Finger-Licking Goodies: Get Ready to Rawk Your New Year's Party!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

For our part, it was a quiet and relaxed one; just the way we like it. I've really come to appreciate not having to deal with all the pressures I used to experience around this time of year.

I spent most of the day doing what I love most: playing with food. Don helped me make sauerkraut, then I worked on dinner while he and his daughter, Amber, who is visiting, did the Tibetan Rites and had a long talk. We also had a nice walk in the snowy landscape - you know, gotta enjoy our Winter Wonderland.

Our Christmas Feast...
I opted for a simple but color-full dinner menu, somewhat inspired by the traditional Christmas fare.

Rawssian Borscht with a dollop of cashew cream

Ani Phyo's Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice"

A Cranberry Sauce I came up with


And our complete main course:
My Thankful Turkey served the cranberry sauce and squash rice

We have desserts coming out the ying yang in the freezer these days, so I let Amber take her pick. She chose my Banana Chocolate Cream Cake. Mmmmmmm

I forgot to make Raw Nog, but I'll be serving it this evening with a nice cookie platter.

New Year's Raw-solutions
New Year's Eve promises to be just as low key at our end, but in case you're planning on attending parties to celebrate the arrival of 2008, I thought I'd give you a hand in deciding what raw goodies to take along. In fact, I've been playing with the idea for the last several days, consulting Heathy in the process, as she just LOVES that sort of thing.

There's certainly no shortage of raw recipes that can be easily transformed into bite-size treats, but here's my favorite cool finger food ideas that are almost certain to rawk your party to the bone!

Veggie sticks with dip of choice
(Try the Raw Deviled Egg-less "Egg" Spread or the Ranch Dressing/Dip - they're both outstanding!)

Cheesy Cucumber Bites

Spinach & Cheese Balls

Seed Cheese Topped Celery

Tuna Salad on Zucchini Crackers or Black Sesame Sunflower Bread*

* You might want to make round crackers by cutting them with a cookie cutter right before or after flipping them onto the mesh.

Cashew Cheese Au Poivre with crackers of choice

Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms

Savoury Nori Snacks

Zucchini Roll-Ups

Sesame Nuggets in Sweet 'n Sour Sauce

Spinach Mini-Quiches


Spinach & Wild Mushroom Quiches

Crab Cakes with Tartar Sauce


And of course pizza is ever the perfect snack! (For pizza topping ideas, see this, this, and this.)

You can make mini ones about the size of your palm...


Or go for a large one cut into teeny pieces.
Below is a gorgeous pizza that Fairygirl/Heathy served at a raw dinner party. She topped it with a sundried tomato sauce, red/green peppers, red onion, parsley, and seed cheese.

And On the Sweet Side...
Desserts can be especially fun to convert into finger food by spreading the batter about 1/2 " thick into a cookie sheet, a rectangular pan or muffin pans. Just make sure to line these with plastic film so your goodies pop out easily.

Brownies

Cheesecake

 
Banana Chocolate Cream Cake

(Shown here sans banana)

Oh, and let's not forget cookies and nut balls! How about Ani's Donut Holes, Cinnamon Balls or Snowdrop's Chocolate Orange Confection (shown below.)

Not sure what cookies to make? Have a look here for a bunch of yummy recipe ideas. In the meantime, here's a couple of lovely platters to get your creative juices going...

Coonlie's Caramel-Maca Balls, Chocolate-Berry "Candy" Canes, Ginger Swirls and Chocolate Chip Cookies


And Being's assorted Gingerbread Cookies

And lastly, a few other great sweet treats that could be easily made into miniature versions...

Chocolate Mousse Tarts
Snowdrop's Blonde Fruitcake
White Chocolate-Strawberry Cheesecake

Hope you find some finger foods that hit the mark with you and have fun being creative in the kitchen. I know I had such a blast making some of these, I wished we were more into the party thing. Ah well... Guess we'll just have to throw our own.

Wishing you a Healthy and powerful New Year!

*~*~*~*~*

Photo Credits
Happy Holi-berries! by outnbout
Veggies & Dip, Cucumber Bites, Cheese Topped Celery, Pizza, Brownie and round cheesecakes by Fairygirl/Heathy
Tuna Salad by Ocean
Cachew Cheese by Chad Sarno
Zucchini Roll-Ups by Nomi Shannon and Sheryl Duruz
Chocolate Orange Confection by Snowdrop