Happy New Year (again) but Kinda Late

This year's New Year's function was set back kinda late. I was in India until pretty far into January, so the festivities weren't held until January 26. I know, kinda late, but it's never too late to have a lot of red wine, and Spanish tapas. Last year's theme was Italian feast and this one was Spanish Tapas. Yummo. Of course I had to hold it on the coldest night of the year, when our beautiful brownstone, as charming as it is, still does not have double paned windows and there are drafts and cracks everywhere- bottom line, the house was FRIGID.

Rohit- the latest and greatest fella in my life (which sounds so flip, but this blog isn't about hurting feelings, it's about talking about FOOD, darn it!) helped me prepare all of the wonderful dishes that we created for the evening. My cousin Shweta was put to work creating the seafood paella, which turned out to be a fantastic feast. She cooked a ton of rice, we chopped in tons of chorizo and lots of mini scallops, the rice turned yellow like it was supposed to from all the saffron and it was so yummy and comforting.

The tapas we made were:
- Spanish meatballs
- Ajillo mushrooms
- Red onion and orange salad
- Spanish omelette

Rohit was in charge of a lot of it because he is very calm, cool and manages to make everything "work" perfectly, like getting the omelette to slide perfectly out of the cast iron pan and onto a plate where we covered it up and served it cold.

I made a flourless chocolate and orange cake, which was a complete hit, especially when certain somebodies ate it with the sharpest knife we own looking like a big man. There was a lot of wine, a lot of wine. Lots of bubbly, too, since you have to have that. Freixenet is the best vino- cheep and cheerful, but not cheap tasting. It's a great party wine.

Rohit also brought lots of wonderful Spanish cheeses from the wonderful Fairway and cold cuts, like serrano ham and proscuitto, even though that's Italian (ssh, don't tell- we won't!) It was a fun evening, but it was a different vibe than last year, when everyone was feeling warm, fuzzy and slightly tipsy. This year, I felt like people wanted to eat and bolt, except for the fun people who stayed until the very end- amigos, you know who you are. I wonder what the theme will be next year- in my new apartment!!!