Posts tagged ‘new year’s eve’

Now that you’ve heard all about our annual New Year’s Eve culinary traditions, did you really think with a food lineup like that, we’d just keep the drinks program to wine, beer and champagne? In keeping with our over-the-top presentation, it shouldn’t surprise you to know that we’ve instituted an Around-the-World hourly drinks schedule that puts your old fraternity’s mixer themes to shame.

It started a few years ago when Dan was ready for a cold one by mid-afternoon, long before the first guests were scheduled to arrive. Like the drinker’s motto, “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” he rationalized that it was already midnight somewhere off to the East, and cracked a beer.

Since then, it’s evolved from a tossed-off explanation to a full shot-an-hour docket starting at 3:00 PM and available until midnight for anyone who cares to join in, along with a toast in each country’s native language. It’s not as killer as it sounds, given that we’re doing small tastes (especially as the number of participants grows), and it’s educational to boot—how else would you learn how to say “Happy new year!” in Latvian?

This year’s lineup, below, featured a few out-of-the-box selections from Bryan and LeeMichael’s expanding liquor cabinet and a few repeats from years past that we love too much to take off the list. (That 8:00 PM Greenland shot will probably be on there until the polar ice caps melt, because we think we’re sooooo clever for coming up with it. Plus, it’s a good pacer!) Take a look and tell me what your favorite one would be.

last year's lineup

Who else hates New Year’s Eve? Anyone? I never could figure out what I was supposed to be doing on this, the most Amateur of Amateur Nights. Times Square was never an option, dinner out was always an overpriced snooze, and staying at home to cook a romantic meal just resulted in overwhelming levels of drunkenness as I tried one mixed drink experiment after another. Bad news all around.

So we started hunkering down at our friend Bryan’s house in Boston six years ago and it’s worked out incredibly well. It’s such a great compromise: All I have to do is cook lots of food, I don’t have to drive anywhere, and the party just happens around me with a rotating, crazy, always amusing cast of regular characters. After the first year’s ad hoc affair where I cooked a few random appetizers and munchies, we started assigning ethnic themes to the party food. As the crowds grew from seven to now more than 70 people, we of course couldn’t leave well enough alone, and the tradition got a little more elaborate every time.

In 2005, Bryan decided we should attempt paella, despite having way-too-small skillets incapable of holding enough rice to feed 20 people. (A nor’easter at the last minute left us with a lot of leftovers anyway.) In 2006, the Chinese Year of the Pig—Bryan’s favorite animal—gave us inspiration for a few Asian courses. In 2007, Bryan and his boyfriend LeeMichael’s gut-renovation condo in the South End necessitated a few trips to IKEA, so we hosted a Swedish-themed party influenced by the frugal retailer. Last year, in honor of Bryan and LeeMichael’s upcoming wedding, we celebrated the food of the Netherlands, the first country to legalize gay marriage.

Even before the first Dutch oliebollen and oudejaarspot were set on the table in 2008, I made an executive decision to take a year off from obscure culinary challenges. 2009 would be simple and delicious: an Italian feast. Having an entire year to prepare and a massive library of recipes from which to choose, I couldn’t resist going a little nuts (so much for simplicity) and make as much as I could from scratch—breads, pastas, sauces, ricotta. Had I thought of it earlier, I would have even tried homemade mozzarella for the first time.
>> Read on to see the full menu of Italian specialties >>