Savvy Suggestions: Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas....ours was fantastic!!! Lots of family, food and laughs. We also felt our daughter kick several times during dinner which was very exciting and the first time my husband has felt her.

We have been so busy getting our house in order for the new year....we have made progress on the nursery....we bought all of our furniture and have been spending several hours at the Pacific Design Center looking at wallpaper... I finally found the perfect one online by a European company called Arthouse.....

Most of you have made your reservations or are doing last minute preparations for your New Years Eve parties tomorrow night. We are going to take it easy and spend it with a few couple friends of ours, go for a nice dinner and play board games. If you are entertaining at home here are a few tips.

Keep it simple
Stick to no more then three appetizers
Buy Prosecco instead of Champagne (Prosecco is an Italian sparkling wine, it is lighter and less expensive)
Fondue is always festive and fun
Make sure to drink a glass of water after each cocktail
Don't drink and Drive

A cheese plate is always a great idea for a party. Here is the one I did for Christmas

The Perfect Cheese Plate:

This plate consists of a Triple Cream Brie, Herbed Goat Cheese with basil, parsley & rosemary, St. Andre, Hirtenkase (a German cheese) & Gorgonzola (an Italian blue cheese) Sourdough Baguette, Parmesan Crisps & La Panzella Crackers, Rosemary Cashews & Fig Preserves.

You want to have a minimum of five cheeses (a goat, brie, blue and at least one hard cheese)
Shop at a specialty cheese store or somewhere that has a wide variety like Whole Foods (they will let you try them)
Step outside of the box. Try things you have never heard of before (this year instead of Mahon or Manchego which are great hard cheeses I added Hirtenkase which was delicious)
Fig preserves or Mango Chutney goes great with cheese. All you need is one or the other (fig works nicely with any Blue where mango chutney goes with Mahon or Manchego)
Nuts are also great with cheese (Cashews, Roasted Almonds or Marcona Almonds which are from Spain)
Add your own herbs to your goat cheese (buy a plain log of goat cheese, finely chop any herbs you want and roll the cheese in them to cover completely)

I love La Panzenella crackers, they come in a variety of flavors and work well with any cheese

La Brea bakery makes fantastic bread!!! A Sourdough Baguette and Parmesan Crisps......they sell them in many grocery stores and if you live in Los Angeles you can go to their store....