December 31 is upon us! I'm expecting thousands of drunken belligerent psychos to descend on my neighborhood tonight, and if you think I'm excited, I'm actually going elsewhere. Nothing I hate more than Adams Morgan on New Years Eve. Tomorrow morning, however, is another story entirely. The streets will be dead, most def. I love waking up on New Years Day to total silence, enjoying yummy but easy breakfast and hot tea in my bathrobe, and being altogether lazy.

Even if you're like me and breakfast/brunch is your thing, I'm sure you feel me that cooking on New Years morning isn't exactly an appealing thought. Especially if you're hosting tomorrow morning, surely you want something easy to make, but with big wow-factor. A Dutch Baby is just the thing. It's a big, floppy, eggy pancake that puffs up beautifully in the oven; pull it out, top with some stewed fruit and a dusting of powdered sugar, and ta-da! Perfect breakfast entree. It takes 20 minutes to bake and about 15 seconds to mix up. Can't complain about that prep time, now can you?

Just in case a hot, fluffy, fruit-topped pancake isn't your thing (but really, who are we kidding?) I've included links to some other good New Years brunch recipes below. Have yourselves a safe and rockin' evening, and a very Happy New Year!

New Years Day Brunch Ideas:

• Rich and creamy apricot-stuffed french toast
• Lazy, boozy french toast casserole
• Easy vintage breakfast biscuits
• Ever-popular and dead easy shakshuka
• Any kind of frittata, any kind at all
• Blackberry and pear clafoutis — perfect for winter

There are plenty more where those came from — just run a quick search through my breakfast-and-brunch category and see what pops up. Enjoy!

Dutch Babies
basic recipe courtesy of Lara at Cook and Eat

This recipe makes enough for one large pancake, which will feed two hungry people. For a larger pancake, double the recipe and use a large stainless steel or castiron pan.

2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
1 T unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Whisk the eggs with the pinch of salt until they just begin to get a little fluffy. Gradually whisk in the milk and flour and continue to whisk until smooth.

Melt the butter in a 5-inch cast iron pan. Then, pour the egg mixture over the butter. Move the pan immediately to the hot oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it puffs up over the edges of the pan and is a rich golden brown on the edges.

Top with any kind of stewed fruit, or even good-quality preserves, and finish with a dusting of powdered sugar. I used poached quince that I had leftover — delicious.

A while back, I made some chipotle chocolate pudding parfaits. Humbly speaking, they were pretty darn awesome. At least, I thought so. D? Not so much. She prefers snack packs, I guess. But I don't give up so easily. There's no way those gelatinous, tasteless pudding packs can beat homemade chocolate pudding. Armed with my best chocolate (callebaut 70%), organic whole milk, and a little bit of love, I set out to make chocolate pudding that D might like.

"It's too dark and rich," she said. Really, I can't win around here.

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Forget Rachael Ray, with her hoarse voice and her annoying little mannerisms. I'll show you a 30 minute meal — better yet, a 15-minute meal — that'll have you at the table before you can say "EVOO". It's called polenta, and it's really flippin' easy. You can actually make it more quickly than I can write this post. And while I've included the recipe for polenta with tomatoes, shallots, and goat cheese, you can easily make it with something else. As always, I've listed several variations.

Polenta is basically poor man's food: it's simple, it's cheap, it's sustaining, and it's dead-easy to make. All you need is cornmeal, salt, and water — ohh, and a fair amount of muscle for all the stirring you'll be doing.
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The third installment of "what's for [catered] brunch?" begins with a tip on cooking for a crowd. When cooking for a crowd — especially if it's folks you don't know personally — I always try to size up the guests during the menu-planning stage, so that I can be sure I'm cooking dishes that'll go over well, even if I don't care much for them. When Rocco DiSpirito was on Top Chef a couple weeks back, he announced (inappropriately, if you ask me) that he loves bacon; every chef but one presented a bacon dish. The chef that didn't actually made something that sounded pretty tasty, but he lost because Rocco likes bacon. Also: my friend Julia regularly cooks chicken when she hosts lunch, even though she's veg, because her guests like chicken and she aims to please. It makes sense: cook for the crowd, not necessarily for yourself.

While I don't always follow this rule, I tend to stick with it when I don't know the people I'm cooking for, as with the catered brunch from a few weeks back. And since I know that most people love creamy, gooey things, I opted for a (relatively) easy stuffed french toast recipe from Martha. It's basically thick slices of french toast that are stuffed with a mixture of apricot jam and cream cheese. Not my cup of tea, nor my mom's, but boy was it the crowd favorite. As usual, we made some key adjustments after tasting the filling, because we found the combo of cream cheese and apricot jam somewhat flat and lacking in character. A generous confetti of lemon zest and a fair sprinkle of lemon juice made all the difference. We made enough that there were three for each person; five courses notwithstanding, people did the job and polished off nearly all the french toast. Watching the guests rave, my mom and I took one of the end pieces, put it on a plate, sliced two little bites off, and each tried it. We looked at each other, bobbed our heads in agreement that it tasted as we expected, and then laughed as we acknowledged that neither of us particularly liked it. But hey, the guests were happy. More than happy.

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Missing your grill right about now? I sure am, and I never even had a grill. But nothing says "miss your grill" like cold, wet, winter nights.

Enter Ina Garten, my favorite Food Network dame and partner in butterlove. Her bbq sauce is the real thing, lemme tell you. By the looks of the recipe, you'd think she was joking: you'll need nearly 10 bottles of already-processed sauces and goops to make her sauce. But when it's done, you'll see that she was serious all along. Laced with onions, generously spicy and perfectly sweet-tart, this sauce is way, way tastier than the sum of its (very processed) parts. Trust me.

Serious BBQ Sauce
From The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Makes 1 ½ quarts

1 ½ cups chopped yellow onion (1 large onion)
1 T. minced garlic (3 cloves)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup tomato paste (10 ounces)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup honey
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup Dijon mustard
½ cup soy sauce
1 cup hoisin sauce
2 T. chili powder
1 T. ground cumin
½ T. crushed red pepper flakes

In a large saucepan on low heat, sauté the onions and garlic with the vegetable oil for 10 to 15 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer uncovered on low heat for 30 minutes. Use immediately or store in the fridge.

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