It was only when I was arranging these mozzarella salads, with pickled peppers from our summer garden, for our first course at lunchtime today that I realised it looked a bit like a flower, which is appropriate since we have a botany blog in the family.
For the main course of our new year’s day lunch we had griddled duck breast with roast vegetables and a very good bottle of Emoción red wine from Domaine Monplezy (with its reminder of summer in the hoopoe on the label).
The wine went very well with some sheep’s cheese from the Larzac too. And then we had preserved kumqats (grown by a friend, bottled by me) with a glass of muscat wine.
A good start to the year!
Bona annada!
Blwyddyn newydd dda!
Bonne année!
Happy new year!
olivesandartichokes 
And a very happy new year to you! May you and LoJ have a year of love, creative expression, good food and wine, abundant sunshine, new and exciting books to read, opportunities for political action, and the good company of friends and children. I make this wish in the full belief that every bit of it will come to you.
Thank you, and the same to you! (Maybe the abundant sunshine isn’t so realistic for you, but the rest of it)
That looks like terrific duck – I think I wished you HNY twice already, so, santé!
It was delicious!
Very nice with the duck. Looks delicious. Our kids love duck so when I can find it I get it for them.
I hope you can find duck often – it’s very common here, and delicious!
It was easy to get last year but now I’m struggling to find it.
Certainly a delicious way to start the New Year! I hope 2013 is a good year for you both.
Thank you, and the same to you!
A perfect start to the year – wishing you a great one!
And the same to you, whether you’re on the mountain or the south coast!
Oh my, that is the most beautiful meal I’ve seen in a very long time! I’d love to hear how you preserve kumquats, as that is one of our favorite fruits and they are in season right now (not here, but we can buy them in our co-op). Wishing you and LoJ an extraordinarily fine year!
Preserving the kumquats was easy – I halved them and put them in a saucepan with sugar – amount depending on how sharp the fruit is, it takes quite a lot – and brought them to the boil then simmered until the peel was cooked, added a glass of cartegène (brandy or other liqueur would work too) and bottled them in sterilised jars. If you cook them whole you may need to add some water, but halving them means that they cook in their own juice and it gives a wonderful concentrated flavour.
Blwyddyn Newydd Da.
The sunshine is very welcome today but that wind is cruel. I start vine-pruning tomorrow, I hope we keep the sunshine and lose the wind.
We were encouraged by your posts to home-cure some olives and have been enjoying them over the holiday period. We left some on the tree just outside our window and now the bluetits and a robin have started pecking at them.
Ahhh…you read my mind. We were going to have duck yesterday, too (but could only find frozen duck, too late to thaw for the occasion). It’s freezing here in NYC, and duck is the perfect antedote. Will keep this menu close by for another winter meal. Happy new year!
Bon Any from nearby Catalunya!
Lovely salad and mouth watering duck breast!