Recipe(tried): New Year's Eve Dinner at our Home.... Eye of Round with Potatoes and Gravy, Fried Sweet Plantains, White Rice with Black Beans, Tia Aimee's Guava Cheesecake, Cuban Flan

Hey Everyone,

Hope your holiday season has been just wonderful!!!

Now the New Year is peeking around the corner, I spent the morning taking down the wreath from the door and replacing it with another, taking the lights off the palm trees and bushes and putting them away, taking the two wreaths off the sides of the garage and taking the red bow off the mailbox. Time for a new year!! And I like to start mine fresh with all adornments of the past year put away!!

This year I am doing something different for our New Year's Eve dinner, I am doing it Cuban because I am nostalgic for some of the foods that I grew up with in The Bronx. So, this is the menu, so very typically Cuban and "homey".

Boliche Asado con Papas
(Eye Round with Potatoes & Gravy)

Platanitos Maduros
(Fried Sweet Plantains)

Arroz Blanco con Frijoles Negros
(White Rice with Black Beans)

Ensalada de Tomates y Pepinos
(Tomato and Cucumber Salad)

Flan
Tia Aymee's Guava Cheesepie

Here are the delicious recipes!!

Happy New Year!!!! Gina
Boliche Asado con Papas

4 lbs. eye round roast
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
1 sour orange
2 oz. dry cooking wine
1/8 t. pepper
pinch of salt
pinch of oregano
pinch of Spanish ground red pepper
1 t. vegetable oil
4 garlic bulbs, mashed
several potatoes

The night before, puncture several holes with a sharp knife in the meat. Make the "sazon" by mixing together:
sour orange juice
salt and pepper
mashed garlic
oregano
Pour this mixture into the holes and rub the rest all over. Put into a tightly sealed container and let marinate overnight.

Next day, heat the vegetable oil in the pot you will be cooking in and brown the meat very well, with the chopped onions til it is nicely browned. Next, add water, enough to cover the meat. Add the dry cooking wine and bay leaf and sprinkle in the spanish red pepper. Cover and let it cook over medium heat til it is very tender. Once the meat is very tender, cut it into thick slices, then peel several potatoes and place them in the bottom of the pot, put the meat on top of the potatoes, add more cooking wine and cover the pot to allow the potatoes to absorb the delicious sauce.

Black Beans

1 lb. black beans
12 cups water
7 T. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, slices
6 cloves garlic, mashed
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 t. oregano
1 T. vinegar

Soak the beans overnight. Cook them in the same water til soft. In a large skillet, heat 6 T. olive oil and saute the onion, green pepper and garlic til golden brown. Add to the pot with the bay leaf, salt, pepper and oregano. Cook over medium heat til thickened. Add a 1 T. of olive oil and 1 T. vinegar, stir and saerve over white rice.
FRIED SWEET PLANTAINS (PLATANOS MADUROS FRITOS)

ripe plantains
olive oil

Select very ripe plantains with a partially black or all black peel and a little soft to the touch. Remove the peel and slice obliquely, or in a slant in about 1 inch slices.
Heat the oil to med. and fry on the cut surface. Oil should cover them about half way. Fry til golden brown on each side. Remove from pan to a plate with paper towels to drain well.

Tia Aimee's Guava Cheesecake

serves 10-12 because it is RICH!!

2 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. guava paste (Conchita's or Bohio's)
1/2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 graham cracker crust pie shell

Blend cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Blend well. Add guava and blend well. Add eggs and blend well. Pour into pie crust, bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Shut oven off and Let sit in oven for 30 minutes more. Put into refrigerator over night. Next day decorate slices with mint leaves, whipped cream and a sliver of guava.

Cuban Flan

2 c. milk
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon rind
1/4 t. salt
6 egg yolks
3 egg whites
3/4 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla

Boil the milk with the cinnamon stick, lemon rind and a dash of salt. After it boils, set it aside and let it cool. Lightly beat the egg yolks and the egg whites together with the sugar and the vanilla. Add the milk, blend together and strain. Pour it into a deep mold previously coated with caramel. (To make the caramel, cook 3/4 c. sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until it liquifies and turns a deep amber brown). Place the mold into another pan that will hold water halfway up the outside. Placae pan with mold in 350 oven and bake 1 hour til set. To serve, place mold upside down over a lrage serving dish and allow flan to unmold itself. Spoon the rest of the caramel over.