New Years Day Dinner

Each year we have a big New Years Day Dinner Celebration with as many friends as we can gather. Also each year we try to create a menu of lucky foods full of good wishes for our friends for the coming year. There are many traditional and symbolic foods to celebrate the fresh start of a new year!

Here’s to a very Happy New Year… or at the very least a happy belly!
Our Menu this year:

Shrimp Martinis
(original recipe here, we just hang plain shrimp around the rim of a martini glass filled with cocktail sauce)
seafood stands for good luck and shrimp specifically signify long life and a year filled with laughter

Vegetables with Arugula Broth
(recipe here)
green foods like arugula and spinach mark growth and wealth
Cooked greens, including cabbage, collards, kale, and chard, are consumed at New Year's in different countries for a simple reason — their green leaves look like folded money, and are thus symbolic of economic fortune. It's widely believed that the more greens one eats the larger one's fortune next year.

Grilled Pork Chops with Creamy Mashed Potatoes
(recipe here and I did these amazingly delicious make ahead potatoes found here)
pork is considered good luck and symbolizes progress or "moving forward" since the animal pushes forward, rooting itself in the ground before moving. Also, traditionally, a family that owned a pig would be eating "high on the hog" for the whole year; thanks to its rich fat content, it signifies wealth and prosperity.

Honey Sweet Peas
Cornbread
the saying in the south goes "peas for pennies, greens for dollars, cornbread for gold"

*Sweets in general symbolize a “sweet year” and plenty of good fortune
Here are the desserts and extra wishes we had on our table*

Champaign Shooters
Champaign (just to celebrate!) poured over Lime sorbet which symbolizes a prosperous new beginning

Gingersnaps
(recipe here)
ginger reprsents a sharp mind and intelligence and cookies mean sweetness of nature and a good disposition

Chocolate Eclair Cake
(recipe here)
pudding is symbolic of the sweetness of life

Orange, Peanut and Red Candy Plates
oranges represent gold and wealth, peanuts are for the hope and luck for the birth of children in the coming year, and red candies traditionally stand for good health and good luck.