After picking up my Forester from Holmgren (my husband followed service manager Wally Churchill from Secor in New London to Holmgren in Franklin), I called Joan and Michael Gordon and begged for some lunch. As we drank Coke (Michael high test, mine diet) and ate tuna and veggie pitas, I told them I was dying to make spaghetti and meatballs from a recipe given to me by an office mate at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. They thought that sounded great, then mentioned that their favorite dinner at my house was years ago, in the kitchen, where Doug and I made latkes that we devoured as soon as they came off the skillet.

"That was fun," I said, "and I can do that, but does it go with spaghetti and meatballs?"

They laughed and said, "Who cares?"

So, on Saturday night they, Edie and Richard Freeman, and Candy Green came to my house. We sat in the kitchen and ate too many latkes with sour cream and applesauce (my parents told me that if your family came from Eastern Europe, you spooned applesauce onto your latkes; if your family was from Poland, the Balkans, and Russia, you preferred sour cream). At the same time, we ate Edie's caviar pie with Russian pumpernickel. After a while, and a few glasses of wine, we began to slather the caviar concoction over the latkes. That was amazing.

After these "appetizers," we could hardly eat the spaghetti and meatballs, Caesar salad, and the dessert, an apple cake with Ciao Bella Blood Orange sorbet. But we managed.

Here's the recipe for the caviar pie, perfect for Christmas or New Year's Eve, or any time, for that matter. Next week, oyster stew, which we always enjoyed at New Year's Eve, before we began to go instead to the Union League Café. For the first Thursday in January, look for that particular spaghetti and meatballs recipe from my dinner party!

Lee White of Old Lyme has been a food editor and restaurant reviewer for more than 25 years. You can email her at leeawhite@aol.com.

Caviar Pie

From Edie Freeman of Waterford (and E.F. Watermelon in Old Lyme)

Serves 6 to 8

6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine*

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Dash of white pepper

1 cup minced red onions

8-ounce bar of good cream cheese

(not whipped and not low-fat or fat-free), softened

2/3 cup sour cream

(low-fat will do, but high test is better)

3, 2-ounce jars drained black lumpfish Romanoff caviar

Fresh parsley, lightly chopped

Lemon wedges

Russian pumpernickel, preferably from Colchester

Bakery, cut into chunks, or good crackers

Combine the chopped hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise and white pepper.

Grease an 8-inch spring-form pan (or a smaller one, if you have one). Spread egg mixture over bottom of pan. For the next layer, sprinkle with onions.

Blend softened cream cheese with sour cream until smooth. Spread over onions with wet spatula. Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight.

Before serving, top with drained caviar. Spread to the pan edges. Run knife around pan sides to loosen and lift off onto a pretty platter. Garnish around edges with parsley and lemon wedges.

Serve with chunks of Russian pumpernickel or with good crackers.

*Note: I hard-boil eggs by putting eggs in a saucepan, covering them with cold water, and bringing the water and eggs to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover the pan. The eggs will be hard-boiled in 45 minutes.