Happy New Year!

It’s just a few hours late, but my New Year has finally begun.  In a holiday week unlike any other in the eight-plus years of Chef Bill (that is, Chef Bill the business.  I’m much older than eight-plus years), I did three events, including two cooking lesson parties, since Monday.  Usually, this is a very quiet week.  I don’t like quiet weeks.

Monday started with a cooking lesson pizza party.  We had some pretty wild pizzas, including one with pears, goat cheese and aioli, the  Italian homemade garlic mayo.  It was a great pizza  .One of the daughters even mastered flinging and spinning her dough into the air.  It was a very fun night.

Wednesday night was a Dinner for Two in Cambridge that morphed into an impromptu cooking lesson.  It was a nice menu that had caviar and oysters for appetizers, and a main course with rack of lamb, scallops piccata, and risotto.  Yeah, that was nice menu.

And New Year’s Eve?  A dinner for 14 in Andover, with appetizers including crab and avocado on crostini, and my crazy-popular smoked trout spread.  Plus a winter pesto in the entrée.  We finished with bananas Foster flambé.  

And now?  Well, maybe I’ll sleep until noon, or whenever the greyhounds wake up, whichever comes first.  And then, I get to plan January, which includes cooking appearances at the Boston Wine Expo, the New England Home Show, and Stonewall Kitchen.  And planning for Michael Palmer's HUGE book–launch party in February at the Paradise Club in Boston.  This one is going to be HUGE.

Until then, good night, and Happy New Year.

p.s.  I can’t go to bed yet.  Dexter the 90 pound hound is sound asleep in my lap.  I don’t have the heart to wake him up…