happens to be a little chilly outside.

[TravelingMan82]

Here is some Prime Rib I made last night.

pr.jpg

[bob.e]

Today is Me and Stormey's 11th anniversary so every New Years Day I cook the same meal she ate the first day she arrived here.

It's a simple pot roast with a horseradish gravy served over egg noodles with sweet and sour red cabbage on the side. My family just simply calls it "Boiled Beef With Horseradish Sauce"

By Horseradish Gravy I mean a full 8-10 ounces of grated horseradish thickened with grated potato. It sounds like it would overpower you but it actually makes for a nice mellow horseradish flavored gravy. The cooking and potato gets rid of the horseradish heat but keeps all it's flavor

The Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage is bottled German Style doctored with Clove and Minced Onion

[sandmountainslim]

I had the New Years Tradition tonight

Hog Jowl
Collard Greens
Blackeyed Peas

YUMMY!
Wp

[gth872]

out here we went with shrimp, crab legs, and hot sausage boiled in two big pots. it definitely needed cheese grits though...