Yummy New Year's

New Year's was great, except for one little thing. WE MISSED IT!

My plan was to get home shortly BEFORE midnight. There was a child in our midst, so I thought it would be a great idea to go to a kid-friendly movie to avoid the kidster being bored.

We had dinner at my favorite local Indian restaurant. I could eat Indian food 12 times a day...We got to the theater in plenty of time for the 9:30 movie. Unfortunately, we had to sit through a stupid cartoon before National whatever it was called came on.

As the movie was wrapping up, I told H and the others to get ready to dash. H apparently thought it would be funny to tarry. FINALLY, we got TO the car, IN the car and ON the road. H drove much too slowly. We heard the ball drop on the car radio, when we were a block away from home.

All of which means that if H had moved it, we could could have been home with a good minute to spare! He said 2008 was going to last all year, so we'd have plenty of time to toast...Lame.

Anyway, knowing that we were going to get home so late, I provided just a few nibbles and excellent champagne. I saved the good food for brunch this morning, as our New Year's buddies always spend the night.

Every year, we have bagels, lox, cream cheese,

white fish, cukes and toms, but this year I added to the mix. I took the idea of Mini Frittatas from Giada and Pain Perdu from Ina and made these:

Mini Frittatas (makes 24)

These are surprisingly easy to eat in large quantities. Allow 4 to 6 for each person. They’re TINY. Use any combination of cheese that you like, just use ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon total.

6 eggs
¾ cup milk and/or cream (just not all skim milk)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons grated Swiss cheese
½ tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray 2 mini-muffin pans (12 cups each) with Pam.

Whisk the eggs with the milk. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Spoon mixture into mini muffin pans, filling each cup to the top. Bake for 10 minutes until they puff and test done in the middle.

Using a plastic knife, loosen each frittata and place on a platter. Serve warm.

Challah French Toast (for 5 big slices)

3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tbls. sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ cups sliced almonds
2 tbls. unsalted butter
5 1-inch slices of challah


Beat eggs with milk, sugar and cinnamon in a shallow glass pie dish. Place almonds on small plate. Dip challah in egg mixture. Dip one side of each slice in almonds.


Spray large non-stick frying with Pam. Heat on medium heat. Add butter and place challah, almond side down, in pan. Cook for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Serve immediately with warm syrup.