Happy New Year!

Rob made Christmas dinner, so I got to do New Years Eve. There is nothing I like more than planning and preparing an "occasion" dinner. My menu changed a few times, but the fundamentals stayed the same.
I decided to submit my menu to the New Years Roundup on CookingDiva
We started with a favourite, oysters on the half shell with just a squeeze of lime for me and unlimed oysters for Rob. Usually we just stand by the sink and eat them as Rob shucks, but I wanted this to be a nice dinner, so I crushed up some ice cubes and filled two bowls. We had this with the Stellar's Jay "champagne".

The next course was spinach salad with a warm shallot & balsamic vinaigrette. This absolutely rocked! The vinaigrette was super easy and totally made the dish.

The main was Crisp Braised Duck with a Sherried Jus, Leek & Yukon Gold Rosti and Carrots with Fennel & Italian Parsley.

The final course ~ dessert. I had been searching for the perfect dessert all day, trolling through pages and pages of recipes and nothing seemed to be right. I stumbled across a restaurant review where mention was made of a lemon yoghurt semifredo, and a lightbulb apeared over my head (well, no, but it would have if I was a cartoon character). I have no idea what real semifredo is supposed to be like ~ I just created this recipe. And it was damn good! Recipe here.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve. Here's to 2006!