"newyear" news and stories

I realize that it is now January 3rd, which might be too late to be writing about all those lucky New Year foods. However, I've really been enjoying reading about all the things that people prepared for themselves to ensure an auspicious New Year and thought I might share a couple that I particularly liked with you all.

The video you see above is from Chris and Michelle, who decided to make pork chops and sauerkraut to commemorate their New Year (an Italian tradition). They also made some delicious-looking mashed potatoes and homemade applesauce (I love it when people make their own applesauce, as it is just so easy and so much better than the stuff that comes out of the jar). The sauerkraut song that they used as background music is also totally infectious.

Over at the Perfect Pantry, Lydia posted a recipe from Arlo, one of her readers, for Boullets, which is a New Year's meatball soup, traditional to Arlo's Cree and Metis roots. It consists of a large pot of meatballs (the size depends entirely on you) in a broth. The post explains that there is no definitive recipe for this dish, that it changes depending on who is making it. It was always made in large quantities for the New Year, so that every visitor who stopped by could be welcomed and fed.

Source

• Dungeness Crab is just coming into prime season. Whether you buy it cooked, raw, or live, here's what to look for.
• If you're cooking with crab meat, here are recipes for crab cakes with Thai seasonings; linguine with crab and radicchio; and shaved fennel salad with crab and oranges.
• Nancy Leson makes a resolution for her Chinese New Year: this year she'll "rock the wok" and finally use her "arsenal of Chinese cooking tools."
• Is that your resolution? Try these recipes: pan-fried scallion-chive breads and China Moon hot chili oil.
• The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl! But the Times food staff is evidently behind on their bowl-worthy recipes. Instead, they just do Super Bowl snacking by the numbers (*yawn*).
• This week, Nicole Tsong and Pamela Sitt sit at the bar of Restaurant Zoe, but they can drive home: they're sipping a Clear Conscience, made for a pregnant friend of celebrity chef Kathy Casey. It's made with fresh-squeezed tangerine juice, cucumber slices, lime juice, simple syrup, soda water, and lemon verbena.

Source

Dessert is unquestionably the bane of many people’s day. Many desserts are fattening, calorific and simply unhealthy. Portion sizes are huge and it is difficult to limit yourself to only a part of what you are served – especially if it all tastes so good. Lower fat desserts, baked goods in particular, have an equally bad reputation, as many people believe them to be rubbery, dry, dense and flavorless.

There are many desserts that are lower in fat or in calories that still taste great, though it is true that some baked goods will be changed for the worse without butter or sugar, so don’t just leave them out when you’re cooking. Sarah, the author of Baking 911 has tons of tips and well-tested recipes for low fat baking and desserts. Diet-Blog also has a few suggestions for easy and delicious desserts.

Don’t automatically assume that you can never eat crème brûlée again if you want to have a healthier lifestyle. You can still indulge sometimes, but make healthier choices with your everyday treats. Sorbets and gelato are good alternatives to ice cream. Try having low fat milk in your hot chocolate and top it with a marshmallow, not whipped cream.

If you had the baked brie appetizer and a deep dish pizza for dinner, you should probably skip dessert. But being healthy doesn’t mean that it dessert is never an option, nor does it mean that you can’t enjoy great flavors and delicious food.

It is pointless to always try to resist snacking between meals. Sometimes you’re just hungry. The best plan is to have healthy snacks available and to try to cut down the fat and or calories on your favorites.
At restaurants, choose a main dish before you order an appetizer. If the portions are large or your dish is very rich, you may want to skip it entirely. If your main dish is healthy, do not beat yourself up if you decide to have a small cup of creamy soup or a handful of onion rings. The main thing to remember is that your whole meal should be fairly balanced, with richer and leaner elements. Portion control fatty and fried foods.
At home or at work, fruits and vegetables make great snacks, along with healthy dips like sweetened or spiced yogurt, hummus or salsa. Balance your favorite cheesy dip with some veggies, not just chips. You do not have to give up your favorite snacks to stay healthy, though. To use nachos as an example, you can choose tortilla chips with no trans-fats and eat the nachos with plenty of fresh salsa. If you know of a reduced fat cheese that you like, use it, but otherwise try to cut back on the cheese or forgo it entirely every once in a while.
When you body is sufficiently hungry, you should listen to it. Ignoring your body’s signals will cause you to overindulge at your next meal. Just try not to listen when it tells you that it wants chili cheese fries after you’ve just finished lunch.

I've had a love affair with tapas from long before I ever set foot in Spain (for the record: April 29, 2003. Madrid. Honeymoon. Met or exceeded expectations). I first started noshing on shrimp and romesco sauce, blue cheese-stuffed olives, and little toasts with jamon serrano when I was still just a budding gourmet in my early 20s. Tapas first entered my life in a party, and I feel that nothing says cocktail food so much as a good tapas spread.

I can't recommend these salty Spanish bites enough as the menu for your New Year's party (whether it's for a formally-dressed crowd or just one or two in your jammies with a good bottle of bubbly). They are easy to make at the last minute ('cause if you're like me you haven't planned, much), they don't require much in the way of recipes or thought, they're highly-flavored, they're often packed with protein to counteract the effects of your tipplin' ways. They're pretty, too.