New Year's Eve dinner menu

With drinks: Blinis, taramasalata and lumpfish roe; Shrimp with cocktail sauce; Comté gougères. To start: Seared scallops, parsnip purée. For the main: Salmon en croûte with beurre blanc. For the cheese course: Cheese board. For dessert: Vanilla raspberry ice cream yule log.

For 6 guests, the big picture: sea scallops (18), salmon fillet (900 g), Brie de Meaux (140 g) and vanilla ice cream (60 cl). The full grocery list, aisle by aisle, is right above.

In two trips. Three days before, the stuff that keeps (14 items: produce, meat and seafood, dairy, pantry and frozen). Then the day before, the fresh stuff (12 items, like cooked shrimp, salmon fillet and sea scallops). You'll dodge the last-minute crowds.

To sit down at 8:30 PM, the first step of the big day starts at 6:00 PM: put the salmon en croûte together, keep it in the fridge. The main (salmon en croûte with beurre blanc) goes in the oven at 7:40 PM. Every step of the game plan is timed backward from when you sit down to eat.

This menu is pork-free. It's not vegetarian: for a meat-free table, there's a full vegetarian menu. A kid counts as half a serving in the quantities.

Yep, from 2 to 12 guests: change the number at the top of the page, and the quantities, the grocery list, the budget and these answers all follow.