New Year's Celebration

For New Year's Eve I tried 3 different recipes. All three were hits with my guests but I was a little disappointed with the desert. Let's start with the main meal which was a recipe by Kroger for Italian Meatballs. When I share with people that I only recently tired meatballs, I get the oddest looks. We didn't eat meatballs growing up. A friend of mine insisted I tried hers at a work potluck and they were delightful. Now that I have conquered my fear of meatballs I have cooked them twice. Both times successfully. Yum!

This recipe called for only sausage as the meat which made them a bit spicy. I enjoyed the fact that these were smaller meatballs not larger ones. I used Panko crumbs instead of plain bread crumbs which cut sodium from the dish. The recipe did not specify, so I used 2% milk. Prep time was 25 minutes and cook time was 20. I paired the meatballs with Barilla's tomato and basil pasta sauce over spaghetti noodles. We had plenty for leftovers and leftovers were just as yummy as the first night.

Instead of pairing a wine with our Italian Meatballs I tried a recipe from Good Housekeeping by Kate Mathis called Pomegranate Margaritas. As I am not a huge fan of margarita's I thought this would be an overpowering drink. The limeade and pomegranate juice tapered down the tequila and brought everything together nicely. Since this made a large pitcher, I was able to bring to leftovers to my New Year's festivities. One tip, make sure this is drink is served ice cold. I let the pitcher chill for 2 hours.

For desert I made another Kroger dish called Black-and-White Brownies. Since this had both white and bittersweet chocolate I figured there would be a nice smooth balance between the two chocolates. Instead the bittersweet chocolate overpowered the white chocolate which caused me to be very disappointed. All I tasted in each bite was bittersweet chocolate and butter, no white chocolate. I did bring this to the New Year's Eve festivities and it was a hit with the group. Prep and cook time was less than an hour.

Overall, each dish was a crowd pleasure but for me only one will make it into my permanent recipe collection, Italian Meatballs.

Websites:

• Kroger Italian Meatballs Recipe
• http://krogercincinnati.mywebgrocer.com/Recipes/Johnsonville-Italian-Meatballs/54772?SearchTerm=johnsonville 
• Pomegranate Margaritas Recipe
• http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/pomegranate-margaritas-recipe
• Barilla Basilico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce
• http://www.barillaus.com/Products/63/basilico-tomato-and-basil-sauce.aspx 

Black-and-White Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
• 4 TBSP Butter
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 TSP Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 TSP Ground Nutmeg
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/4 Cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 TSP Baking Powder
• 1 Cup Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks

Directions

     Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9" square pan. Heat white chocolate, butter and sugar in a heatproof bowl on low in the microwave for 1 minute intervals, stirring after each minute. Repeat until the chocolate softens taking care not scorch. You should be done within 5 minutes depending on your microwave. When butter is melted and white chocolate softened, stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Let the bowl cool till lukewarm. Beat in eggs. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Stir into egg mixture. Stir in 3/4 cup of chocolate chunks. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chunks. Bake for 25 minutes. Let pan cool before cutting. Cut into 16 squares.