After the After-Prom

[JFLinLA]

Early, early this coming Saturday morning, a bunch of 18 year-olds will descend on my house after the prom and the after-prom. I've promised to feed them before they all crash (yes, girls and boys in separate rooms). What can I have ready to pop into the oven when I get the call that they're on the way over. That could be anywhere between 2:00 and 4:00 AM and I expect 8-12 kids.

I could put out cold muffins or bagels but I'm not that kind of mom. However, I do not want to be frying something up at the last minute. I'll add some fresh fruit and juice and the like.

Thanks and send along recipes or links to them.

(Where did the time go?)

[EllenC]

Quiche. I make mine with shredded baked potatoes instead of crust. With some sausage, green onion and cheese. Real men eat that. I just use baked potatoes and shred them in the grater. Brust the pan and the potatoes with butter and salt and pepper them. Then pour whipped eggs with some cream on top and add sausage, green onion and your cheese of choice. Or spinach and feta. Or bacon and cheddar. I usually make a couple of varieties and I never have leftovers.

Have fun!

[John DePaula]

Baked French Toast sounds just fine. I make Pain Perdu often and if there's any left over, I freeze it in foil which has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. It reheats pretty well in a low oven, though not quite as good as just made.

[MollyB]

This Green Chile and Chorizo Breakfast Strata from Epicurious is great if you want to serve something hearty and spicy. It's supposed to be assembled the night before and put in the oven in the morning, so it would work beautifully in your time frame. You could use breakfast sausage if you wanted to keep it mild, and you could also use Soyrizo if you have any vegetarians in the group.

[Darienne]

Boozy Baked French Toast by Smitten Kitchen

french toast

Leave out the booze part depending upon your state laws. Of course, the cooking burns off the alcoholic content.

...7 tries to get it right later...

Edited May 11, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[KarenDW]

I've made variations of Paula Deen's Baked French Toast, in quantities of 4 to 140. If there are any nut allergies involved, I usually just use granola or chopped sunflower seeds in place of any nut-like toppings.

Easy to make up ahead, and bakes in 45 minutes.

The kids will want something sweet, something salty (i.e., bacon), and most of the girls will want fruit.

Oh, and a lot of water and juice.

Time flies. You must have been having fun.

[JFLinLA]

Thanks all. Made 2 non-boozy versions of the boozy french toast. Both with a good dollop of vanilla and some almond extract. Added lemon zest and sliver almonds to one of them. After the kids left for the prom, we came home and had everything pre-staged, including placing the boys sleeping bags in one room downstairs and the girls stuff upstairs. My daughter called at 2:30 AM to let me know they were preparing to come back. Took the french toast out of the fridge and began heating the oven. While the oven was heating and then the baking, pulled the OJ, grapefruit juice, milk, and cut-up fruit out of the refrigerator. Dishware was already out. Everything finished baking and was lined up as the kids rolled in about 3:15 AM. They were tired but really lovely. They all loved the french toast but preferred the more plain version.

The house quieted back down by 4:30. About 8:30, I went back to the kitchen, took the juices, milk and fruit back out of the fridge and set out bagels, cream cheese, lox mix & butter for all to help themselves. Though the first one left at 6:00 AM, they really began leaving in stages at about 9:30. By noon, it was just back to us, our daughter and her out of town friend who was staying with us. We had a very lazy afternoon with a lot of napping.

Again, many thanks. This is the way to go for a great prepare ahead dish.

[KatieLoeb]

Can I merely observe that you are an exceedingly cool parent? Keeping the after-after party under control and feeding the kiddles so well is just a really nice thing to do. I wish I'd had someone's parent in my batch of friends that took care of us that well...

[Darienne]

Can I merely observe that you are an exceedingly cool parent? Keeping the after-after party under control and feeding the kiddles so well is just a really nice thing to do. I wish I'd had someone's parent in my batch of friends that took care of us that well...

Ditto for me. What a lovely report!!!