Paige Swenson Lindell 

One Hand Held Out to your Future, the Other Hand for your Drink

Saute, Skewer, and Wrap Your Way into the New Year

From a culinary perspective, many of the major winter holidays are marked by a certain stove shackling tradition. Yes, I am looking at you Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not only are the festivities often dependent on a huge investment of cooking, but then participants are required to sit around the table together and break bread.

Enter, New Year’s Eve, the night of annual accounting, that frees us from these traditions. In fact, New Year’s Eve encourages a certain level of frivolity that eschews dinner with a capital D. This night is all about snacking. It is a celebration of standing up and eating in rooms where food is not usually served.

As a child, New Year’s Eve was my first taste of adult freedom, and it was delicious, simultaneously watching the silver ball descend, dropping cracker crumbs onto the thick wall-to-wall carpet of my parent’s living room. I was up at midnight, drink in hand, eating while standing up. Anything was possible.

For some, New Year’s Eve means an evening out, but for even more us, it is an opportunity to eat glamorously in our own ordinary spaces, snack on small delicious things that don’t require plates, with one arm raised, our hand around a long unwieldy stem, welcoming what is to come.

To Eat

Saute: Marinated Olives and Roasted Nuts are both cocktail party standbys, but both require time and the ability to plan ahead, speed up the process at the stove. Techniques borrowed from the venerable Mark Bittman.

Olives: In a large skillet, over low heat, add 1⁄4 cup of oil. Peel and thinly slice 2 garlic cloves, and fry with a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Drain a pound of olives and blot them dry before adding them to the skillet. Stir occasionally until fragrant and warm, 3-5 minutes.

Nuts: Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping your nuts don’t burn in the oven, keep ‘em where you can see ‘em. Wipe out your olive skillet and add 4 pieces of bacon cut in ½ inch pieces. Cook until crisp for 5-10 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel and add 2 cups of choice nuts to the rendered fat, pecans, cashews, even peanuts! A teaspoon of curry powder, cumin, or brown sugar can take this to the next level. Stir frequently and lower the heat if necessary to prevent browning. Toss the nuts and bacon together and try not to eat the whole thing before your guests arrive.

Skewer: I don’t know why food tastes better on a stick, but it does. Afterward, you can also use the pointer dagger to gesticulate wildly. Anything is fair game here: fresh or dried fruit, cheese, cured meats, even crusty bread, cornichons and even marshmallows, but preferably not all together.

Wrap: This is less a recipe and more a general reminder about something I like to call “hot bites.” Olives, shrimp, Oysters, dates, and hard cheese all benefit from being wrapped in bacon and spending some time under the broiler. Watch carefully. Toothpicks are helpful.

To Drink

The Master Punch Bowl Ratio, Tommy Werner, Epicurious, 2015

Punch is potential, many variations will do the trick. It is best served out of a bowl, with a ladle, heavy on the ice, and true to its name if possible. This is a volume-based ration, so grab your nearest glass and start pouring.

2 parts spirit

1 part sweet

1 part sour

1 part sparkling wine or soda

The following are delicious riffs on this ratio, but feel free to create your own: Gin + mashed strawberries + lemonade + champagne. Spice rum + pineapple juice + lime juice + ginger ale. Tequila + pomegranate juice + lime juice + sparkling wine

Mock-Champagne Cocktail, The Sunset Cookbook of Favorite Recipes, 1952

The Mock-tail is hardly a new invention. Recipes for mocktails were diverse in the 1950s, including alcohol free versions of a Bloody Marys and Clamatos, good candidates for the morning after, but for your main event, you can’t go wrong with this classic.

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

½ cup grapefruit juice

¼ cup orange juice

1 pint ginger ale chilled

3 Tablespoons grenadine syrup (optional)

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan; boil slowly for 10 minutes, stirring only until sugar is dissolved; cool. Mix sugar-water syrup with fruit juices, chill thoroughly. Just before serving, add ginger ale and optional grenadine; mix well. Serve in Champagne glasses with a twist of lemon.