Last night, as I was laying in bed reading, I thought…here we are. The last Tuesday ever of 2008 and it’s almost over. The end of every year always has me looking back, thinking about the past year and highlights of that year. I have to say 2008 was a good year for me. I made some great connections with fellow gluten free bloggers (now, if we could just figure out how to get all of us in the same place, at the same time to have a cocktail together!). The Artist and I got to spend a lot of time with friends this year, finally made it to Elitch’s (our local amusement park) after talking about it for six years, celebrated a big birthday for me (hello new decade!), laughed over some failed gluten free recipes, were fortunate enough to take a vacation and are rounding out the year the way we always do – with a lamb dinner.
I’m not sure when we started to have lamb for New Year’s Eve, but it’s become somewhat of a tradition in our house, along with some sort of scallops for appetizers. This year, we’re ringing in the New Year with our next door neighbors for an early dinner. We’re having a leg of lamb. The Artist is going to make it in some sort of mustard crust, and I’m in charge of the roasted fingerling potatoes. Add to that a winter salad (mixed greens, candied walnuts, pears and some cheese) and you have a meal. Oh, and dessert! I am going to try and make some sort of cherry popover/turnover using the crescent roll recipe that Kate posted about earlier this year. We’ve been using Carol Fenster’s sorghum blend as the flour in this and it works beautifully. There’s no egg in the recipe but it’s rich due to the cream cheese, butter and cottage cheese. This is an easy recipe to make. I’m going to just roll it out, put some pie filling in, close them up and bake until golden brown.
So now that I’ve shared my plans, what are your New Year’s dinner plans?
Wishing each of you and your families a wonderful, safe evening, and good things and good health in 2009.
GFS
Hi Steve,
Happy New Year!
I’m going to The Chatterbox for an early New Grist beer. I like to be off the roads by 8 pm on New Year’s Eve. I think I’ll bake some pork loin with apples for dinner. Then I’ll count the blessings that have come my way in 2008 and embrace 2009 with great anticipation! This year’s calendar change feels a little mystic to me.
Pork loin with apples sounds really yummy! Cheers to you Kay, I’ve loved getting to know you better this year!
I love the title of this post. And good nostalgia is even better.
While we usually stay home on New Year’s Eve, this year we are actually going out to screen a band for our big Valentine’s Day bash coming up. (See, if we all lived closer together, you could all come to that. LOL … seriously, what a great image, huh?) Anyway, the band is playing here locally for a New Year’s Eve dinner/dance celebration. We’re opting out of the dinner part. (I have a simple, but mouth-watering dinner cooking in the crock pot and may post on that on my new blog … thanks again, Steve, for checking it out and commenting). We’ll just go long enough to hear them play a few songs, dance a bit, and confirm they are worthy of our biennial celebration. We’ve listened to them online and gotten great recommendations for them, so all should be good.
Steve–Both yours and Kay’s meals sound wonderful to me! I think 2009 will be a good year for all of us!
Steve,
All this talk of lamb dishes and other great sounding meals is making me hungry. Where we’re going this year for New Year’s Eve they’ll be just serving coldcuts. I’d rather come to your hous!
Your salad sounds fantastic and that’s one of my favorite salads. I love candied walnuts; I don’t even need the salad with it. I hope when I visit Denver you’ll make this dinner for me.
I’m glad you consider 2008 a good year for you and wish you an even better one in 2009.
Love,
Mom
Nothing to say except happiest new year to you and the artists, and all the love in the world. I WILL come to Denver this year, some how, some way….(breaking into West Side Story song).
XOXO Ging
Happy New Year! My plans were to get as intoxicated as possible and make a fool of myself on the dance floor of a Seattle hot spot.
Check. Check. and Check.
Next year I’ll opt for the lamb.
Happy New Year!