Dinner Party . . . The Next Day . . . Leftovers

Whenever you have a dinner party 

you want to have enough food

But then there are the "leftovers"

There are no leftover salads

I'm good at judging the quantity needed

And if I have just a tad left in the bowl, I just divide it amongst the plates before I serve.

And we had no leftover moussaka --

A couple of our guests had seconds.

The wee bit of leftover apple crisp

Was devoured by Husband Jim as a bedtime snack!

But I did have French bread left . . . 

Saturday morning's breakfast then was

French Toast

We never use butter on our French toast

We never use syrup on our French toast

We never use powdered sugar on our French toast

It's granulated sugar and only granulated sugar sprinkled over the top for us

Which is why I never order French toast out!

But French toast is really pain perdue

Which is "Lost Bread" in French

Fitting for the breakfast the morning after

And it used up all the bread that we didn't eat at the party!

The worst leftover, however, was the three egg whites

The remains of the three egg yolks called for in the Béchamel sauce recipe

Leftover egg whites can be a problem

I sometimes make meringues with them

(if there are enough)

Mostly, I throw them in with whole eggs for a morning scramble

As I was perusing a cookbook the morning after,

Natalie Dupree's New Southern Cooking

(a 50 center thrift store find -- I have one of hers and really like it so thought I would risk 50 cents on another and it did not disappoint)

There was a recipe for Butter Brickle Madeleines

which called for 3 egg whites -- only three egg whites -- no yolks!

I made them yesterday afternoon

They're frosted

And I've never frosted a madeleine

But they are good -- very good

And I love the egg white cake -- it's so light!

This will definitely be one of my "go to" recipes whenever I have three leftover egg whites!

They are that good!

NATALIE DUPREE BUTTER BRICKLE MADELEINES

2 cups flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. milk
1/2 c. butter at room temperature
2 t. vanilla
3 egg whites

Oil and flour the madeleine tins. Preheat oven to 350 Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Pour in the milk, add the shortening and vanilla and beat until just blended. Add the egg whites and beat another 3 minutes. Pour into the prepared madeleine pans and bake on the middle shelf for 20 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one comes out clean. Cool on a rack and then remove from the tins. Place on a serving platter, ribbed side up.

FROSTING:

1/2 c. butter
4 c. powdered sugar
8 T milk, heated
3 t. vanilla

Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan until it is golden brown. Remove from the heat and add the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat for 3 minutes with an electric mixer until cool, then spread on the madeleines.

NOTES: I got 34 madeleines from the recipe. I also made only HALF the frosting recipe and had enough to frost all of my madeleines. I think I would have had a lot left over had I made the whole batch.