Cooking As The World Greets 2012

So here we go again -- one year ends and another begins. A time for looking forward and looking back. No matter if you celebrate or actively ignore the turn of a year, New Year's is a special cooking opportunity.

The meal planning can get a little complicated because this holiday is also filled with social pressures and high expectations. I remember the first time my parents let me stay up until midnight, hoping to finally witness some secret adult ritual as that old man turned once again into the diapered baby. Then there were all the times when I thought there must be something magical about sitting in a restaurant with a boyfriend, noise makers, and a paper crown on my head. Both proved to be Peggy Lee-type disappointments. I also spent many years living a few blocks from Times Square, and if you'll forgive an understatement, it's truly not the fun it may look like on TV.

But now I appreciate this holiday for its unexpected and contemplative quiet. For me New Year's is at its best as a night at home to have a nice dinner and maybe watch an old, favorite movie. Then asleep early, only to have some unseen but still heard fireworks wake you at midnight as if the passing year isn't quite ready to let go. I like my version of New Year's Eve far better than to being out and about as the ball drops, the crowds roar, and then amateur celebrants share your path home.

Regardless your party style, it's still a holiday so there is inevitably a special New Year's meal. First there's the kind that I will make. Just for my husband and me. We'll splurge on a bottle of Champagne, then a few favorite luxuries but it will be an easy meal because I'm anticipating that by New Year's Eve I will be rather cooked-out. I love salmon caviar and prefer it to the far more expensive sturgeon roe, especially spooned generously on thin slices of baguette, lightly toasted. Then New York strip steaks, boneless and rubbed with fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper, broiled for seven minutes a side (the goal is medium rare), then glossed with a small spoonful of Roquefort butter made with one part unsalted butter to one part crumbled Roquefort cheese. We don't eat red meat as often as we used to so a good steak is a rare treat. Then a big salad, perhaps a Caesar with garlicky croutons and a dressing using some of the pungent Worcestershire sauce I made this fall. And if there's room for dessert we'll have the last of the holiday cookies that I've been making and giving as gifts. Happy New Year to us.

But for those of you less anti-social than me, here are a few tips for the other kinds of New Year's meals: the New Year's Eve dinner party, New Year's Day brunch, and what I call breakfast for those coming home in what the song calls the wee small hours of the morning.

Cooking for a New Year's Eve party? If it's a sit-down dinner do something stylish like oysters on the half shell with a classic sauce mignonette followed by beef tenderloin with sauce raifort, made with horseradish, or whole salmon with dill sauce. It's also fun to serve foods that have New Year significance such as collard greens and hoppin' john (see our link for a Lowcountry recipe at Epicurious) made with black eyed peas, or perhaps something with pork and lentils, all considered good luck for the coming year. The greens are symbolic of money, and thus are a hope for prosperity; after this past year maybe we should send some collard greens to Angela Merkel and the ECB chiefs. Dessert should be luxurious, such as chocolate mousse or butterscotch pots-de-crème.

For a New Year's Day brunch, a buffet is usually best because it lets people serve themselves on a day on which they may have a big or very small appetite, depending how late they were out the night before. It's also good for parties where there will be children who can be unpredictable eaters. Consider a baked ham, cold shrimps with a variety of sauces, brie baked in phyllo dough, mac and cheese, vegetable gratins, and salads -- all foods that can sit on a table without needing a lot of maintenance. Desserts can be store-bought pastries like cookies or cupcakes, or instead a fruit and cheese platter, baked fruit crisps, and slices of lemon or chocolate pound cake.

And for you wee small hours of the morning folks, before you head out for the night before, make sure you have on hand a dozen organic eggs, some fresh chives, a container of sour cream, a bottle of V-8 juice, and hot sauce. When you finally get home you'll be ready to make scrambled eggs with hot sauce, adding a snip of chives and a dollop of sour cream, plus icy cold glasses of V-8 juice. To the juice add a few drop of hot sauce and hold the alcohol. You'll sleep well and the new year will safely begin.

No matter how you celebrate, thank you for letting me into your kitchens in 2011 and I wish you all a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2012.