A crabby NYE

Guess what?  Chicken butt.  I’m five years old.

Last year I thought my New Years Eve was the lamest ever (refresher: I was preggo and passed out on my in-laws couch before midnight).

Turns out this year was only slightly less lame.  Kyle and I tried to fake an upbeat ‘tude, but in reality we were both pretty blah about our nothing of an evening.  I get it though.  We have a 10 month old.  Life is what it is and I’m certainly not going to complain about this new parenthood situation because, hello!, I have the most amazing baby!!

 

So yeah.  Our original plan fell through and instead we decided to make a fancy dinner and pair it with a good flick.  We haven’t been to the theatre since Silver Linings Playbook for heck’s sake!  There are several films on our to-watch list and since we are now apple tv owners we found plenty of options.

 

Fancy dinner fare included crab dipped in home-made aioli with a side of sourdough and slaw.

Not gonna lie, I felt like a savage animal (so gross) as I picked the meat out of this dude.  I’m not a girly girl per se, but this meal was really messy and really disgusting.

 

To pair with the crab (aka dunk it in), I wanted a legit aioli (Kyle went the melted butter route but that’s def not gonna work for my GI scene).

See that right up there.  THAT is aioli dedication.  That’s not one, not two, but THREE failed attempts at making mayo.  Sheesh.  You’d think I’d give up after wasting a few cups of olive oil and eggs, but I refused to let those precious ingredients go down the drain. 

 

I was using Melissa’s recipe in Well Fed, but her website has more info. 

Thanks to the comments section and google (‘what to do when your mayo “breaks”’) I kinda salvaged it.  Although it’s still not exactly all fluffy and emulsified.  I think I should have used a cheaper olive oil than the extra virgin organic one I was using (or at least a portion). 

But the real key is definitely letting the egg get room temp!  So.  Important.

  

In the end, I made do.  Then I added smoked paprika, lemon juice, and a dash of cayenne to make it crab-a-licious.

 

I don’t know much about cracking crab.  My first (and only) experience with it was way back when Kyle and I were first dating.  I spent Christmas with his family and we had a big crab feast.  To be honest, I don’t remember much about the experience aside from the fun bibs we wore.

Crab was on sale at Whole Foods and sounded fancy enough to be NYE worthy, so that was that.  But I’m not sure I’m so eager to do it again.  Like I said before, it felt rather barbaric.

  

The slaw took the rest of the reject mayo on as dressing.  Waste not, want not.  Or something like that.

 

It was tangy and cool, and complemented the crab nicely, but I definitely felt beyond full by the end.  So much rich food!  My gut was really confused so I nixed the bubbly (we can have champagne another night and pretend it’s the new year again).

I still saved room for dessert, of course.

We were watching Zero Dark Thirty and the intensity of the last half hour had my heart racing, which meant I needed lots of chocolate. 

 

I had half the peppermint chocolate Ghirardelli’s bar plus (more than pictured) dark chocolate covered almonds and candied ginger (Trader Joe’s). 

We didn’t make it to midnight.  No surprise there.  But I’m pretty sure the year is still going to be great.  🙂

 

Sure, 2013 was pretty much the best, thanks to this little addition.  But he gets more and more fun with each passing day.

And there’s lots on the horizon for our family.  So cheers!!  May 2014 be even better!