7 Courses. With pairings. Phenomenal meal. What a way to close out 2010.
Follow that with the party at our place, and I made three punches. The first was a spin on the Chatham Artillery Punch from David Wondrich. Essentially it is muddled lemon peels in sugar, lemon juice, and a ratio of rye, brandy, rum and sparkling wine along the lines of 1:1:1:3. It turned out very well; definitely better than the original trial.
The second punch was adapted from a bar in New York called Cienfuegos. The recipe for Hotel Nacional Punch involved rum, pineapple juice, apricot brandy, fresh lime juice and simple syrup. Lower potency, but tasted amazing. Topping off with a little champagne really did a lot for this punch.
The final recipe, for the non-alcoholic crowd, resulted in a concentrated syrup of cinnamon, clove, lemon juice, peppermint extract, slivered mint leaves and diced candied ginger. That syrup, poured over some carbonated beverage (either club soda or sparkling wine), was great.
On top of all that, around 20 bottles of wine, full bar, and a serious food spread for everyone. To be honest, I wanted to invite more people than Lauren was interested in hosting, but that's alright. We weren't sure how many people were going to come over, but at one point we had around 30 people in the place. With the weather unseasonably warm we were able to use the deck as well.
Hello 2011. Nice to meet you. Glad to start off on the right foot.
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