New Years Eve!

Sparkling Pear and Strawberry Puffs

Champagne Citrus Salad

Freshly Made Pasta with Creamy Champagne Chicken

Mimosa Cake

Pear Puff Pastry with Strawberry Wine Glaze

Yield 8:

½ sheet puff pastry, cut into 4 squares

1 pear, thinly sliced

GLAZE

2-4 strawberries, slices or frozen

½ cup red wine or champagne

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ lemon juiced/zest

Combine all glaze ingredients together and bring up to a boil and simmer down to a glaze. About 7 minutes.

Preheat oven 400”F

Place puff pastry on sheet tray and place pear on puff pastry. Bake until golden brown about 7-10 minutes

Drizzle with glaze and serve

Citrus fennel with champagne vinaigrette

Serves 2

4 cups mixed greens

½ cup fennel

2 inches of jicama

1 green apple

1 tablespoon champagne vinegar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon whole grain Dijon

1 teaspoon honey

1 lime wedge

In a small mixing bowl add honey, Dijon, and vinegar. Whisk until fully combined. At the slow steady speed pour in oil while whisking, adjust seasoning as needed.

Cut apples into 1 inch cubes, set aside.

Slice fennel and jicama into thin julienne strips.

Pour mixed greens out onto a chilled plate, top with apples, fennel and jicama. Add as much or as little dressing and squeeze lemon wedge over top.

 Champagne chicken 

Yield 2:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast

¼ cup all-purpose flour for dusting

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoons oil

1 cups fresh sliced mushrooms

1 cups heavy cream

½ cup champagne

Lightly dust chicken breasts with flour and a little salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, lightly brown chicken breasts to a nice golden brown in olive oil. Once browned on both sides, add mushrooms and champagne. Cook over medium heat, When chicken is tender, transfer chicken to a platter.

Pour cream into skillet. Simmer about 2 minutes, until slightly thickened. Pour sauce over chicken breasts. Serve.

Fresh Pasta Dough

yield: 2 servings

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

  Making fresh pasta dough is fun and very easy. Traditionally, the dough is mixed directly on a board or counter but it is acceptable to begin the dough in a bowl to limit the cleanup. Laminate counter tops are fine for kneading dough but natural or engineered stone is best as it is non-porous and maintains constant temperature, especially important when working with yeast doughs.

  In a bowl or on a countertop, combine the salt and flour. Using your fingers, create a well in the center of the mound, being sure that the well’s walls are equally thick and high. In a separate container, combine eggs and olive oil. Scramble eggs with a fork to incorporate oil.

  Add 1/3 of egg/oil mixture to center of well. Using a swirling motion, pull flour from inner walls of well into eggs and mix until it forms a thick paste. If working on a countertop, be careful not to break through the walls of the well as egg will run out over the work surface. When center is no longer runny, add half of remaining egg mixture and stir to paste. Add remaining liquid and repeat. Continue to mix until fork is no longer effective and then turn dough out onto work surface.

  Knead dough by flattening, folding it in half and pressing hard with the palm of your hand. Rotate 90’ and repeat over and over until dough is a consistent color (no patches of flour or egg mixture) and begins to feel springy. Pasta dough should be visibly bumpy but soft and smooth to the touch. To test, press a finger into dough. The depression made by your finger should spring back almost entirely. Flatten dough into a disk 1 ½ inches thick, wrap with saran and place in cooler to rest for 20-30 minutes or until finger divot does not bounce back. This means that the gluten that was excited in the kneading process has relaxed and the dough is ready to be rolled and cut.

 Mimosa cake

Yield 1 cake:

1 vanilla box cake mix

Replace water with orange juice

½ cup champagne

Frosting:

2 cups heavy cream

1 pack instand pudding (I use vanilla )

½ cup or more of champagne

Mix boxed cake according to intrusions but add orange juice instead of water. Bake according to box

Allow to cool completely

In a stand mixer combine heavy cream and pudding and whip until stiff peaks form. Add champagne and mix to fully incorporate. Garnish with orange zest if desired.