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Happy 2016! January 01 2016
As I write this post, I am recovering from another wonderful New Year’s Eve! It has become a tradition that we host New Year’s Eve at our home. This year was the sixth or seventh party at the Rosenberg’s and boy have they changed over the years.
There are some consistencies from year to year and that is why we continue to host. The evening always includes good friends, good wine, interesting punch and great food. The guest list continues to grow even though we now start the party at 6 pm and kindly ask everyone to leave at 9pm. There is a little one at our house who doesn’t understand sleeping in, and I need to get some sleep too! This means I am finished cleaning up in time to watch the ball drop and then head straight to bed. I remember a few years back getting to sleep around 5am… that doesn’t happen too often anymore.
The drinks continue to get better. My husband is in charge of all beverages from the wine to the punch. The punch is usually very involved and doesn’t get touched. This year the punch included grapefruit, honey, banana liquor, strawberries, basil and Szechuan Peppercorn infused vodka. I’m not giving away the recipe here but you can see it was interesting. The wine is always a safe bet and we have a champagne saber which usually results in one minor injury but allows everyone to enjoy a lot of bubbly.
The menu was streamlined this year and included meatballs, pigs-in-a-blanket, guacamole and a caviar display. My friend Jeremy brought some decadent foie gras and chicken liver mousse. I couldn’t help but serve that with some Notorious F.I.G. from Gus & Grey. I used some of the spices from La Boite to season the meatballs and had some D.A.T. Sauce out with the pigs-in-a-blanket. As you can imagine, there wasn’t much left!
Overall I feel the party was a success and know we will do it all over again to ring in 2017. I am looking forward to an eventful 2016 and am very excited to share it with all of you.
Happy Friday,
Julie
A Day in the Life of D.a.T. SaUce June 12 2015
By now, you are familiar with D.a.T. SaUce, the Louisiana hot sauce in our marketplace. It is a great blend of tomatoes, garlic, and spices with just the right amount of vinegar to keep you coming back for more. I was excited when an order came in last week for 4 bottles of the sauce. Someone is REALLY into this sauce and I wanted to figure out why. I’ve had a bottle in the refrigerator and tried it here and there but this was my cue to really figure out where to use D.a.T. SaUce. My goal was to try to use the sauce at every meal. Here’s what I learned.
8am – Breakfast
Usually this is yogurt and granola but I knew that wasn’t going to work with hot sauce so I made an omelet. I put some zucchini and cheddar cheese inside. It was delicious and even better when I poured a bit of D.a.T. SaUce on top. I’m not into super spicy so a little bit goes a long way for me. This was a winning combination and one that I would try again and again.
11am – Snack Time
I never quite make it directly from breakfast to lunch (or lunch to dinner for that matter) without a snack. What is a quick and easy snack that everyone loves? Pretzels! Would that work with hot sauce? The answer is YES. I dipped my pretzel sticks in D.a.T. SaUce and was surprised with the result. The extra salt from the pretzel balanced some of the heat and made a snack I really enjoyed.
1pm – Lunch
Today’s lunch was created from leftovers in the refrigerator. We used some leftover roast beef, asparagus & broccoli to make a little stir fry. I was tempted to use another spice from the marketplace but decided to stick with my experiment. Once again, D.a.T. SaUcE was a winner.
5pm – Snack Time
Trying to save room for the delicious dinner that was cooking in the oven, I opted for an apple as my afternoon snack. This is the one pairing with D.a.T. SaUcE that I will skip in the future. The apple was juicy and sweet and just didn’t marry well with the sauce.
8pm – Dinner
Following on the English Tradition, we typically have a Sunday Roast at our house. This Sunday was only slightly different as we made Red Wine Braised Short Ribs. You can find the recipe for the ribs here.
It is June, but the weather wasn’t too hot, so it was the perfect evening for such a comforting dish. Once again, D.a.T. Sauce was an excellent addition to the meal. I used it sparingly as the ribs were sooo delicious on their own. The heat and the vinegar from the hot sauce were a nice balance with the richness of the meal. We had a salad on the side to try to keep the meal moderately healthy.
It was a spicy day but you can see from my little experiment, D.a.T. SaUcE is good on just about anything. It is available in two sizes. If you still aren’t sure, go with the smaller one but I guarantee you’ll be coming back for more.
Happy Friday,
Julie