Happy New Year

Friday, December 31

Our New Year’s Eve celebrations tend to be on the quiet side.  This year is no different.  Dinner is over; the table has been cleared.  I’m sitting by the fireplace, sipping a second glass of wine — which may be a mistake since more than one glass tends to make me sleepy.  Perhaps writing this blog entry while I wait for Mui to finish talking to friends in Turkey will help to keep me awake.

Mui’s the cook in our household.  For tonight’s festivities, he prepared a “semi-homemade” meze feast for just the two of us.  (For those not familiar with meze, think Spanish tapas with a Turkish twist.)

The menu consisted of: prosciutto-wrapped-cantaloupe; hand-wrapped sigara böreği (deep fried rolls of Turkish phyllo pastry filled with a mix of feta cheese and fresh parsley); barbunya pilaki (red kidney beans cooked with olive oil); köfte (Turkish meatballs); zeytinyağlı yaprak sarması (rice stuffed grape leaves [aka dolmades]); zeytinyağlı patlıcan dolması (eggplant stuffed with rice); fava (dip made with broad beans); and zeytinyağlı enginar (artichokes cooked in olive oil with rice and scallions, and garnished with peas and carrots).

(By the way, anything that has the “zeytinyağlı” designation in Turkish cuisine is served at room temperature.)

For dessert, we tried a recipe for what Rick (of Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels) described as a Napoleon Slice.  (Click here for recipe.)

New Year’s Eve Feast

Mui’s been saving this rakI for a special occasion; New Year’s Eve qualifies.

Now that Mui’s completed his call, it’s on with the next part of our evening — watching a holiday movie.  See ya later …

… Later

It’s only 10:30p, but I don’t think either of us is going to make it to midnight to ring in the new year.  My goal now is to stay up long enough to finish this post.

So, the movie we watched tonight was The Bishop’s Wife.  Netflix, describes the plot as follows:

This Christmastime angelic intervention sparkles with good humor.  Dudley the angel (Cary Grant) is sent to help a bishop (David Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young) survive their attempt to finance a new cathedral and the strain it’s putting on their marriage.  The film includes complex undercurrents, especially when the bishop sees Dudley as a rival for his job and his wife.

This holiday classic falls into the “oldies but goodies” category.  I’ve just added the 1996 remake, The Preacher’s Wife (starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney Vance), to my Netflix queue.  I’m curious to see how it compares.

Happy New Year Everyone!