Our Christmas Eve dinner was almost as spectacular as Christmas Day but just for the two of us. One of my impressive cooking skills way back when was making souffles, a process that takes some practice to perfect. But recent years and eating habits changed so I had long abandoned souffle making. We have been eating steamed vegetables and salads for so long making anything with real cooking technique is no longer a valued skill.

The important thing to remember is not to tell anyone you are serving souffle. Wait to see if the dish rises as expected. If it works you made souffle. If it collaspes, you are serving custard.

What to make for the two of us for a special dinner? Nearly ten years or maybe more since I made a Grand Mariner Souffle, I chose to resurrect the recipe. The irony of retirement life is that I find myself in a house with an upscale kitchen, the dual-power stove I always dreamed of, a butcher-block topped island and all the gourmet gadgets you could hope for right at hand. We eat salads six nights out of seven. I have become the dainty Southern Lady who replied when asked if she could cook, "Honey, I don't COOK, I just FIX!" But I digress.

What to fix? Partly because we had plenty of eggs and partly because I postponed making any decision until the last minute, the idea of souffle appealed to me. The good news is: I still have it!

Yes, souffles are time consuming, laborious and everything must be at exactly the right temperature but I did it. Just one slight miscalculation. Reducing the egg yolks by one, I increased the egg whites by two. More precisely I used the carton egg whites and measured out the listed equivalent for four eggs (four whole eggs and four whites). Souffle dish all buttered and dusted with sugar, as the egg whites were beaten and fluffy, the batch was ready for the dish. Only the egg whites produced about twice the volume I had anticipated and the mix kept getting bigger and bigger. Very akin to a "Lucy and Ethel" sit-com scenario.

Quickly I pulled up a second souffle dish, buttered and dusted and divided the mix. We had TWO tall, browned, crusty, pouffy and delicious souffles for dinner. That was it, just Souffle and of course champagne.

Did you know that nothing bad ever happens to you when drinking champagne?
That's a fact. bb