🥂 Seasonal collection
New Year's Eve Recipes: Cocktails, Mocktails and Party Food
In the Netherlands, New Year's Eve means a bowl of oliebollen dusted with powdered sugar. Here it means a drink at midnight. Have both: classic cocktails for the adults, mocktails for everyone, and party food that feeds a room.
🍸 A drink at midnight
Classic cocktails, each with the story of where it really came from. For adults 21 and over.
Classic Margarita
Blanco tequila, orange liqueur and fresh lime, shaken hard and poured over fresh ice in a half salt-rimmed glass: the sour that Mexico, Texas and California all claim.
Cuban Daiquiri
The original daiquiri is not pink and not frozen: white rum, fresh lime and a little sugar, shaken ice cold and strained into a chilled coupe, the way it was made in Cuba before America put it in a blender.
Negroni (and the Americano)
Equal parts gin, red bitter aperitivo and sweet vermouth, stirred cold and served over one big cube with orange: Italy's bittersweet classic, plus the older "American-style" Americano it came from.
Old Fashioned (the Whiskey Cocktail)
The drink that defined the word cocktail: whiskey, a little sugar, bitters and water, stirred over one big cube with an orange peel, before fruit salad got muddled into it.
Manhattan
Rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters stirred ice cold and served up with a cherry: New York's whiskey classic, and a famous origin story that cannot be true.
Moscow Mule
Vodka, fresh lime and spicy ginger beer over ice in a cold copper mug: the 1940s American drink that sold a nation on vodka, and its famous mug.
Gin and Tonic
London dry gin and cold tonic water over plenty of ice with a squeeze of lime: the two-ingredient highball with a malaria-medicine backstory that is half history and half legend.
🥤 Mocktails for everyone
Alcohol-free and just as festive.
Virgin Mojito (Nojito)
All the mint, lime and fizz of a mojito with no alcohol at all: mint pressed with lime and syrup, crushed ice and plenty of club soda, built in the glass in four minutes.
Shirley Temple
The original American mocktail: cold ginger ale and a pour of grenadine over ice, with two maraschino cherries, the pink drink named for a child star who said she never liked it.
🍩 The Dutch New Year's doughnut
Oliebollen are what the Netherlands eats as the year turns over, the ancestor of the American doughnut.
Dutch Oliebollen (New Year's Eve Doughnuts)
Scoops of soft yeast batter studded with raisins and currants, fried round and golden and buried in powdered sugar, the Dutch New Year's Eve treat and a cousin of the olykoeks the Dutch made in old New York.
German Berliner (Jam-Filled Krapfen)
Soft balls of butter-and-egg yeast dough fried with their pale "collar", rolled in sugar and piped full of jam: the German jelly doughnut, called Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Krapfen or Kreppel depending on where you buy it.
New Orleans Beignets
Squares of a very wet, eggy yeast dough fried until they balloon, then buried in powdered sugar, the French Quarter coffee-stand doughnut, made at home.
🍗 Party food
Things you can eat standing up, by the dozen.
Crispy Baked Buffalo Wings (Baking Powder Method)
No fryer and no fuss: wings tossed with baking powder and salt, roasted on a rack in a very hot oven, broiled for extra crunch and tossed in a quick hot sauce, butter and molasses sauce.
Korean Soy Garlic Wings (Double Fried)
Wings dusted in cornstarch, dipped in a thin, crackly batter and fried twice, then brushed with a glossy glaze of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar and honey: Korean fried chicken that isn't red.
Mini Cheesecakes (Muffin-Pan Cheesecakes)
Twelve little cheesecakes in a muffin pan: a pressed graham crust under a smooth cream cheese, sour cream and lemon batter, baked at 325°F for 15 to 18 minutes, 30 minutes of hands-on work and about an hour start to oven-off, then chilled at least 3 hours and topped with berries or jam.
Grandma Pizza
Long Island's thin square pan pie: an oiled sheet-pan crust, mozzarella first, then raw tomatoes tossed with garlic, olive oil and oregano spooned on top.
Chinese Almond Cookies
Crumbly, lightly sweet bakery cookies made with lard, butter and toasted almond flour, crowned with a whole almond and brushed with egg for a shiny golden top.