When Life Gives You Leftovers, Make Quiche!

 My friend, Crazy Dee, has a propensity for making large amounts of food.
She is the person, when you leave church, will pull you aside and say, Come over for dinner!  There's enough!  And yes there is.  CD usually will make much more than is needed because that is how her life rolls.  She is aware that dinner time can have just her and her hubby in attendance or two thirds of their children and their families dropping in.  As the extended family gets older and more able to do for themselves, this does not happen too regularly now, but yet, something within CD's brain has not adapted the proper switching from cooking for a gang to just two.

 While this is an annoyance to her husband who turns his nose up at leftovers, it is a royal hit for me.  Crazy Dee will pack up her cast offs and ship them off to me, knowing that they will be reincarnated into something else entirely.  Yesterday, after painting trim in her kitchen, I arrived home from my nightly dog walk to a counter full of leftover containers that I recognized from previous visits to my refrigerator.  I tsked tsked as I placed them in my fridge and immediately started contemplating today's meal.  Crazy Dee had provided sliced ham and vegetables and I had salad, some other veggies, refrigerated pie dough, eggs and milk.  Rolling the ingredients around in my mind, I quickly saw a quiche forming.....

 It's always a good thing when you can go to bed knowing what you will be making for the next day's meal.  It's a good thing when the meal is nearly free too!  As meal time came nigh, I chopped ham, cut up broccoli, searched for leftover mushrooms and beat eggs.  I even had some leftover potatoes from another meal to add to the mix.  A second shift man needs a little sustenance so I took an airy fairy sounding meal and added enough umph to it to keep him till it was lunch box time much later in the evening.

 I only season the milk/egg mixture with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes and the tiniest baking soda.  Parsley and all purpose season salt works quite well too.  After the eggs are beaten well and a modicum of milk is added, the mixture is poured over the chopped meat and veggies and cheese are sprinkled over the top.  When I make an official quiche, I use half and half and Swiss cheese.  But the purpose of this exercise is to use what I had at hand and skim milk and mozzarella was what was in the fridge.  I also shredded some fresh Parmesan over the finished product just cause I had it.

 A half hour in the oven.  A quick salad tossed and lunch is ready.

What's sitting in your (or a giving friends) refrigerator waiting for a re do?

Every Thing Old is New Again: Leftovers and Such

Just this week, Baby Girl made a rather revealing statement to me.  She says, 'Mom, you are the Queen of Leftovers! '  While this appears to be a dubious distinction, I did take it for what is was worth and have reflected on it since.


It appears that raising a family of six with one income and an agoraphobic wife/mother, has made me somewhat of a Meal Designer Extraordinaire by default.  I never really thought of it as special, but in these days of frugality and using what you have, perhaps my day has come.


For instance, this is what I prepared for the past week for my visitors:

• Enchiladas - leftover meat turned into chili days later
• Thanksgiving Dinner:  Stuffed Turkey Breast - turned into eggrolls; Root Vegetable Gratinata- turned into a chicken casserole; steamed broccoli - turned into broccoli/cheddar soup; Sweet potatoes/squash -turned into creamy sweet potato soup; homemade crescent rolls- added to almost every meal throughout the weekend
• Devon's Birthday Spaghetti -( nuthin leftover (sorry Dev)
• Chicago Style Pizza a la America's Test Kitchen
• Roast Beef Wraps to serve with the Broccoli/Cheddar Soup, thanks to deli RB

Baby Girl and I agreed that if your larder has been adequately supplied with the basics, you can put together a meal quickly utilizing what you have on hand.  So you ask, 'What is an adequately supplied larder? '  Well, I'm glad you asked.  I would get a bit twitchy if I did not have the following in my pantry.

• boullions of all kind; vegetable, beef, chicken
• assorted condiments: ketchup, mustards, soy sauce, worcestshire
• oils (olive, canola, Crisco)
• flours and sugars
• vinegars
• frozen rolls (okay, technically not in my pantry)
• assorted spices of all kinds
• pasta of all varieties (including egg noodles)
• assorted canned vegetables and fruits
• Nutella.  seriously.  Drop in guests can be treated with Nutella on apples or grahams.
• Oatmeal 
• assorted rices (brown, long grain and instant kinds)
• beans of all kinds: kidney, canellini, chick peas, butter etc. etc.
• dried milk (I know. Would not drink the stuff straight but comes in handy for sauces when the last drop of milk has just been used)
• cheeses (in the fridge, BTW)
• all canned tomato products
• canned mushrooms
• potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips
• canned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts

And this is just the dry portion of the larder.

Keep in mind, that most leftovers can be divided into several categories: 

1. savory  (cream sauces and soups)
2. mexican (adobo sauce, cumin, cilantro, cayenne, paprika, chili powder)
3. italian (basil, oregano, rosemary, garlic, parmesan)
4. asian (soy sauce, paprika, garlic, red pepper flakes)
5. other ethnic

If  you possess one of these in one form, with a little help, it can become something else almost without anyone notice.  Few noticed that my chili meat had previously been known as the yummy enchiladas we all enjoyed a few days before.  Many a leftover spaghetti dinner has been magically turned into a baked pasta before you can say freezer burn.  And the most magical of all, when leftover any meat becomes....TA DA!  Authentic Eggrolls!! 

Add your larder with a fresh supply of veggies and fruits each week and you are set.

  Back in my young mama days, Hubby did ALLLLLLL the shopping (see above mentioned agoraphobia).  Back then, he was known as Frugal Fred and he would give all the coupon clippers a run for their money.  That man could squeeze a grocery budget dollar dry.  He knew how to shop and pack at Aldi's like a pro.  He was aware of end cap scams.  He knew that it was senseless to use coupons for things you don't need/use just to 'save money'.  He knew that the things you really could use, rarely had coupons and you just shopped sales.  Hubby did all the grocery shopping on one trip.  Once a week.  We DID NOT go to the store other than the appointed day/night.  If we did not have it , we made do or did with out.  We did have an extra freezer so it is safe to say that we were not deprived.  And I have to say that it made me the creative cook I am today.  I cooked what was brought to me and that was it.  Every now and then, after perusing a magazine and finding an exceptional recipe, I would jot the needed items on my list, and wait for grocery day.  If it wasn't on the list, it was not purchased.  No spontaneous purchases only the really good deals that might not have been advertised.  Before you think that Hubby was trained by the Gestapo, let me just say that with all my grumbling and complaining, in hindsight, I think that it was a brilliant way to do things.  Like I said, Single Income Family.  It could not have happened if I was in charge of groceries.  Oh, the things that I would have drug home.  Thank you Lord for agoraphobia.  It reigned me in properly.

Speaking of lists: Do you have a Grocery List Location?  Secret to successful shopping.  You need to keep an ongoing, running tab of all the things that you just used the last of.  Three more teabags?  On the list.  Somedays, I might be off on one of my benevolent visits and Hubby gets a hankerin to do groceries.  No need to wonder what the little lady needs; it's there on The List where it always is.  I return home and voila!  Needed groceries are in their proper place!   Install the habit of ongoing grocery list making.

Since the chickies have all flown, the Hubby and I are a bit looser on the grocery visits.  I have been known to now run into the local for Just One Thing.  Hubby still gets a bit nuts about that, but since our abode is in a small town now with the grocery just a bit away, he can't pull the 'Save Gas' line of the past.  However, we still buy up the deals as they happen, meat wise.  He has been known to buy round steak or rump roasts by the half dozens or more.  Boneless skinless chicken breast on sale, reminds us on to buy more freezer bags for dividing the deals, usually in 10 pound packages, into Empty Nester proportions.

Now that I have pridefully boasted about the amazing skills in the kitchen that I possess, I suppose I should invite you to drop in on me sometime and have me show you my culinary stuff. 

And that's just what I'll do.....

Drop on in anytime for a meal.....

Or Nutella on graham crackers.....

We Have to Go Back, Kate!

Back in the day,
(don't you dread that opening??)
Before pre packaged, helper-helper, microwave, fast food options,
We made do.
'We' meaning my mom and her generation. What I was raised with.
Supper usually had no easy quick options. (at least none that you would be so brash to share)
A Shepherd's Pie supper was a convenient way to re invent your leftovers.
And my family enjoys it.

Did I tell you that I rarely listen to recipes and even when I use them, I change, alter, dare I say, improve them.
And last nights Roast Reconfiguration was a hit to the two men that I feed around here. Only complaint? Not enough!

So here is my current Shepherd's Pie (isn't it funny that I made it on 'Lost' night...Get it? Shepherd? Jack? Oh never mind......)Recipe

Jack Shepherd Pie (yeah, I know....!)

Leftover Roast (beef, pork, hamburger) will do; amounts will vary(of course)
Leftover roasted carrots
Leftover peas (plus some additional frozen peas I threw in for good measure)
1 cup beef boullion
1 tbs minced dry onion
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp Seasoned Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 tbs flour
2 Cups leftover mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup cubed fontina cheese (or any soft, mild cheese)

Spray inside of a 1- 1/2 qt casserole with a Pam like substance.
Chop leftover veggies and meat (minus mashed potatoes) and place in casserole.
Add cubed fontina
Mix seasonings and tomato paste in heated boullion.
Mix in flour. Blend well.
Add thickened mixture into leftovers and mix well.
Throw in those extra peas. Or any other vegetable that you like; If canned, drain first.
Spread mashed potatoes over top of it all. Spread to seal.
Sprinkle the shredded cheese over potatoes.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes till it's hot and bubbly and slightly browned.
Yum.
We added a mixed green salad. Dinner rolls would have been divine if we weren't all watching our carb intake....

Enjoy this new look at an old recipe!