New Year's Eve

I have some really good friends who love to humor me.  When I was growing up, we always had clam chowder and cheese and crackers on Christmas Eve.  This tradition is something that I look back on fondly and I'm always sad when I can't honor it.  This year, I decided to keep the tradition but give it an update...  so we invited some close friends over on NYE to enjoy homemade chowder with us.  It was a great evening.  

We started with a cheese plate with three types of cheese including my favorite sun-dried tomato chevre, two types of crackers, dried apricots, dried cherries, cashews, pistachios and dark chocolate chunks.  For the main course, we had homemade clam chowder (recipe below) and BLT popovers (you might remember this recipe from Thanksgiving).  We ended the meal with coconut cheesecake that was divine (that recipe is to come).   

Clam Chowder 
4 slices bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped 
3 potatoes, diced
1-8 ounce bottle of clam juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2-6.5 ounces cans of minced clams
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 cups half and half


Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucepan. Remove bacon to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain. Add onion to bacon drippings; sauté until softened. Add potatoes and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes.  Ladle into bowls and garnish with bacon crumbles. 

If you are lucky enough to invite a fish monger to dinner, you can hope that yours will also bring fresh clams AND cook them for you to use as garnish!  Really, the perfect finishing touch...