artistinresidencehome.comLooking to put a little sumthin’ sumthin’ together for New Years? Wow your guests and bring it in with a well crafted spread of choice charcuterie with homemade Chicken Liver Pate’ and fresh made crackers to serve alongside cheeses, fruits, nuts and accoutremonts like fig and guava pastes or jams. Whatever you serve, have a great time and make it memorable!
One of the best ways to celebrate New Year’s eve is to book a reservation, but some of us like to stay at home and avoid the overpriced cheap champagne served at most places.
It’s so nice to have a little shindig at your place on New Year’s Eve or anytime during the holidays. A good way to stay less stressed is to put together a spread or buffet table and let people nosh on what they want in in their own grazing time while you get to socialize with your guest instead of spending all your time juggling timers for the oven and dirtying more dishes than you’d like to wash when your sure tired later.
The buffet can be a mixture of platters, boards, and plates of fruit, cheese, charcuterie, crackers, toasts and small sweets. More importantly they all can be a mixture of homemade and store bought things. This way you can concentrate on making one or two things a few days ahead of time and use the rest of the time to design your spread.
So what should you make and what should you buy? Well, that’s your choice and partly what’s great places there are in your local area. If you aren’t the greatest at arranging platters maybe you have a fabulous market that can put them together and deliver for you.
Ask a cheese monger for a good cheese selection. They can be a great help in paring the cheese and accoutrements with what you are serving.
I never do mine the same way twice as I am always finding new things to try.
On my spread I have crackers that I made:
Parmesan Crackers
Herb Crackers
Cheddar Pecan Crackers
Oat Biscuits
I have a homemade Chicken Liver Pate’ that can be served with baguette rounds or the crackers, and Rum Spiced Crab Apples http://artistinresidencehome.com/rum-spiced-crab-apples/
that eat like a chutney and goes so well with all of the cheeses.
My cheese log is a Goat Cheese Cheve’ with cherries, pistachios, glace’ cherries and drizzled in honey.
A mix of nuts, marinated and pickled things and some charcuterie round out the table.
Always have some sot of flower arrangement and candles. They can be votives or large candles which adds a soft light and puts everything in the mood.
I also chose white as my base color so that all of the food ‘pops’ and guests can see all you good stuff easier.
Have fun and don’t try to do too many things yourself. The reason for this is to celebrate and have a good time.
