Doing a “let’s use things up and avoid waste” thing (read: concerted effort), so we had burritos from yesterday’s leftover beef and the previous day’s grilled garlic and lemon chicken. I told them that when restaurants mix meats together they call it “combination 😉” It was really tasty and fragrant and they loved it.

Well our NYE dinner went well:

Shrimp & salmon cakes with saffron-onion marmalade

Goat cheese mousse with fig, greens, cardamom crisp

Filet mignon (Cabernet demi glace) or mixed grill with duck & lamb rack (Vermut sauce), or ahi tuna (sangria sauce)

Flour less chocolate cake or blueberry shortcake with lemoncello curd

I was happiest on how the mixed grill & lemoncello curd turned out. The landlord for our restaurant has orchards of citrus and always gives us lemons, etc. So we make lemoncello…I hate throwing away all the vodka soaked zest so I threw it in sugar until I figured out what to do with it

The duck I took the legs & confit then smoked, pulled the meat & put it in a filo ‘beggars purse’ , roasted the bones for the stock & sauce, grilled the breasts, and the frenched lamb racks… No pics of it unless someone sends me one today…

I gotta say though the lamb here is nice, but doesn’t hold a candle to NZ lamb.

Lemon & herb crumbed basa fillet, with coleslaw and cucumber salad

Pasta salad