new years eve

so i brought my camera, but it has been sitting too long and had no battery life. therefore this post will just be words...

i know i said i wanted to post more food blogs without any concern for fancy foods, but as it turns out, i guess i still have something for the finer things of life!

this new years eve plans were to go down to my brother-in-law's place, per tradition, to have dinner and wine and ring in the new year together. his wife, lorena, and i decided we should just do a bunch of appetizers and pretend like we were at a fancy party. everyone there either had child(ren) or was with child...who says that should stop us from having a fun time??? anyway, i was in charge of making 4 appetizers and since lorena chose to theme hers around vegetables, i had to come up with the proteins. after researching and just thinking to myself what would be tasty, i came up with the following 4 items:

vichyssoise with cannellini's

three cheese mac-n-cheese pastry's

squash chips with blackbean chicken salsa

mini beef wellingtons

so here's where pictures would be great, but alas, i don't have any. so, i will just talk about them and let you use your imagination to create the pictures!!

first off, i have NEVER made any of these things, which is pretty much standard when it comes to me trying to cook for family/friends. i knew it was going to take a long time and that there was a greater-than-fifty-percent chance at least one wouldn't turn out so i began this endeavor on monday night. i got all my groceries and did any kind of chopping/cutting/prep work that was necessary when i got home. tuesday night i spent most of the time slow baking the squash chips while also prepping the the mac-n-cheese pastry's. the vichyssoise was going to be the hardest challenge as i've heard it's something you must do right if you attempt at all!!! around midnight on tuesday i had decided i was looking good. the mac-n-cheese pastry's were in their muffin pan, the chips were a crisp golden brown, and though the vichyssoise looked a bit runny, it had excellent flavor.

i had to work until 1pm on new years eve so i was left with only 5 hours to finish everything off. when i got home i pulled out the puff pastry's for the mini beef wellingtons. i let it thaw for about an hour while i diced the ribeye into 1/2" chunks. i selected a roasted red pepper with garlic boursin cheese for my wellington's and i let that get to room temperature too. all i had left was the blackbean chicken salsa. looking good as far as time goes right...oops, i went to turn on the grill only to find us COMPLETELY out of propane! i really needed the chicken to be grilled and not broiled as i needed that crispiness. so, with two hours to go, i grabbed the propane tank and dashed off to the convenient store to reload. once back home i heated up the black beans, without their canned liquid, and a can of rotel (also sans liquid) on very low heat with a bit of chili powder, paprika, and cumin. i ALWAYS use mccormick montreal chicken seasoning as it was a gold fork staple that i haven't found a replacement for. once the chicken strips were done i diced them and added them to the salsa. i started to realize my salsa was a bit too thick for the flimsy, half-baked squash chips...remedy? i put the whole mixture into my food processor and added some of the reserved bean liquid (always save the liquid, at least for the duration of the beans themselves). the results, well, it was more like a tapenade than a salsa, but i think it worked.

anyway, everything was finished, on time, and tasted de-lish. i can't wait to try these items again and if i do, i promise i'll take a picture!