Being Where You're At

New Years is usually a high-falutin sort of deal. I have always adored the glitz and glamour of NYE celebrations, and attended some pretty high-end gigs (including one memorable eve in NYC where I ended up at the house of a well known fashion designer, but that's a story for another day).

Enter: this year, Leo is three months old, I'm just rounding out my maternity leave (read: one income household) and we've been elected by Ricardo's extended family to be the hosts of this year's  celebration. We originally conceived of a James Bond themed party with Martinis (shaken, not stirred) and lots of gold embellishments. 

I furiously scoured the internet looking for deals on cases of champagne, DIY projects and caviar-esque bites but continuously came up short (on change, that is). I was disheartened and feared that our party would lack the necessary sparkle of a NYE celebration if I wasn't able to deliver on the theme. Defeated, Ricardo and I considered calling off the party altogether. If we couldn't go all out, why do it at all? 

Then, while making my ritual detour through the clearance section at our local superstore a few days before Christmas, I happened upon some flower power napkins, bright yellow table cloths, and hanging wall decor. Ten dollars and a shift in perspective later, I had traded in my glittered cocktail dress and high heels for a peasant blouse and bare feet. A new theme was born: Hippy New Year!

Guests wore their favorite tie-dye and head scarves, we put flowers in our hair, and ate our veggie burgers and "special" brownies buffet style. We danced to the Stones and sang all the words to our favorite Beatles songs. A groovy good time was had by all and it was a hippy new year indeed.

Here's the menu:

• Hummus three ways (traditional, sesame, and jalapeno-my own recipes)
• Veggie sliders
• "Special" brownies 
• Stuffed "magic" mushrooms
• Psychedelic punch

A life lesson was learned from the initial disappointment and eventual triumph of planning our NYE party: be where you're at in life, not where you want to be. Back in the day, a sparkly, champagne-filled fete would have been the perfect way for Richi and I to spend our New Years. But this year, that's not where we're at. When we planned our party around what was available, rather than try to force a theme outside of our comfort zone, we freed ourselves, our guests and our pocketbooks from the rigidity and expense of a typical NYE celebration.

And as a more general rule: stop in the clearance section before you set a theme for your upcoming party! That way you can build a theme around what you know you have and can afford rather than what you wish you had or could afford.

May this new year bring many fabulous parties fit for a Bond girl, on a flower girl's budget...

Holy Ravioli

Every Christmas my family deviates from the typical Christmas nosh [insert ubiquitous carved meat here] and hosts a huge Italian feast. We're talking lasagna, manicotti, meatballs and--the star of the meal--ravioli, all handmade down to (and most importantly!) the dough.

The meal is supposedly in honor of the birth of baby Jesus but there is something ungodly about how good this is. I'm sinning just thinking about it.

The best part? Handmade pasta and ravioli are CHEAP! All you need is some flour, eggs, water and a little elbow grease!

Kneading out the dough

Oh yeah, and a pasta machine (try borrowing one from a friend)...

We make all vegetarian fillings for our ravioli: spinach which we serve with the traditional red sauce and meatballs, and a butternut squash which is served in a simple brown butter and sage sauce. 

Our spinach ravioli filling has dried porcini mushrooms, ricotta, egg and breadcrumbs

Keeping the fillings vegetarian makes it easy to duplicate this recipe to feed a large crowd without breaking the bank (each year our guest count ranges between 20-30). You can be as inventive as you want with the fillings--I even used corned beef leftovers for one memorable post-St. Paddy's Day batch. 

We make the ravioli a day or two in advance and freeze it in small batches separated by wax paper. That way, on the day of the event you just have to boil the water and you only cook what folks will eat.   Raviolis that don't get cooked that day can stay in the freezer for months for a ready made meal to impress. 

The finished raviolis pre-freezing

If you have a crowd coming over that likes to cook, you can save some "symbolic" dough to make a few raviolis with your guests so they can be a part of the process and learn how it's done. It's something people have really enjoyed doing with us! 

Don't they look like they're having fun?

Since the process is a little cumbersome (READ: easy but time consuming) I wouldn't recommend depending on your guests to crank out their entire meal's worth of ravioli in one sitting, though. 

I'm not sharing our trade secrets here ;-) but I found this tutorial that explains the process really well and is as close to our process as I've been able to find. You can learn about the lasagna we cooked this year here courtesy of my sister.