The Day After New Year's

You know why I love having Corned Beef & Cabbage on New Year's Day?  So we can have homemade corned beef hash the next morning!!!  Every year of my life (as far as I know), I have eaten Corned Beef & Cabbage on New Year's Day.  Must be the Irish in us.  All I know is that the New Year cannot officially start unless we have eaten this meal.  Much like the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on the first, we have to have cabbage for good luck, wealth & health!  My  hubby HATES cooked cabbage, but I am proud to say that for the last 25 years, he has eaten a bite of cabbage on New Year's.

At our New Year's Day dinner yesterday, we had several friends and shared our traditions with them.  I'm pretty sure everyone ate at least one bite of cabbage.  Ethan told the group he was going to eat his cabbage first, to get it over with and then he could eat all the good stuff.  After a bite of cabbage, he looked at me and said, "Mom, I think I like this!"  Yeah, another convert!

The full menu yesterday was Corned Beef, Cabbage, Roasted Potatoes, Dorie's Spiced Butter-Glazed Carrots, Rolls, and Salad (plus sour cream and horseradish for those who like it).  For dessert, I made Split Level Pudding (Vanilla Pudding & Chocolate Ganache), from Dorie's Baking from my home to yours.  The pudding got big thumbs up!  As you can see, I didn't take any pictures.  It's hard to take good pictures when there's a crowd...hell, it's hard for me to take good food pictures period.  I'm still struggling with getting the exposure right.  It's driving me up a wall.

I do have a nice picture of the hash I made this morning.  It was yum, yum, good and was gobbled up by Ethan, his buddy Lukas, me and James when he got home from playing tennis.  I'd say, 2011 is off to a good start...no hang overs, no food comas, just lots of friends and family!