The year in review and the future

NEW YEAR'S EVE LATKES

I thought it might be a good idea to review the past year and look to the future in this post.

I am looking to these Rostii/Latkes as a recipe that can be used for Hannukah, Brunch or for a New Year's appetizer.

The recipe following the post.

As for the review of the year.  It's currently post Christmas but still in the week of Hanukkah when people usually use this time to reflect on the year and look to the coming year.

Since I don't have family to share the Holidays with I had a lot of time to reflect on the past year and think about how I want my future to look.

This past year has been very challenging.  I have struggled with my health a bit to do all the things I wanted to do.  I have had to let things and people go and adjust to what my reality is now.   At the end of November I fell at a subway station and as a result I couldn't lift my arm for about 2 weeks and had neck and hip pains along with it.  It was super busy for cooking demands with potlucks and other blogging opportunities.  I had to pass up one of the opportunities because I just didn't have the physical ability to do it.  I really wanted to do some baking and struggled to do what I could.  I managed to get a bunch of things done and had help with one of my baking assignments.  Now I am feeling a bit better and thinking about what I want 2017 to look like.  I have been so busy working a temp job that is ending in a couple of weeks and trying to keep up with events and now I have to focus on building my blog to generate income and look for more work in 2017.  I want to find work that gives me enough income and still have flexibility to work on my blog.   Going forward I thought it was time for tiny makeover of my blog. I worked on a logo/header redesign and cleaned up a few things.  Hope you like it.   My intention this coming year is to work with more brands and to be more creative in the kitchen and try and experiment a bit more.  I want to have more balance with events and work in the kitchen this year.

I want to spend more time in my kitchen and control what I am eating.  Eating out proves to be difficult for me sometimes with the heavy amount of sodium and processed foods that are presented.

I hope to eat simpler food like these quick rostii/latkes.  They are more rostii than latke but it works.

I hope you join me and try some of the recipes I will now include in the new page I created.   I am also hoping to do some contests this year, something I have only done a few times.

So here's to a bigger and better year with lot's of great food and opportunities.

As for the RECIPE here it is:

NEW YEAR'S EVE Rostii/ Latkes

Ingredients:

Rostii

1 large Russet potato

Canola oil

Butter

Salt Pepper

Garnish

Smoked Salmon

Fresh Dill or chives

Sauce:  

Sour Cream

Horseradish

Dill

Directions:

Peel at least 1 russet potato and grate on a box grater on the large grate side.  Do it quickly.

You can pat it dry with a paper towel but you don't have to add anything else.  Just work quickly before the potatoes turn brown.

In a medium frying pan heat up a tablespoon of oil and add a small amount of butter about a teaspoon for flavour.  When the butter is melted add a spoonful of the grated potato and pat down to a small rounded mound of potatoes.  It's easier to make them small to flip them.

Flip them using a spatula when you see the sides start to get brown.  Continue to cook until both sides are brown and crispy.  Before you flip them you can add salt and pepper.  Remove and place on a paper towel lined tray until they are all done.

If you want to make a lot for a party I would suggest just grating a potato at a time so they don't get brown.  You can only cook them in small batches anyway.  This method skips the straining and adding flour or eggs that you would normally add but you still get nice crispy potatoes.

You can make ahead and keep heated in a low oven.   At the last minute garnish with smoked salmon and a make the sauce using a small container of sour cream and a tablespoon of grated horseradish and add a tsp. of dill or chives.  

Place the smoked salmon on top of the latke and then add a tsp of the sour cream sauce on top and then top with fresh dill or chives.

That's pretty much it.  It just take a bit of time to cook the potatoes but it's pretty easy and few ingredients.

One large russet potato is about 2 servings.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you ALL and may all your food wishes and dreams come true in 2017.

New Year's Eve wishes & resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I planned on writing a post for New Year's Eve celebration tips but I was too busy planning what I wanted to do on New Year's Eve.  It's now a few hours away from the New Year and I wanted to wish all of my Blog readers a very Happy and Healthy Food Filled New Year and I hope all of your wishes for the New Year come true.

This holiday season I decided to
"Be the Change you want to see in the World" as they say in my own life.  In my case i wanted to celebrate the Holidays doing the things I wanted to do.

For Christmas Eve this year I went to a friend's party for a few hours and was amazed at how many people she had turn up on a Christmas Eve.  Since I don't celebrate the Holidays with family but I do enjoy the Turkey dinner's that I didn't get to have growing up so I decided to stay home and cook my own Turkey Roll from Whole Foods dinner and duck fat roasted potatoes, sauteed green beans and clementine glazed carrots.  I had a lot leftover and was planning on making Turkey Pot pie but I got lazy and turned it into Turkey Tettrazzini again.  You can probably find a previous post about this.  It's an easy way to turn Turkey leftovers into a whole new thing.

Anyway, for New Year's Eve for the past few year's I have stayed home to watch all the countown's on TV.  I just eat whatever I have usually but this year I thought it might be fun to invite a small group of my friends over to chill out with me.  I dug out my New Year's Eve box of noise makers from my storage locker and I made these clock and date cookies today.  I also picked up some Greek Honey balls from Athens bakery on the Danforth and added some gold spinkles to dress them up.  I really wanted Italian Struffoli but there isn't any around near me and I didn't have time to make some.  My neighbour used to have them every Christmas when I was a kid.  Nobody else I knew had them so it was a treat.

I still have a whole lot of sweets leftover from things my friends gave me as gifts and things I had from my party plus a whole lot of Skittles that I got at the Skittles Pawn shop for trading in the rest of the stuff I have been trying to get rid of.  

So that's about all the effort I have put into New Year's Eve this year because we are going to order Chinese Food.  Maybe this will become a new tradition if it works out.  I was invited to a party downtown but I wasn't in the mood to trek downtown by myself and squeeze into packed subways with drunk people.  I will stay in and avoid it this year.  Yeah a sign I am getting old but I was never one for going out and "clubbing" on New Year's Eve.  It's over priced and over-rated and not so much fun if you are single.  

I hope this year it's an easy breezy stress free start to a New Year.

This year was a year that I lost a couple of friends and gained a whole bunch of really great food blogging community friends.  I am hoping for bigger things in 2016.

Some of my Resolutions for the New Year include:

1. Work on my food styling and plating
2. Get better at decorating cookies... shaky messy hands.
3. Spend lot's of time meeting up with my blogger buddies and having great food.
4. Keep improving my photos and my blog posts.
5. Find some new and interesting events to attend this year.
6. Spend more stress free time entertaining and hopefully more tips for you.
7. I hope to do some travelling outside of the city and find some foodie adventures.
8. I want to have a balance of cooking at home and eating out.
9. Try and eat the best quality food I can get.
10. I want to waste less food and money.

That's what I have on my mind and I am sorry I didn't have a more interesting food post for you but I hope to do a follow up of my New Year's Eve adventures.   I skipped the Christmas one but if you want to see what I made you can find those photos on my Instagram feed @lindamatarasso.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year filled with only the Best Things.

Please remember as I always say each year at this time to make sure you Don't Drink and Drive!

Stay safe people and go into the New Year with Bang but not the kind with a car..:) not funny but punny.

More foodie adventures in 2016.   

Thanks for reading all of my rambling blog posts.  I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am writing them.

XOXO  

New Year's Eve - Party or Not?

Do you look forward to or dread New Year's Eve?

The answer usually depends on where you are in your life.  If you are married and spend it with your significant other and other couples then it's probably a great thing.  If you are single you might not feel the same way about it.

For me it's the time of year where I reflect on the past year and always feel like I should have kept up resolutions.  

I am not a big party person so going out to a bar with a bunch of drunk strangers yelling all night is not something I want to do.

I prefer to stay home and watch all the countdown shows from all over the world and especially the ones in New York.  New Yorkers don't go to Times Square because they know they will be locked in all night in the freezing cold.   I prefer to watch it from the comfort of my warm home.

Here are a few tips to get you through the night:

If you stay home alone:

1.  Prepare what you would like to have if you had gone to a great party.
2.  Make fondue or something special to make it feel like you are splurging on yourself.
3.  You can even get a mini bottle of champagne if you want to toast the night.
4.  Invite friends that you want to spend time with over or just enjoy doing whatever you want alone.
5.  Get all your snacks ready and get cozy and ready to countdown the night.

If you go out to a bar:

1.  Try and drink 1 glass of water for each glass of alcohol you drink.
2.  Make sure you have a ride home  if you plan on drinking.  The TTC is free or have cab fare or a designated driver.
3.  Be prepared to have a back up plan in case the bar is too packed or the place is a bust.
4.  Make sure you have something to eat before you go to a bar just in case there isn't much available or there are long waits to get any food.
5.  Dress to impress but make sure you are prepared for standing, dancing or standing out in the cold if you have to.

Going to a party:

1.  Make sure you follow some of the same tips as above about drinking and getting a ride home.
2.  Make sure you bring something for your host or any food or drink requested.
3.  Don't overstay your welcome.   If everyone starts leaving at 12:15am and the host looks tired then it's your cue to leave too.   Once a friend showed up after everyone had left and was ready to party.
4.  Just because you are at someone else's party it doesn't give you the right to be loud, obnoxious, rude or drunk to the point of getting sick.   That's not cool and no host wants guests like that.
5. Don't assume you can stay over.  Unless the host offers beforehand it's up to you to figure out how you will get home.  Don't put the burdon on your host or they will never invite you back again.

TIPS for FOOD and DRINK

DRINK
Have an assortment of drinks.  Not everyone drinks Champagne.  Have wine, beer and non alcoholic
drinks for those that need to drive.

FOOD
Suggestions for great New Year's Eve food includes:

Fondue, either chocolate or cheese
Popcorn
Charcuterie platter
Shrimp ring is always easy to serve
Sushi is also great for parties.
Like more substantial food - lasagna is always a crowd pleaser
Pizza - have a variety of different kinds of pizza
Veggie platter is always safe if you don't know if people have food allergies
If you are fancy you can have things like Caviar, and Gougeres and Macarons, basically fancy little things.
Maybe your crowd are the chips and dip kind of people.   Find out what they like and then everyone will enjoy the party.  
If everyone is on a diet and all you have are chips then you will leave your guests feeling like they are forced to break the diet or feel deprived.

Either way... be a good host and be a good guest and if you can't do that then stay home alone and make your party of one the best if could be.