Jen and Nate's Rockin' New Year's Eve

While the Black-Eyed Peas sung their ridiculous song about how they are "so 3008" and I am, apparently, "so 2,000 late" I sat in traffic on a snowy route 95, trying to make my way home to have a 2,000 late dinner with Jen. I was a little 2,000-hungry and dealing with the Connecticut drivers made me a little 2,000-pissed as well.



Jen started off dinner with this delightful apple and beet salad with capricho de cabra, pecans, and grapefruit vinaigrette. It was hard to tell if I was more proud of the deliciousness or the skillful use of multiple items that we needed to work out of our fridge before leaving town.



To accompany dinner we enjoyed the 2007 Lemberger from Tabor Hill which we acquired in Michigan this summer.



I was supposed to bring home a loaf of crusty bread but since I am terrible and forgot we thawed out some of Jen's rolls from the freezer. While untraditional they made a nice accompaniment to the rouille.



Jen made an exceptional bouillabaisse which, as it turns out, is far easier to make than it is to spell.



We got a tiny piece of tenderloin from a farm in Vermont (well, distributed by a farm in Vermont to a local market here). Jen made some frites and aioli to accompany the tenderloin. The tenderloin was quite tasty and much less painful than last year's beef disaster.



The only "champagne" I could muster up was this tiny bottle of super-cheap, overpriced, lousy sparkling wine. It was sufficient to ring in the new year but insufficient in making either of us comment: "Hmmm, that was reasonably tasty."

Watching the horrifically bad "Dick Clark's Rockin'ly Bad New Year's Eve Travesty" was the perfect cap to the evening. While I'm going to have nightmares about J. Lo's performance, I will sleep soundly knowing that terrible New Year's Eve "specials" haven't changed a bit in the past 30 years or so.

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's hope that 2010 brings some sort of community supported agriculture back to this site!