Dinner went swimmingly.......

Hope you're enjoying a day off or - if you're like me - you're sitting in the office with a skeleton crew and eating leftover Christmas goodies. (I just had a slice of fruitcake - yes more fruitcake!- along with some very sweet and tasty Clementines.)

My Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes went swimmingly. So successful, in fact, that we're going to keep the tradition going next year. (Wow, even the meat lovers didn't miss the beef tenderloin.) Why did we ever let this tradition lapse?

Serving sparkling wine and mini crab cakes as an appetizer certainly helped. Not too many people out there who don't like crab cakes. Even the kids ate them. (If the kids are Sponge Bob fans, just tell 'em, they're crabby patties. Gone in minutes.)

While not a fish, I also had mini "pigs in blankets." (It's another Christmas Eve tradition.) I used Applegate Farms organic smoked cocktail franks that are made without nitrates. You wrap the franks with slices of refrigerator Croissant rolls - baked at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. Serve with a side dish of sweet and spicy mustard. The franks look good on a plate and the dish is always a big winner with kids as well as adults.

Cheese spreads, nuts and fresh fruit rounded out the munchies.

For one of the main dishes, I made "Barefoot Contessa's" Ina Garten's Seafood gratin - but doubled the recipe and tweaked it slightly. (The recipe is below.)

I used rockfish instead of halibut, used 1 1/2 pounds of large shrimp and added in 1/2 pound of scallops, which I sliced in half.

Normally, I would have made my own fish stock (use shrimp shells and fish bones) but I didn't have enough time. Thankfully Janssen's Market in Greenville carries homemade fish stock. (Look for it in the frozen food aisle. Janssen's always comes through!) And it was very good, if not better than my own.

I made and refrigerated the gratin earlier in the day (I doubled it - so I had enough for a 13-by-9-inch pan and one other smaller size Corningware casserole). While I mixed up everything for the bread crumb topping - except for the melted butter - I didn't mix it and spread onto the top of the casserole until right before the pans went into the oven. I wanted the bread to stay crispy.

This make-ahead gratin is easy entertaining and everyone loved the dish. It's rich, but not too overbearing. We also had a long slow roasted cherry tomato "confit" with marinated artichokes, and Caesar salad with anchovies, among the other dishes...

For dessert, it was the usual pies, cookies, Clementines etc.

But I also ordered a Buche de Noel from the Hotel du Pont. (Yep, we crossed cultures with this French "yule log" dessert.)

It was moist and creamy and went nicely with after dinner drinks of vin Santo, a Tuscan sweet wine.

Here's Ina Garten's recipe from her cookbook "Barefoot at Home" (Clarkson Potter, 2006):

Seafood Gratin

For the sauce:

1 cup seafood stock or clam juice

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons good white wine, such as Chablis, divided

3 tablespoons tomato puree

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

8 ounces raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut in half crosswise

8 ounces raw halibut, cut into 1-inch chunks (I USED ROCKFISH INSTEAD, REMOVE THE SKIN)

8 ounces cooked lobster meat, cut into 1-inch chunks

NOTE: I ALSO USED SEA SCALLOPS, OPTIONAL)

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 cups julienned leeks, white and light green parts (2 large)

1 1/2 cups julienned carrots (3 carrots)

1 cup panko (Japanese dried bread crumbs) (NOTE: INSTEAD OF PANKO, I PUT LEFTOVER ITALIAN BREAD INTO A FOOD PROCESSOR AND USED THE CRUMBS.)

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves (NOTE: I USED FRESH THYME INSTEAD OF TARRAGON)

1 tablespoon minced garlic (2 cloves)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place 4 individual gratin dishes on sheet pans. (If recipe is doubled serve it in a 14 by 9 1/4-inch oval gratin dish.)

For the sauce:
Combine the stock, cream, 1/2 cup of the wine, the tomato puree, and saffron in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the shrimp. After 3 minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp to a bowl. Add the halibut to the stock for 3 minutes, until just cooked through, and remove to the same bowl. (IF using the scallops, poach for 3 minutes, and remove to the bowl.) Add the cooked lobster to the bowl.
Continue to cook the sauce until reduced by half, about 12 minutes. Mash 1 tablespoon of the butter together with the flour. Whisk the butter mixture into the sauce along with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saute pan. Add the leeks and carrots and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of wine, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until tender. Set aside.
Combine the panko, Parmesan, parsley, tarragon, and garlic. Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and mix it into the crumbs until they're moistened.
Divide the seafood among the 4 gratin dishes. Strew the vegetables on top of each dish. Pour the sauce equally over the seafood and vegetables and spoon the crumbs evenly on top. Bake for 20 minutes, until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Serve hot. Makes 4 servings.