Let me preface this post by saying that I in no way blame
Lynne Rossetto Kasper for my many missteps on New Year's Eve. For the most part, the problems were, as ever, those of execution. That said,
I'm really not sure what I could possibly have been thinking when I listened to an interview with food writer Diana Henry on
The Splendid Table and decided to make
Zakuski, or Russian small plates, for our New Year's Eve party. After all, I had no cayenne pepper, a surprisingly common ingredient in the recipes I dug up; I had no experience preparing Eastern European eats; and I had no idea how unforgiving these dishes could be.
I'll spare you the gruesome details and offer only the learned-it-the-hard-way lessons:
- If you're skipping the sour cream, dill and sauteed mushrooms and scallions are better served hot. (Saddled with fridge-cramping leftovers, I resuscitated the mushrooms the next evening in a risotto.)
- Smoked fish is too expensive to buy for 25 people.
- Not even the most refreshing squirt of lemon juice can induce guests to dig into cold, partially mashed kidney beans served with stewed prunes, red wine vinegar, mint and cilantro.
In the end,
even the platters of canned sauerkraut and pickled beets sat mostly untouched. (My brother, in town for New Year's Eve, referred to the entire spread as condiments in search of a hot dog.) Fortunately, I had bought cheese and pita, whipped up some spinach-and-artichoke dip and brown-sugared roasted sweet potato slices, persuaded a friend to bake a few pecan pies and received homemade rugelach from an adventurous South Asian guest. Those snacks, washed down with my wife's fruity champagne punch and my sister-in-law's Puerto Rican
coquitos, managed to keep spirits high all night. But I'll say this: No one was begging me for recipes as they headed out the door.
