Happy New Year!

We had a great New Year's party here at the House of the Boston Chef... about 13 people in all came over to help us ring in 2007. As you can imagine, we had lots of food!

We had a half spiral ham that we heated out on the grill and finished with an Orange Juice Glaze (1/2 cup OJ, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, some big tablespoons of honey... simmered down to a thick syrup). We had Peas with Proscuitto that we stole from a Giada/Everyday Italian recipe. We also made an easy dip for our Ultimate Veggie Platter (1 cup sour cream, little over 1/2 cup mayonaise, fresh chives and parsley diced up, and our new Penzey's Fox Point seasoning. Chilled for a few hours, came out fresh and tasty). The Ultimate Veggie Platter included celery, red bell pepper, baby carrots, pumpernickel bread, seasame crackers, pepperoncinis, those prosciutto/moz stuffed cherry peppers you can get at the store (love those!), dip, etc..

We had Stacey's Famous Twice-Baked Cauliflower: Boil a bunch (two bags) of frozen cauliflower for about 15 minutes. Strain, then return it to the hot/dry pan to evaporate the last of the water. Add a scoop of margarine and a scoop of sour cream and some salt and pepper and mash until it's a nice, "mashed" consistency. Spread it out evenly in a baking dish, sprinkle a layer of shredded cheddar cheese and some bacon bits over the top, and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes - until the cheese melts.

Our guests brought food too - a delicious baked mac and cheese with breadcrumb topping, some seafood-stuffed mushroom caps with asiago cheese that we melted in the oven, some big freshwater shrimp that we doused in Penzey's cajun seasoning and olive oil and threw on the grill, an eggnog cake dessert (was really good! tasted like eggnog!), crab dip and lots and lots of chips.

Along with a seemingly-unlimited supply of beer, wine, orange vodka, punch, and champagne at midnight - a good time was had by all.

As a gag gift, we received these "anonymous" sunglasses that make it look like you've been censored out of photos when you're wearing them... and they produced many hilarious pictures throughout the night. For example:



Who were those girls?!?!?!? Happy New Year!