Good morning. New Year's Eve is in two days—and that's fine because none of what you want to serve on the night of December 31st needs to be purchased or prepped until that day. Here's why:
1. Shrimp cocktail is immediate. Whether you follow César's recipe for poaching shrimp at home or grab a few pounds of precooked crustaceans from the grocery store, you'll only need—at most—30 minutes to corral chilled shrimp and its four best friends (this smoky remoulade and these three cocktail sauce alternatives). Point being, if you've got an hour, you've got time to make the night's best appetizer.
2. Same with the best, most festive drinks. Like our Negroni Sbagliato Punch. Or a Blood Orange French 75. Also this pomegranate-studded bourbon and lime punch. And, of course, Harper Fendler's NA Espresso Martini.
3. And so is ordering pizza. Which, if you're hosting, is what you should do—because pizza a) rocks b) goes really well with our favorite Caesar salad recipe and c) somehow makes Erika Kotite's martini even more drinkable. (And, hey, if you like the pizza idea but want to make it more of a project—here are our 7 favorite recipes for at-home pizza dough.)
