If you are checking out this blog after my appearance on CTV Ottawa Morning, welcome! Please take a peek around and I hope you enjoy.
For New Year’s Eve, consider a small ‘kid-friendly’ party with just your own children, or others as well.
Have the craft centre set up for them to make their own noise makers and hats when they first arrive.
For food, stick with an easy buffet with plenty of veggies, crackers, cheese and dip plus chicken (recipe below) with yummy dips.
My children are young so they’ll be going to bed rather early the night of New Year’s Eve but we still want to include them in celebrations. No matter how you celebrate, enjoy your time as a family and have fun!
For a family activity, consider looking at your pictures from 2011 and talking about everyone’s favourite moments and memories. What did they like best? What made them excited? Do they look different? What do they hope will happen next year? It’s a great opportunity, even with young children, to spend some time reflecting and talking.
Below are some of the recipes/food ideas I talked about. For crafting, take a look at your recycling and craft bin and put together some outrageous and fun hats to wear on New Year’s Eve!
Food ideas:
Chicken lollipops
In separate bowls, put a raw egg (scrambled), flour and pepper and bread crumbs (each in their own bowls)
Cube raw chicken into inchxinch cubes.
Dip each cube into egg, then flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.
Place each breaded chicken piece onto a cookie sheet (lined with parchment for easy flipping!)
Cook at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until done), turning once half way through.
Using wooden coffee stir sticks, put a stick in each chicken piece.
*note: You can also cube and cook the chicken and insert the sticks without breading for those who prefer no breading.
**These will freeze well but don’t insert the sticks until the next time they are heated.
Dips
Cranberry-Mustard
For each quarter cup of cranberry sauce, add 2 tsp of dijon mustard (or 3 if you prefer).
To make cranberry sauce (as per recipe on cranberry bag):
1 bag of cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup of water
Since I didn’t want that much sauce (it makes about 2 cups). I used 1/2 cup of cranberries, 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar, then froze the rest of the cranberries.
Curry-Mayo
For every 1/4 cup of mayo, add 1 tsp curry powder. Mix.
Dessert:
The trifle is a Kraft Canada Dessert Centre recipe for Dulce de Leche Trifle.
I modified it by using my own homemade cake (recipe for hot milk cake is here) and by omitting the brandy. I also used caramel sauce instead of the dulce de leche. When layering it, I followed the same directions, but served in small cups.
Popcorn:
For a movie themed party (or just for a delicious snack), try these popcorn toppings.
Parmesan Garlic:
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan, 1/2 tsp garlic salt.
Sprinkle olive oil over warm popcorn. Add desired amount of parm/garlic mix and shake.
Cinnamon-sugar:
Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar with 2 tbsp cinnamon (or reduce sugar/increase cinnamon if preferred).
Pour melted butter over popcorn. Add desired amount of sugar mixture and shake.
