On New Year’s Eve I’ll be doing exactly what I wish for. I’ll be with my husband, John, and our precious beagle, Henry, in my mother’s house in Seaside, FL, ALONE! It is off-season so not too crowded and usually too cold to go into the gulf, but rarely any colder than sweater weather. The beach is beautiful, all powdery white sand and sea oats growing in the dunes – the perfect place for long, head-clearing, resolution-making walks, and Henry loves to chase after the sandpipers and ferret out crabs from beneath the sand, which makes him very popular with the children who go crabbing at dusk.

The house is also head-clearing, very serene and comfortable with white slipcovers and lovely art (thank you, sweet mother), and free of the clutter that generally surrounds me. We always stay in, and I cook Lee Bailey’s angel hair pasta with golden trout roe, followed by Mary Cantwell’s filet mignon with champagne sauce. (Sauté chopped shallots in the pan juices from the filet with a little butter until soft, deglaze the pan with a healthy glass of champagne, reduce until syrupy and swirl in some more butter. It is really easy and elegant and the recipe is in my book, Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties, as is the recipe for the pasta.) We usually drink Pol Roger champagne because we had it at our wedding, but my favorite, Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose is great – and gorgeous – with the pasta.

Sometimes we walk to the beach and look at the fireworks folks set off (there is no formal display), but usually we remain on the couch watching old movies. This year I am thinking Preston Sturges.