2010: A review through food

I'm not a big New Year's Eve partygoer. I've been to some parties over the years, but generally I prefer to snuggle up with my husband, watch a movie, and avoid all the drunk drivers. Also, my husband is usually asleep by eleven.

I decided this year to make a great dinner for my husband to ring in the New Year, and I had the brilliant idea to make a dinner buffet that reflects all the things we did over the year. The highlight was our trip to Spain, of course, so I decided that tonight would be the night to attempt paella. And what goes better with paella than sangria!

Spain wasn't the only place we traveled, however. We went to Charleston, SC to celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary. We splashed around at the beach, had a carriage ride, and topped our evening off with dinner at the Peninsula Grill where we ate an amazing dinner of upscale, southern comfort food and the most delicious coconut cake ever baked (it's so famous you can order it online!). Naturally, I had to include coconut cake in the review of 2010 menu.

We also went to Atlanta for a baseball game, and what represents Georgia better than peaches (which we incidentally picked up at a roadside stand on our drive down). Naturally I had to make a peach cobbler, following the recipe of a good ol' Georgia girl, Paula Deen.

We also visited a few places in North Carolina, like Raleigh and Asheville, and had our share of visitors as well! One of our favorite places to bring visitors is Mac's Speed Shop for some Carolina BBQ. I've learned the difference between Western Carolina, Eastern Carolina, and South Carolina bbq and am happy to share my knowledge with visitors as they choose from the variety of sauces available at Mac's. Naturally, our New Year's feast had to include some pulled pork with a choice of Western or Eastern Carolina bbq sauce.

I rounded out our feast with chocolate frogs to remember my sister's visit to Charlotte for the opening of the newest Harry Potter movie. We both love Harry Potter, and it only seemed appropriate that her first visit to Charlotte coincide with the opening of the movie. I made chocolate frogs when she visited, but I tried a new recipe this time around and they were quite delicious.

I had a great 2010 and it was fun reminiscing about all the fun times as I ate some pretty darn good food. I hope you had a safe and fun new year as well!

(Pictures and recipes to come...)