NYE Round Up

We stuck to tradition this year and rang in 2011 at Lisa and Tom’s house. The theme is usually international cuisine – a variety of appetizers outside our comfort zone. Last year we had snails, the year before that, frog legs and so on. But this year was just a huge spread of pretty “normal”, very delicious appetizers.

Curtis requested we contribute with three of Giada’s fried recipes and like most fried foods, all three were finger licking, grease dripping good! Plus if skinny Giada eats fried food, it must be healthy! Tim pulled recipes from his new cookbook: Ghetto Gourmet, the Kitchen Pimp himself aka Cookin' with Coolio.

Here are a few pictures of what we consumed along with links to the recipes:

Spicy Fried Chicken Drumettes


Fried and Stuffed Rice Balls (Arancini di Riso)


Fried Chocolate and Banana Ravioli (We were so excited to dig in that we failed to photograph these delicious morsels)

Tim's Soul Rolls (carefully crafted with Barry White's Greatest Hits playing in the background)


Tim's I'm Gonna Slap You With My Whisk Tomato Bisque


Tom's Spicy Meat Rolls


Tim's Ghetto Gourmet Chicken Lettuce Blunts


Tom's Grilled Flatbread with Asparagus Pesto and Fontina



Tim's Jack Balls (for adults only!)


Tim's Note: Although I'm sure Coolio would have approved, the Jack balls were not from Cookin' With Coolio. The recipe calls for bourbon, but Tennesee Whiskey works just fine as a replacement. I also cut it down by about 75% (seriously, who needs 72 balls?).

Bourbon Balls

Makes 6 dozen

12 cups crushed vanilla wafers (4 boxes)

¾ cup dark corn syrup

6 TB unsweetened cocoa powder

4 ¼ cups powdered sugar, divided

4 ¾ cups chopped pecans, divided

3 cups bourbon

Mix vanilla wafers, corn syrup, cocoa powder, 4 cups powdered sugar, 4 cups pecans and bourbon. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

Shape into balls. Pulverize remaining ¾ cup pecans and sift in remaining ¼ cup powdered sugar. Mix together and roll bourbon balls in mixture.

I can’t think of a better way to end 2010. I’m extremely grateful to have such wonderful family, friends and an abundance of food!