Cooking (more like Entertaining): Pork Crown Roast with Apple Pecan Stuffing, Paella and Arugula Pear Salad

The ultimate New Year's Eve dinner deserved nothing less than the ultimate pork crown roast in all its grandeur. Naturally, I turned to Tyler Florence's somewhat involved recipe. The chopped off pork meat from the bone ended up somewhat dry but the bone-in meat was divine. His recipes always turn out fantastic and a total crowd pleaser. What's not to like about this beauty? The apple, pecan and sourdough stuffing was sweet, tart and crunchy all at once, making it the perfect accompaniment to the pork.

For carb, I was going to use Florence's paella recipe but then I decided to wing it. I figured heck, I've made paella enough times to know what I'm doing. The truth is that I am still not entirely happy with my paella. The biggest challenge is having the rice cook properly without it being too porridge-like. I'm still working on it but it turned out ok for the occasion. The roasted piquillo peppers that I laid out on top at the end helped to enhance all the flavors with their smokiness and sweetness (you can get a jar at latienda.com).

My cooking partner in crime KC threw together an awesome arugula salad with sliced pears, dried cranberries and toasted pine nuts in a light oil and lemon vinaigrette. This made for a perfect balance of pork stuffed with pork on a bed of pork -- as our dinner guest described it -- along with some carbs with plenty of vegetables in them (but chorizo and chicken too) and some peppery arugula and refreshing pears. We washed it all down with some Chilean wine. Viva Chile! Happy New Year and Happy Eating to everyone!