I’m glad that the holidays only come once a year, not just because of all the work of shopping and decorating and baking, but because one can only take so much eggnog. When the eggnog products hit the shelves, I overdo it. Between the ice cream, candy and cartons themselves, I’ll be saying a sweet farewell to the seasonal eggnog at the start of the new year.

My father used to make me his from-scratch eggnog, in the perfect quantity of one cup, which waited in the fridge as an unexpected surprise on a "no special reason" morning. Society won’t accept a recipe of a raw-egg drink these days; still, I cherished those mugs of eggy cream. I remember sneaking into the kitchen late one night, just to check whether the gift of eggnog was there, in the glory of refrigerated light.

When I’m in the grocery store and notice the cheery Christmas script announcing that eggnog time is here, I think, "Oh. There you are. How I’ve missed you."

Then, after a lovely visit with merrymaking and way too many calories, I’ll still have a half container left.

So for practicality’s sake, I made some French toast.

Since French toast is made with cream and egg, eggnog was no stretch.

I am particularly fond of the overnight version, which results in puffy, crusty, custardy bread as close to pudding as you can get.

You can just do a quick dip in the egg bath and then fry it on the stove top, but you’ll be missing out. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t work directly across the street from Tita’s Grill, where the bread is about as perfect as it gets for French toast, but any white cottage loaf bread, thick sliced, will work here.

Now I’m dreaming of eggnog elves stirring eggnog rice pudding, whipping eggnog frosting and baking shortcakes topped with eggnog cream for all the good girls and boys.

Overnight Eggnog French Toast

6 eggs

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 cups eggnog

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 to 10 slices white bread, sliced 1 inch thick

Butter

In 9-by-13-inch pan, whisk eggs, then add brown sugar and whisk again. Add eggnog, milk and salt and whisk again until incorporated.

Trim bread into a square. Remove crusts if you like. Dip bread into egg, one at a time, flipping onto both sides. Leave the eggy bread in the pan in a double layer, cutting slices in half if you need to. The number of bread slices that fit into the pan depends on how big your loaf is. I was able to fit seven.

Place plastic wrap over the pan and refrigerate overnight or at least a few hours.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place sheet of parchment paper on cookie sheet and lightly butter parchment. When oven is heated, remove bread slices from pan with a large spatula (it’s necessary to support the soggy bread) and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes and then flip slices with large metal spatula. Bake another 5 minutes.

Serve immediately with butter and syrup, if desired. Serves 4 to 6.

Nutritional analysis unavailable.

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Mariko Jackson blogs about family and food at www.thelittlefoodie.com.