Welcome, 2011!

2010 is finally gone! We had a little family celebration of 2011 with a lot of good food and lots of cheer. My exhaustion from cooking all day long did not mar my holiday, and I stepped into the new year clanking my glass full of champagne with my family and my fiance.

One of my resolutions for this year is to learn more about food, cook more, and to finally pretty up this blog. It's a bit plain, and my photography is certainly not up to par. I see a new camera in my future, as per my brother.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a pretty long menu, considering that there were only 5 of us. Two of my cousins stopped by later on for a few minutes, but 80% of the food is still in my fridge. But at least neither I nor my mom need to cook for another week or so.

So what did I make? Here is the list:

1) Pelmeni, a.k.a. Russian-style dumplings/ravioli. I actually didn't make them, my mom did. I still can't get the hand-pleating down, but she made about 300 of them!
2) Broccoli-mushroom casserole
3) Eggplant Parmesan
4) Stuffed mushrooms -- definitely everyone's favorite!
5) Crab meat salad
6) Herring under a coat salad
7) Venigret -- another Russian salad containing beets
8) Chicken with 40 cloves -- AB's recipe
9) Jalapeno baked fries
10) Ricotta-raspberry cheesecake
11) Coconut balls
12) Garlic oil toasts with red caviar

I will give same of these separate posts with recipes and pictures. For now here's a picture of my little toasts. They were delicious!