New Year's Eve

Julie came over for New Year's Eve to help us finish our left-overs. So caviar, champagne, smoked salmon, cream cheese, toasted bread for appetizers. Then "La Morue en Raïto." This—can I be frank here?— was a disaster. The idea is a green sauce over fried slices of salt cod. I took this from The Cuisine of the Sun: a fabulous cookbook, but not this recipe.
Now, the bacalà had been soaked for a full day in various changes of water and was had just the perfect residual saltiness for the brandade on Christmas Eve, tempered, I suppose, by the oil and milk. However, when fried, and then topped with a parsley, caper, and olive sauce, it was close to inedible. Way too many saline objects going on there. The recipe called for capers or cornichons, and I don't think the cornichons would have helped either. Other recipes added anchovies! Visions of the salt monster from Star Trek Season I. The Cuisine of the Sun also called for red vermouth as the cooking liquid. With some misgivings I followed the recipe closely, but wooooo! The vermouth clashed with everything, and the result was so salty that it pretty much stripped all the water molecules from my throat and upper esophagus. The Italian version is bacalà al verde which layers the bacalà with potatoes. That should spread the salt about a bit. In some ways, however, it might have been a life saver. In my desperate thirst, I pounded down quarts of water, rather than champagne, which might account to the fact that I woke up with very little headache. Then again, it might have been the Milk Thistle pills that Julie brought over on a friend's recommendation. Clearly a scientific review is called for, where we get drunk on champagne with the Milk Thistle pills, without Milk Thistle pills, with water plus Milk Thistle pills, with water minus Milk Thistle pills, and compare the four resulting hangovers.
Julie also brought a lovely salad (and champagne) which helped clear our palettes for the lasagnoid object, i.e. more baked ziti.
Biscotti, eggnog with extra shots of Barbadian nog, and more champagne completed the night.
Merry 007 to all.