The Endless Revel

New Year’s Eve inspires the gaudiest plans. Though other holidays are bound by tradition or family restrictions, on this night we feel free--even obliged--to act out as much as we can.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do yet, but I’m thinking about whooping it up with a big bowl of chard and potato stew.

Before you call out the Millennium guards, there’s a method to my madness. Many New Year’s Eve parties revel in the sort of luxury that most of us can sustain for only about one night a year. There’s nothing wrong with bottomless tins of caviar and oceans of Champagne, but they’re not reality. At least not at my house.

Of course, you can make a case, and a fairly convincing one, that New Year’s Eve has nothing to do with reality. As much as we sometimes like to pretend that it’s just another night--just another dinner--it’s not. It’s a passage of some sort, a mileage marker. It is a holiday that demands celebration.

But let me offer a dissenting point of view, strictly in the interest of argument. What if, instead of throwing everything into a huge once-a-year blowout, we parceled out our pleasures a bit at a time? What if we regarded every dinner as being as important as New Year’s Eve?

Call it sustainable celebration. We could even turn it into a political movement. It’s kind of subversive: The idea is to take as much pleasure in the little things as we do in the officially designated big deal holiday celebrations.

This stew is a good example of what I’m talking about. There’s nothing luxurious about it and certainly nothing very expensive. It’s just a collection of everyday ingredients that is cooked with care and combined with an eye to creating a larger effect.

Yet it’s the kind of dish that fills you with a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of well-being. It can easily be prepared in half an hour or so, with a minimum of fuss and cleanup. All it takes is a skillet and a steamer.

In fact, you can think of it as nothing more than a kind of cooked salad; the balancing of flavors is much the same. Steam the vegetables--the potatoes and the chard stems. While those are cooking, fry the sausage mixture to make the dressing. Finally, combine them all with a last dose of vinegar to brighten the flavors.

Although this is very much an ensemble dish, the potatoes deserve special notice. Baby spuds have been around for a long time, but the quality has really improved in the last year and a half or so with the introduction (or, to be historically correct, reintroduction) of fingerling potatoes.

It started, as so many things have, at the growers markets, with Zuckerman’s Farm from Stockton and Weyser Farms from Tehachapi. Now you can find fingerlings at many grocery stores.

Fingerling potatoes vary in size and shape. Some are long and gnarly, shaped almost like ginger roots. Others look more like the familiar red boilers, except they’re a little more elongated. Fingerlings frequently come in variety packs, so you’ll get two or three kinds at once.

We tend to think of potatoes as background. They’re the blank canvases of food. These fingerlings are anything but. In fact, one of the very best things I cooked this year was plain old potatoes. I steamed some fingerlings just to the point that a knife would slip in easily, about 15 minutes. Then I tossed them with some soft butter and fleur de sel sea salt. Make sure the butter is softened but not melted; it will glaze the potatoes and provide a base for the salt.

I made this dish over and over again last spring and never got tired of it. Simple as it is, the flavors are marvelously complex, thanks primarily to the intensely earthy, minerally taste of the potatoes.

Now, that is something worth celebrating, and celebrating repeatedly. So throw off the shackles of the old New Year’s Eve! End the tyranny of caviar and Champagne!

To the barricades, my friends. With potatoes and chard on our side, who dares stand against us?

Chard, Potato and Sausage Stew

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

1 pound Swiss chard

1 pound small boiling potatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

Salt, pepper

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

* Trim dried ends from chard and cut stems off where green leaves begin. Chop stems coarsely and set aside. Cut green leaves in half lengthwise and then cut into narrow ribbons.

* Cut potatoes in halves or in quarters, depending on size. Pieces should be size of walnuts. Place potatoes in steamer basket over rapidly boiling water and cook, covered, 5 minutes.

* Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Slice open skins on sausages and crumble meat into skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, about 10 minutes. Chop with spoon to crumble into rather small pieces.

* After potatoes have steamed 5 minutes and while sausage is cooking, add chopped chard stems to steamer basket and steam 10 minutes more.

* When sausages have browned, add chard leaves, garlic and red pepper flakes to skillet and stir well to combine. Cook until leaves begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

* When potatoes and chard stems are done, empty steamer basket into skillet. Stir well to combine potatoes, chard stems, chard leaves, sausage and rendered oil from sausage. Season to taste with salt and pepper (because of potatoes, you’ll need more salt than you might think). Reduce heat to low and keep warm, uncovered, until ready to serve.

* Just before serving, drizzle vinegar over top of all and toss to combine. Serve in shallow pasta bowls.

6 to 8 servings. Each of 8 servings: 264 calories; 472 mg sodium; 32 mg cholesterol; 20 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 0.71 gram fiber.