A New Year’s Tradition

I have a love/hate relationship with New Year’s.

I love it because I love setting goals, planning for the year ahead and because Eric and I “met” on New Years (we knew each other through friends but really started talking at a NYE party). I hate it because I feel like there is a lot of pressure put on one evening and it always seems so thrown together after the prolonged planning of Christmas.

Last year, we went to a New Year’s Eve party with friends and spend the day after at the Rose Bowl game. This year, Eric was asked to do a gig NYE and we decided to play it relatively low key. Before his gig we had time for a hike and a steak and shrimp dinner. I spent a few hours brushing up on Guitar Hero so that once E got home I had a chance at holding my own. We watched Dick Clark ring in the new year with some champagne and cheesecake. Then in true rock-star fashion, rocked out on the Wii until the wee hours. The cat (who very much missed us when we were home for Christmas), has been on one or the other’s lap ever since we returned.

My very own rock star.

Today I woke up just in time to catch the Rose Bowl parade for a bit before the Penn State game started. We decided to honor the PA Dutch tradition once again with a pork and sauerkraut dinner. The Pennsylvania Dutch believed this meal will bring you good luck in the New Year. I only want to eat it once a year, but every year I absolutely love it. We bake everything in the oven with a topping called Knepp, which is just a egg, milk, flour, baking powder combo.

Baked Pork, Sauerkraut and Knepp

We include apples with the sauerkraut which makes it sweeter that normal and cooking everything in one pan keeps the pork from drying out. It turned out great. We had a huge helping of mashed potatos and some ice cold beer for a complete meal. I’m hoping it’s a sign of the cooking to come in the new year because I have some big plans for 2010.

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