Pizza puffs

Dear friends of ours host an annual New Year's Eve party and that is always a good time. It's an evening of friends that have become family and all our many collective children. The kids participate in an early bird countdown and then they are off to bed so the moms and dads can visit and celebrate. When I saw this recipe on the Babble Family Kitchen blog, I knew I was bringing it for New Year's Eve.

Mother Nature had other plans. NYE 2010 found my daughter and me asleep quite early after an all nighter in the emergency room for complications of the flu. So much for making plans..

Tonight, however, was a different story. We were all relatively healthy and ready to properly ring in 2011. We celebrated with pizza puffs, sparkling grape juice and chocolate peppermint bark cookies. There were horns to blow, noisemakers to shake and Rudolf's Shiny New Year to watch. We let the old year out the back door and greeted the new year at the front. It was a wonderful celebration.

Pizza Puffs

3/4 c flour

3/4 c milk

3/4 t baking powder

1 egg

1 1/4 c shredded Italian cheeses (I used asiago, parm, fontina and mozzarella)

2 t Italian seasoning (I used pizza herbs)

1 c pizza sauce

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a mini muffin pan.

2. Combine all ingredients except for pizza sauce.

3. Spoon batter into muffin pan, dividing evenly among the 24 cups.

4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until tops begin to brown.

5. Heat pizza sauce and spoon a small amount onto each puff. Serve hot.

The original recipe can be found at www.babble.com/family-kitchen