We had friends over for New Year's Eve. So far this is the closest Rick and I have gotten to be able to 'celebrate' New Year's together. Finding a babysitter on that day just isn't easy. Of course in my recent mixing frenzy I've been trying out new recipes. To go with the lasagna and green bean almondine dinner that night I made:
Tada! Foccacia! Disregard that wee bit I cut off because I just had to taste it right away.
Here it is all cut up. The dark green thingys are from the herbed olive oil I had to make in advance to put on the top. For the olive oil I used sea salt, coarsely ground pepper, a tad of garlic, sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano and basil. All from fresh herbs. Good thing was that there was plenty left for dipping in later.
(As a side note, this bread does NOT hold up well on day 2. I brought a leftover plate that had been well wrapped over my mother-in-laws on N.Y.Day to go with dinner and it was so dry when we went to eat it that I was quite embarrassed. I brought the extra olive oil too, but only Rick and I used it while the others tried --probably desperately--to choke it down. =( I think as a Day 2 reincarnation it would be best to finish drying it up and use it as croutons.)
Also, because it really bothered me I just want to mention that Lamagna ricotta cheese is NOT good. The taste of it is good but it is excessively crumbly--even when combined with various other ingredients including 3 cheeses.
The girls spent a large chunk of the evening pretending to be kitties. They made ears and tails out of construction paper. And...they drew whiskers--yikes! (Luckily, the whiskers washed off pretty well)
Tail view.
Four of the five children made it to midnight. But only 3 went out to bang pots and pans.
Tristyn wanted to be near the street and brought a full arsenal of pots and pans to be his drum set.
The girls stuck to the porch and weren't even phased that some old pine boughs we had left on the porch were sharing the stage with them.
