Goodbye 2011... Hello 2012

Well I guess it's all over... 2011 that is *grin*.

Last night we pulled out a fancy table cloth for the coffee table, covered it with delicious finger foods for our annual new year's eve party and invited my mom and dad to join us :) We had cheese and crackers, hummus and veggie chips, fresh oysters that I breaded and fried, black Alaskan cod which is seriously to die for when you steam it in the oven....

and poached pears in a merlot and grand marnier sauce. I've been wanting to make these for a long time and thought it would make a lovely dessert to eat at the stroke of midnight :) I made a syrupy reduction out of the poaching liquid and then drizzled it over the warm pears and vanilla bean ice cream. So yummy and a lovely way to ring in the new year!

My dad just happens to be a new year's baby as well so today we got to have another party for his birthday with homemade sushi. We made California rolls and others with smoked sockeye salmon, shrimp croissants and my mom made cherry cheesecake for his birthday cake. I think I've eaten enough for an entire week in the last 24 hours LOL.

I'm not one for new year's resolutions usually as I tend to break them but last January I had vowed to live life more intentionally and 2011 lived up to what I had envisioned so I plan to do a whole lot more intentional living in 2012!

But when I read this lovely excerpt below from Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience a few days ago it just made me say 'YES'!

“I don’t really want more time;
I just want enough time.
Time to breathe deep & time to see real & time to laugh long, time to give You glory & rest deep & sing joy…
I just want time to do my one life well."
{read more here}

I can't agree more whole heartedly with what she wrote and I am looking forward to everything this brand new year brings my way :)

Happy New Year,
Rosina

Scallop Coquilles St. Jacques

My sister was able to make it up today for my dad's birthday so we had a belated birthday meal for him :) I wanted to make something really special and fun for him so I tried out a new recipe that I had come across for Scallop Coquilles St. Jacques. Mmm, so delicious!!

Basically it's scallops in a white wine and garlic sauce but I decided to get a little more creative with it. I'm so terrible with recipes.... never seem to be able to just follow the instructions *grin*. I added in prawns, gruyere cheese and for the topping I went with Panko bread crumbs instead of the plain old crumbs along with more gruyere and green onions.

If you haven't tried Panko bread crumbs then you have to get some! They're a Japanese crumb and have this amazingly crisp and crunchy texture when they are cooked which is very nice. I've been using them on my homemade chicken strips for the coating and they are really great for coating halibut in for pan frying to :)

My dad loved the new dish and I'm definitely going to have to jot down what I did before I forget so that I can make it again!

~ Rosina