[Lauren]

We're hosting our third annual NYE dinner with some fellow MFF'ers. For me, it's the perfect way to ring in the new year. There's no having to deal with the amateurs at the bars/restaurants, no driving, no worrying about other drivers. Just lots of good food, friends and laughter. We usually finish the main course right before midnight - go out on the deck to watch the fireworks and sing Auld Lang Syne and then come back inside for dessert followed by cheese. We do the cheese course last so we can end the night nibbling and drinking until the wee hour. It's very fun.

This years menu was inspired by the Ad Hoc cookbook:
Cocktails
Dates stuffed with foie gras and possibly one other appetizer
Mushroom soup
Braised Pork Belly and Seared Sea Scallops
Possibly a poultry course
Rack of lamb with the potato pave and braised artichoke hearts with fennel, carrots and aromatics
Simple green salad with vinaigrette
Dacquoise
Cheese

The wines aren't nailed down yet but there will be one paired with each course.

Happy New Year!

[StephanieL]

We're going to my friend's house in NJ to avoid a noisy party our next-door neighbor is hosting. (He invited us, but we don't have the stamina to stay up until 3 AM.) There's a Ghanaian place near my friend that I hope will be open.

[Peter Creasey]

the perfect way to ring in the new year. There's no having to deal with the amateurs at the bars/restaurants, no driving, no worrying about other drivers.

Lauren, Definitely important considerations...which we ardently adhere to!!

We always spend this time at the beach (Galveston) enjoying the wonderful surf.

Out for our fried oyster fix tonight (the 30th).

Then on NYE we'll have American Caviar, smoked salmon, foie gras mousse, lobster bisque (with lobster tail), cookies. Oh yeah, also a sparkling wine and probably a Rhone wine.

Safe and utterly enjoyable!

[GG Mora]

I have a major deadline happening, so I'll be working until 8 or 9. And the Mr. works at a ski resort, in retail, so he'll be working until 8 or 9 as well. I'll try and wing together some pasta or something, and I suspect I'll clink a glass of wine to his bottle of beer before we hit the hay by 10:30 or so. Yeah. We're total party animals!

[SeaGal]

We'll be over a Lauren's, cooking, eating, drinking great cocktails and wine, and enjoying the company. I'm working on the artichoke braise from Ad Hoc as I post.

[Suzanne F]

Like GG, we both have looming deadlines. So I had to beg off going to my cousin's in Olney, MD. She invited us because we have spent the last 6 or 7 NYEs together with her, her sons, and her mother (my Beloved Aunt Bette) going places like The Knitting Factory, Bowery Poetry Club, and assorted hipsterish places as well as St Bartholemew's for Anthony Newman's fastest-ever Brandenburgs and Alvin Ailey at City Center. Great fun. But this year she brought 93 1/2-year-old Bette back to her house. It was lovely of her to invite us, but we can't take the time to travel there and stay over a couple of days.

So we'll probably just have dinner at home, maybe go over to the South Street Seaport if they have fireworks (assuming we're still awake).

I might just braise the pork chops I bought today at USGM with some cabbage and sour cream, boil up some noodles (oooh, carbs!), and give Paul a big kiss. Then conk out.

[Wilfrid]

Oh I am glad you asked. I will be going to see Magic Brian, a close runner up behind Seth Rudetsky as the funniest man in New York. I expect he will be doing "magic" rather than variety, but the open bar will doubtless leave me shouting requests for "Meat Shirt" before the "ball" drops.

"A manwich!!!"

[Stone]

Thank god. I thought my plan to watch season one of The Office tonight was pathetic.

[ghostrider]

Thank god. I thought my plan to watch season one of The Office tonight was pathetic.

You should be watching the Red Green Show box set like us.

[Lex]

Thank god. I thought my plan to watch season one of The Office tonight was pathetic.

Mad Men, season 1, for us.

Boy, we really know how to have a wild and crazy time.

[Liza]

Two block walk to the Elk's Club. I'm bringing the cheese. Plan on drinking my weight in return, then waking up to play with Sugars all day.

[ghostrider]

Two block walk to the Elk's Club. I'm bringing the cheese. Plan on drinking my weight in return, then waking up to play with Sugars all day.

That is so New Jersey!

[Cathy]

Steak tartare at home. I plan to be asleep by midnight.

[Sneakeater]

I'm going to go to the same party I go to every year.

At midnight, I'm going to stand in the same spot I stood 10 years ago, at what was considered (wrongfully or not) the turn of the millenium, and remember kissing my wife then.

Then I'm going to start crying uncontrollably.

Then I'll go into the dining room and have some charcuterie.

[Behemoth]

I hate going out on NYE, but this violates A's most deepest German instinct for paying way too much money for the privilege of being crammed into a loud, uncomfortable establishement with a bunch of people you don't have any particular desire to talk to. So the compromise is we're meeting another couple at a neighborhood place where we are regulars. Then trying to make it home without getting any burn holes in our clothes from all the drunk idiots shooting off fireworks.

eta: cross posted with Sneak. Maybe you should come to Munich next year.