FoodFixe

Easing in the New Year

 The holidays are winding down and the year is almost over. As tired as we are from all the fa-la-la-la-la’ing, there’s still one more celebration to get through. So, I thought I’d offer up some dishes to help you ring out the old and ease in the new, with little effort on your part.

Here are my picks for an easy New Year’s Eve sip and nibble as well as breakfast for “the morning after.”

Arugula Parmesan Frittata

As I often do, I found myself standing in front of the open refrigerator wondering what I was going to eat for dinner the other night. Of course, I had a fridge full of nothing to eat. Well, nothing I wanted to eat. Until, that is, I spied a container of egg whites left over from a cheesecake I baked for the family Easter get together.

A frittata … now that sounded good. I rummaged around in the produce drawer and pulled out a bag of arugula, grabbed the Parmesan cheese and garlic from inside the door, and picked up a couple more eggs. Now I was cooking!

Crunchy Granola

It’s Monday, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I love granola. My problem with granola, though, is the calorie and fat content. Have you ever read the nutrition information on a box or bag of granola? Even some of the low-fat varieties still have high calorie counts. Yikes!

However, if you make your own granola, you have much better control over the fat and calorie content. I discovered this recipe for Crunchy Granola from Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen: 200 Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss. And I discovered Kathleen Daelemans from her Food Network TV show of the same name – Cooking Thin.

Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake

For my last post before Christmas, I had a hard time choosing which recipe to share. Sweet or savory? Appetizer, main dish, or dessert? I think my indecision was due in large part to being fooded out, as I’m sure many of you can relate. ‘Tis the season to overindulge or, at least, be constantly bombarded by food, whether or not you indulge.

That being the case, I thought I’d share my recipe for coffee cake. It’s a tasty treat morning, noon, or night, so it’s handy to have on hand for those last busy days before Christmas, in case you need a little something to quiet the natives or to serve to friends who spontaneously stop by.

Farmer's Breakfast Casserole

I recently got an e-mail from Cait M., my nephew Jared’s girlfriend. She’s been put in charge of making breakfast for her family Thanksgiving morning and wanted to know if I had any suggestions. The dish needs to feed eight or so people and not be too heavy given the long day of eating ahead of them. It occurred to me that others might be in need of a breakfast idea for Thanksgiving morning, so I thought I’d share my suggestion to Cait with all of you.

Once I found out from Cait whether “not too heavy” meant meat or no meat, I knew I had just the recipe for her. The Farmer’s Breakfast Casserole comes from The Big Book of Breakfast. This dish is just the thing for someone like Cait who enjoys cooking but doesn’t have a lot of experience in the kitchen.

Chilaquile Casserole

I was recently asked by my friend Sue C. if I had any easy recipes for dinner. Sue’s a stay-at-home mom with two kids, and she doesn’t like to cook. Even though I love to cook, there are many times when I lack the motivation to make dinner. So I depend on a handful of recipes that will give me the satisfaction of a homemade meal with a minimal amount of effort.

Mollie Katzen’s Chilaquile Casserole is one of those recipes. I’ve been making it for almost 20 years (gasp!), and it’s one of the few recipes I actually have memorized. Not only is the Chilaquile Casserole a breeze to throw together, it’s a great dish for any meal -- brunch, lunch, or dinner. My niece Katherine, in fact, used to make the casserole for birthday breakfasts at the financial firm at which she used to work.