New Years Eve Feast

Happy 20011!!! We are kind of boring for New Years Eve. We stay in. After the craziness of the Christmas season, I a
m pretty tired of cooking, so came about our New Years tradition of the no cook feast. It is modeled after the Swedish smogasbord. The rule is that nothing used has to be cooked or required much preparation besides cutting. It always includes smoked salmon, various cut up vegetables, a fruit or two (usually pears and apples), we have a cheese or two - almost always some brie- which we warm in the microwave, a cook bread and crackers. As you can see, all of the food groups are represented.The meal comes out to be pretty healthy, as long as we do not eat too much, and keep the cheese down to a minimum. But, it is New Years and one of our favorite meals of the year. We love the paring of pear and brie. I love the smoked salmon on good bread with some onion and cucumber. We use gluten free crackers for my hubby to use as a carrier. Other than the bread, everything else is gluten free. No recipes involved just: smoked salmon, brie, sliced pear, sliced apple, onion or scallion, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber - any other veggie, like baby carrots, red peppers, gluten free crackers, seafood salad. Grapes are good, as is hummus, salsa, tortilla chips, sliced turkey or ham. Just so long as it follows the no cooking rule. This also makes clean up easy. Very good for the morning after.
This year I had everything set up nice on the coffee table. We have a new kitten, who is very interested in our food. He jumped up onto the table. When I went to grab him, a claw or two were snagged into the table cloth. Over went a glass of iced tea and wet half the table cloth. the food was spared, the most important thing. The kitten was sequestered, the mess blotted up and the meal went on.

So - skal and Happy New Year