Vichyssoise

You may remember that I said I was going to make a chilled soup with the stock from some pork chop bones.  I came across a number of yummy cold soup recipes, but I decided on a recipe for vichyssoise.  I changed only a couple of things about this recipe.  I used pork stock instead of chicken stock - and I had just enough.  And I used sour cream instead of heavy cream at the end, because it was what I had on hand.  My picky five year-old pronounced it her FAVORITE soup.  Much to my surprise.    I know this picture leaves a lot to be desired, but I was half-way through when I remembered I needed to take a picture.  Just the thing for a hot day. My daughters sipped it out of big mugs the next day for lunch - it cooled them right down.

PS - I have run across this soup from time to time, but I still had to look up how to pronounce it - vee - see - schwaz!  Or you could just call it Cold Potato and Leek soup.  :o)

Dining alfresco

I love eating outside, and in the spring, summer and fall we eat outside all of the time.  I was planning a picnic, but we ended up eating these at home, which was probably a good thing considering how messy they are.  I used this recipe for BBQ ribs and it was very easy and very, very good.  I didn't even change the recipe for once.   

We ate hamburgers outside the other day too....

With a tall cool glass of a strawberry drink I mixed up for something different.  All I did was mix some strawberry syrup with water until I liked the taste.  Super simple.

We had friends over a couple of nights ago and made pork chops on the grill.  We are having a heat wave in Wisconsin right now, and it is too hot to cook inside.  I kept it simple and just put salt and pepper on both sides of the pork chops.  Then my husband, the grill master, put them over indirect heat for 20 minutes and about 4 minutes per side over direct heat.  I also cut up some russet potatoes and put them in a foil pouch with some sea salt and olive oil.  Those went on the grill over direct heat, for about 30 minutes.  Added some popovers and salad.  Good friends, good food, very wonderful time. 

The next night we cut up the remaining pork chops and made sandwiches with the leftover hamburger buns.  Potatoes again.  Nice cool meal for a beautiful night. 

I am going to use the pork chop bones for a stock.  I just need to use the burner on the side of the grill and it rained today.  That was really nice for cooling things down a bit, but it was still too hot to cook outside.  Tomorrow.  I think that I will make some kind of cold soup.  Hmmm....

Venison Round

Once again, I didn't take a picture of the first night's meal.  But here is what I did:  I thawed out a venison round roast and cut it into pieces about 1 1/2 inches thick.  I trimmed off all of the silverskin and excess fat and then put them between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Then I pounded the crap out of them with a meat mallet, dredged them in flour and put them in a frying pan with a little olive oil.  I cooked a few minutes per side until medium-well done.  I had never tried this with venison before and I think that I would do things a little differently next time.  I think that I would dredge the meat in a beaten egg first and then in cracker crumbs instead of flour - just to give it a bit more texture.  Then I think that I would only cook them to medium-rare.  I served them with salad and bread.  They were pretty good, but like I said - I will do things differently next time. 

Next night - I cut up the venison and stir-fried it with garlic and veggies.  I started the rice first, and then chopped up all of the vegetables.  I used kale, beet greens and winter onions.  I chopped the garlic very fine and kept it separate.  Then I heated about 2 tsp of olive oil in my wok (you could use a frying pan instead) and added just the garlic. 

I stir-fried the garlic for about 30 seconds before adding the vegetables.  After these had wilted I added the meat - I added it last because I didn't want it to overcook.  When it was heated though I served it on a bed of rice, with roasted asparagus and popovers.

Yum.

This is one of many recipes that I have used for popovers.  This is the one that I grew up with and it is always a hit.

Popovers

1 cup bread flour - this is one recipe that I haven't gotten to work with wheat flour yet - but I will keep trying.
1 cup milk
2 TBL salad oil - I use a bit more than this.
2 TBL sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs

Mix everything and beat really well with an electric mixer (very, very well - you want to get air in there!).  Pour into a very well greased popover pan (I used a muffin pan for years - it works fine - but only use eight of the cups).  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

I like to put butter and jam on mine, but they are great plain too!

Venison Loin

Alright.  So once again, I decided to combine a couple of recipes.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittenstall is one of my favorite sources, so I owe him for most of this recipe.  Then I also came up on this video which showed another way of making venison which I hadn't tried before, so I had to jazz it up a bit with that too, although not nearly as fancy as his.  The result was phenomenal, and definitely something that I will try again!  Here is what I did:

First, I cut my venison loin into noisettes about 3/4 of an inch thick.  Then I sprinkled a little salt and some freshly ground pepper on each side.  I put them into a hot(!) pan in which I had melted a bit of butter and added some olive oil.  I seared them for about a minute on each side (I like my venison pretty rare).  Then I added a small glass of whiskey (I would have added brandy, but I didn't have any) and set fire to it with a match.  After the flames died down I transfered the meat to a warmed dish.

Using the same pan that I cooked the venison in, I added a few TBL of red wine (I had some raspberry wine leftover) and deglazed the pan over medium heat.  Then I added about 3 TBL of red currant jelly and reduced for a few minutes.  Then I added 1 TBL of cream, reduced a bit more and poured over the venison.  You could obviously do this with a beef loin as well.


Potatoes

I used some small Russet potatoes and boiled them until easily pierced with a fork.  Then I crushed them with a glass and put them into a frying pan with three cloves of crushed garlic and some butter (enough to keep the potatoes from sticking to the pan).  I had some kale that had overwintered in my garden and was starting to put out new leaves, so I stole those, chopped them coarsely and added them to the potatoes - probably a couple of handfuls.  I cooked until the kale had wilted and you could smell the cooked garlic.  Serve with the venison.  Yum!
 

The next night I cut up the venison, added some more kale and (after boiling until easily pierced with a fork) some fingerling potatoes.  I had bought many pounds of them at the farmer's market last fall and as you can see I either need to use them up or plant them.  By the way NEVER eat potato sprouts or any green part of potatoes.  Potatoes belong to the deadly nightshade family and the green parts are poisonous. 

ljnob

Then I just cooked it all together in a pan for a little while and we had a wonderful hash.  Don't forget to add all of the leftover sauce too.

The third night I took the leftover hash and incorporated it into an egg dish.  This is one I made up completely and I don't remember how I did it.  I forgot to write it down, but I imagine that it was something like this:

I think that I had about a cup or maybe two of hash leftover.  Add three beaten eggs and mix together.  Add 1 cup of warm whole milk.  Stir and sprinkle the top with chopped kale and 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Cover and bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes or until set in the middle and slightly browned on top.  

That is my best guess as to what I did.  I will try and make something like it again soon.  Good luck!   

 

Ham and so on

The whole family loves ham, and there is something about the smell of ham baking in the oven on a cold day that is magical.  Of course, it stays cool in Wisconsin a lot longer than in other places, and I fixed this a month or so ago - sorry again for the delay, it has been a crazy upside-down spring around here.  So, for the first night we had ham, baked potatoes, bread and salad.  I hardly ever take pictures of the salad, but we eat it almost every night.  We buy the big boxes of organic mixed greens at the grocery store when we can't get it locally, and we will start buying it locally again very soon!  Our local grocery stores don't carry it in the big boxes and the small bags are so expensive, but since my husband works in Madison, he stops at a grocery store that is right across from his office, and they carry it.  I have often noticed that I can buy bulk so much cheaper in bigger cities.  So - when you are taking an outing to a larger city - stock up!  I buy rice, olive oil, salad and sometimes cereal there.  Oh - and some really great specialty cheeses.  We have some great cheeses at the cheese house in town here, but they have some really great ones in Madison from all kinds of wonderful cheese makers from Wisconsin.  I highly recommend Crave Brothers (Petit Frere) and any of the Carr Valley cheddars.  Mmmm.  There are not cheese that you just eat.  They are cheeses that you savor in small amounts.  They are too expensive to do otherwise, but make a great (and healthy!) treat. 

I am very lazy about making hams.  I usually stick them in my dutch oven (still frozen if I haven't been organized enough to thaw them out in the fridge first).  Then I turn the oven on to 225 or 250 and let it go for a couple of hours or so.  About an hour and a half before I am ready to serve it,  I turn the oven up to 350 and stick in some potatoes.  I just scrub them, rub them with a bit of butter and stick them in.  Then everything can come out at once.   Easy peasy! This served four adults and two kids and there were still leftovers!

The next day we still had company and so I made fried ham sandwiches for lunch.  This was very easy too.  You slice the ham into 1/4 slices or so and put them into a dry frying pan.  You don't need any additional fat - there is enough on the ham.  Cook at medium heat until warmed through and beginning to brown.  While you are waiting for them to cook, you can slice the bread and toast it (if desired) spread bread with mayo and add some cheese slices - we like muenster or cheddar.  Put the ham slices on top of the cheese, top with some lettuce and you have got a wonderful simple sandwich.

We also fried up some potatoes in another pan.  This was simple too.  I just added some ham fat to the pan, then scooped the leftover baked potatoes out of their skins (and I am sure that you know by now that I made potato skins out of them!) and tossed them in too.  I cooked them until warmed through and starting to get crispy too, on medium-high heat.  This served eight adults and four children for lunch.  And we still had the bone and a little bit of meat left.  So what did I make?  All together now:  SOUP!

I made the U.S. Senate Bean Soup again, with only a couple of modifications.  I just used the ham bone (with attached meat) and trimmings instead of the hock/shank.  I still ended up with about a cup and a half of meat after picking everything apart after simmering it for a couple of hours.  We soon had more company, and this soup served four adults, plus the two kids, and then just the four us for two more meals.  I usually serve it with bread.  Enjoy!

White Bean and Lamb Soup

I found this recipe for White Bean and Lamb Soup that I have been meaning to try.  I have made a barley and lamb soup before that I liked, but I just wanted something a little different this time.   With my leg of lamb leftovers, this is exactly what I did.  (Remember that post?  I have had a super busy spring and this is the first time I have gotten a chance to post in over a month!) It was great and I think that it will probably be my top choice for lamb leftovers from now on.

I did, of course, make several changes to the recipe, mainly eliminating things because I didn't have them.  I first used the bone (with any meat that didn't come right off) for a stock.  I simmered it for a few hours.  You could do this in a crock pot and just leave it overnight, then take out the bone and throw in the rest of the ingredients in the morning - leave it to simmer all day and ta-da!

So - instead of chicken broth - I just used the lamb stock.  And I used the leftover meat from the leg of lamb rather than ground lamb.  I also replaced the vegetable that they suggest with the leftover vegetables that I had cooked with the leg.  I didn't have any spinach, feta cheese or tomatoes, so I skipped those, but I did add some celery and some more carrots.  All in all - yummy!  Soups are so forgiving.  I improvise with them all of the time.  If you don't like an ingredient - replace it with one you do like.  Just try and replace veggies with veggies etc. at first until you get the hang of substitutions and additions.  Happy cooking!

Leg of Lamb, etc

 

Another "system cooking" adventure with Laura.  I started out with a leg of lamb on Sunday.  This worked out well since I cooked it for 5 1/2 hours in the oven and basted it every 1/2 hour for the last two hours.  I really didn't need to do that.  But it came out rather lovely, I think.

Anyway.  I combined a couple of recipes from some of my favorite cookbook authors:  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jennifer McLagan, and then added my own twists.  I can't seem to help it most of the time.  I first cut up a bunch of veggies: carrots, onions and potatoes and put them on the bottom of my dutch oven.  I also used turnips, but for some reason, they tasted awful.  I love turnips, but either the ones I had were not good, or they just don't go well with lamb.   So - skip the turnips.  Cut up as many veggies as will cover the bottom of the pan in a double layer, according to your preferences - I tend to use a lot of carrots if I have them - but we run out of them quickly around here.  Then I stuck my knife in the lamb several times, peeled and cut garlic into large slivers, roughly chopped some anchovies and stuck the garlic and anchovies into the lamb.

 

Then I put the lamb in on top of the vegetables, filled the pan with about an inch and a half of water, poured about half a bottle of white wine over everything (I would have used a whole bottle if I had one), and stuck it in the oven at 350 degrees F for two hours. I was going to use lamb stock instead of water, and I had some in my freezer, but it was in a Ziplock and when I opened the fridge door after letting it defrost in there overnight, out came the lamb stock.  Oops.  There was a hole in the bag and I foolishly didn't put the bag in a container.  Messy, messy!  Not very thrifty to waste it, and very time consuming too.  After cleaning my fridge thoroughly, and after the two hours had passed, I took off the cover, basted the leg, and turned the temp down to 300 degrees F.  I basted the leg every half hour for 2 1/2 hours - don't replace the cover.

The meat was really tender and wonderful.  The vegetables were fantastic and it is not a difficult recipe at all.  It is a little time-consuming, but just the cooking part, and it only takes a couple of minutes.  I suppose that if you had a very large crock pot this could work in there too. 

Next night - I made a kind of hash with the leftover potatoes and some of the meat and onions.  I didn't add any kind of oil or fat.  There was enough on the veggies and meat already to cook it nicely.  My husband loved it.  He put sour cream on it and devoured.  The kids weren't quite as sure - even with the sour cream.  I am not sure why - to many vegetables I suppose.  Grin.  I forgot to take a picture of the hash, but it looked like a normal hash, so you aren't missing much.

Last night - Naan and rice and lamb.  Another favorite dish around here.  I love this naan recipe.  I don't tinker much with this one.  I used 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat bread flour and 2 cups of white.  I think that I will increase the wheat flour next time.  I had never made it that way before, and wanted to make sure that it was still going to be as great as usual.  The other change I make is to roll out all the dough inside, and then bring it out to the grill and brush butter on before I put it on the grill rather than after.  I have cooked it inside on a very hot pan before too and it has worked out just fine.  Naan is a little time consuming, but very worth it.  We will have plenty of naan for the next couple of days.  One time saver would be to mix it up in the morning and leave it out all day if you ave a cool kitchen, or stick it in the fridge if you have a warm kitchen.  Or you could mix it the night before too.  Then take it out 1/2 an hour or so before you want to use it.  I would put it on the stove top next to where you are cooking your rice and lamb so it warms up more quickly.  

Rice:  I like parboiled rice myself.  I am trying to accustom myself to brown rice, but so far I just don't like it.  Oh well - win some, lose some.  I usually cook about two cups of rice with four cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  When you can see the little bubble holes in the rice and it looks like the water has been absorbed when you stir it, it is done.  This usually takes around 15-20 minutes.

Lamb:  All I did for this was tear off a bunch of leftover lamb from the leg bone with my fingers.  I kind of shredded it a bit too so that it was in bite-sized pieces.  Then I put it directly into a cast iron skillet (my absolute favorite pan), again there was enough fat on the lamb meat to allow it to crisp up nicely without any additional fat added.  I was going to add some kind of vegetable to this, but I didn't have any peppers and I thought that salsa would make it too fajita-like.  I didn't even have any salad around here, which is unusual.  So, we went vegetable-less for one night and my five year old told me that it was the best supper I had ever made.  Aaargh. 

      

I put teriyaki sauce on my rice, but my husband loves soy sauce.  Now - on to eating.  My favorite way it to tear off a piece of naan and use it to grab some rice and meat, then take a bite.  The ultimate finger food.  It was fantastic, but I have to say, it could have used some vegetables....

Now, three guesses as to what I am making tonight.  SOUP.  Of course!  I haven't made it yet, but I think that I will do a separate post later.  I am thinking about a lamb and white bean soup, but we will see, you never know what I will do - it is a mystery even to me!

Leftover Stuffing and Friends

Apple Pork Chops with Stuffing is a recipe that I have been meaning to try for a while.  I have lots of leftover stuffing from my Christmas turkey, and I looked at a lot of recipes for using up stuffing.  We like it just plain, but that gets old after a little while.

I love pork chops and I am always able to get a couple more meals out of them, so here we go!

First night - Apple Pork Chops with Stuffing.  These were fantastic!  I was a little skeptical about the apple pie filling - I used some that my mother in law had canned last fall- but it was really good.  Also, instead of the stuffing from a box (I avoid boxes if at all possible), I of course used leftover stuffing from the freezer.  If I can get my in-laws to agree, I will post the super-secret stuffing recipe sometime.  Please guys?  Anyway - it turned out wonderfully. 

Second night:  Pork Fried Rice.  This is my go-to recipe for leftover pork.  It is a family favorite.  I usually omit the scallions and use a chopped medium onion and a couple of chopped carrots instead.  I saute the carrots, onions and pork until the vegetables are soft (you probably don't need to add any oil for this - the pork fat just from the pork will be enough), then I remove them and cook the rice and eggs according to the directions.  Remember to heat the oil BEFORE adding your rice.  Otherwise the rice soaks up the oil and tastes greasy. 

The third night:  Soup.  What else?  It seems to be the inevitable end of most of my meals.  For this one I took all of the leftover bones from the pork chops, placed them in a stockpot and barely covered them with water.  I brought the whole thing to a boil and then reduced the heat to a simmer for a few hours.  This could be done in your crockpot too - just put them in the morning and let them simmer away all day.  I then strained the stock into a bowl, put it back into the stock pot and added all of the leftover stuffing and sauce from night #1.  I then picked all of the meat off of the bones and added it back to the stockpot too.  This was a pretty good soup, but it was a little sweet for me - probably because of the apple pie filling.  I think that next time I will add some extra celery and maybe some bread to damp the sweetness.  Or maybe I will just cook the pork chops over regular sliced apples.  Hmmm.  We'll see.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture!  Maybe next time.  :o)

Happy cooking!

Potato Skins

For this I have to thank Simply Recipes.  Without the beautiful photography on that blog, I may not have made these and that would have been a shame.  I, of course, had to put my own spin on these.

Here is what I did:

1.  Bake some potatoes - I usually use Russet potatoes, wash them, dry them and smear them with a tiny bit of butter.  I have found the easiest way to do this is take a baggie on my hand, pinch off a bit of butter and proceed to rub it all over the potato (or pan - if I need to grease a pan).  I know that many people pierce their potatoes with a fork to keep them from exploding, but I come from a potato growing family and we have never had that problem.  I bake them at 400 for about 45-60 minutes, or at 325 for as long as I feel like it.  :o)  It is completely possible to over-bake potatoes, and I have done it a few times, but the insides are fine, it is just the skins that aren't so tasty anymore. 

2.  Serve as baked potatoes.  My family doesn't usually eat the skins of their baked potatoes anyway, so this doesn't matter.  You could also cut them in half and scoop out the flesh for mashed potatoes, or hash, or a number of things.

3.  Scoop out any remaining flesh, and save for another purpose.  I scoop almost all of it out instead of leaving a 1/4 inch or so like most people because I like the skins to be crunchy.  My skins also don't look nice and neat like Simply Recipe's, but they are still very tasty! 

4.  Heat up the oven to 450 degrees.  Place skins on a rimmed cookie sheet.  Brush or spray with olive oil - or whatever oil suits you - on both sides. 

5.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crunchy, flipping halfway through.

6.  Take out of oven and top grated cheese and if you want, some crumbled ham, bacon, chicken, whatever you like.  Put back into oven until cheese is bubbly - a couple of minutes.

7.  Remove and serve with sour cream and BBQ sauce.  At least, that is what I like to have it with!

8.  Enjoy the oohs and ahhs from your family and friends.

Chili Mac and Beyond

So here ends the saga of the second pile of taco meat.  Hooray!  Actually all of these were pretty good.  I was just a little tired of the taco seasoning taste by the end.  First up is a variation on chili mac.  I just cooked a package of elbow macaroni (in retrospect, I should only have cooked half the box).  Then I put those in a 9x9 cassarole dish and topped with the leftover salsa and taco meat.  Then I grated some cheese, sprinkled it on top and baked it for about 25 minutes in a 325 degree oven.  That was pretty good, but I sent it in Jake's lunch - so I had to come up with something different for supper.  (Remember the two meals in a row rule?  BTW - Jake says he wants to be recast - he says he sounds too picky in my blog.  I told him that if he wasn't picky he wouldn't be portrayed as picky.)  Anyway.  I fried up some potatoes and then took the meat/cheese/salsa cap off, broke it up and sauteed it for a few minutes with the potatoes.  I forgot to take a picture of the final produce, but you get the idea. 

I still had the noodles to deal with.  I intended to make some kind of noodle pancake, but the elbow macaroni didn't want to stick together nicely like spaghetti do.  It still turned out fairly well though.  My five year old loved it.  I mixed a couple of eggs in with the noodles and broke up a couple of pieces of bacon that we had leftover from our waffle weekend.  Then I just sauteed the whole thing in some butter (or maybe bacon fat - I don't really remember).  So that was the last of it, and I don't think that I will be making tacos again for a while...

Turkey Soup

So, I was faced with a dilemma this week. I had to find something that I could bring for supper for some friends. They live about 45 minutes away and have two small children, one of whom just had heart surgery (at 2!). Anyway, I needed something that would be quick, easy and kids would eat. Of course I called my MIL (mother in law). She is an awesome cook and always has great ideas. She suggested using up the last of our Christmas turkey for soup. Fantastic! I adapted a recipe of hers to the situation and made it the day before - fed 4 adults and two kids and then brought the remainder, fed 4 adults, two kids and still had a lot of leftovers. I forgot to take a picture until after we all ate, but you can still get the idea. (By the way - it was a hit!)



Turkey Soup

1 Turkey carcass (I always pick off pretty much all the meat that I see to use for other things, and still usually have plenty of meat in my soup - this time I added some extra meat because I wanted it plenty meaty)

Place in a stockpot and just cover with water. Add some vegetables - a carrot, a celery stick, an onion. Or, you can save vegetable peelings and use those to flavor your stock. That is what I do. When you peel vegetables for other things, stick them in a bag in the freezer for future use.  I have one bag for onions, one for carrots and one for celery.  Then, whenever I make a stock I just bring out the bags and dump them in. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. I usually cook at a simmer for about 4 hours or so. Then strain out the stock, let the carcass cool for a little while then pick the meat off. You may be surprised how much you get off! I always am.

Add the meat back to the stock. Add peeled carrots cut into about 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Add sliced onions. I usually cut my onions into quarters and then slice them. Add cut up celery, cover and cook at a simmer for about an hour. Then add amish type noodles (you can buy these in the noodle section of your grocery store) or make homemade - recipe following. After noodles are cooked add dumplings.


Dumplings

1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
flour

Mix beaten egg and milk together. Gradually add flour until the consistency of pancake batter, about 1 1/2 cups. Dip the spoon into the liquid before dropping dumplings to prevent dough from sticking Drop teaspoon into boiling broth to form small dumplings. Cook for about 5 minutes.


German Egg Noodles

1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBL milk
1 cup flour (approx)

Combine egg, salt, and milk. Add enough flour to make stiff dough. Roll very thin on floured surface. Let stand 20 minutes. Roll up the dough and cut into 1/8 inch thick strips. Spread on paper to dry. Drop into boiling soup and cook 10 minutes.

This soup was really good. You can add some seasoning if you want. My MIL uses "Orrington farms chicken flavored ( as directed with water)". I am not really a bullion person, but hers is fantastic too. Sometimes, I taste the soup and then smell some of my spices. If they smell good, I might add some. Trust your senses. You can always take a cup of soup and just flavor that to try it out if you don't want to risk your whole pot of soup. Have fun!

PS - I often freeze my leftover soups and then pull them out for a quick meal when I am super busy.

The Tacos and What Became of Them

Well, you might remember that I had to mix up some venison with about 20% pork for hamburgers. Of course that gave me much more meat than I needed, so I froze half (in 1 1/4 pound packages), used 1/4 for burgers, and used 1/4 for tacos. I made my own seasoning this time, because I ran out, and it was really tasty. It needed a little salt, and I think that after this taco seasoning runs out I am going to make this taco seasoning instead, since I like a little more zip. This gave us more taco meat than we needed, so after serving tacos a couple of times, I knew I needed to come up with something different (remember, my husband "can't" eat the same meal three times in a row). A quick internet search and: Taco Eggs! I used toasted english muffins instead of pita pockets and I cooked my eggs ( in a bit of butter) before adding the meat. Then I sliced some cheese. My husband loved these, I think he ate three. After this, I had a bit left over, but I felt that I had reheated this particular meat enough and it wasn't safe to eat anymore, so, much to my dismay, into the trash it went. Oh well, I won't overestimate the number of eggs my family can eat next time.

The funny thing is, that my parents were visiting us this weekend and they agreed to watch the kids for us one night while we brought supper to some friends. I knew that the kids like tacos and that the folks like tacos (sometimes they are not so crazy about some of my more creative dishes), so I made them tacos to eat while we were gone. Of course they couldn't eat all of that meat either, so now I have leftover taco meat. Again. What to do? What to do? Another search for leftover taco meat and I came up with: Chili, mixing it with tomato sauce for a spaghetti bolognese kind of thing, chili mac or all kinds of other ideas. I am thinking about either the spaghetti or chili mac. I will post pictures, along with a recipe if any of these come to fruition.

Learn to Make a Chicken

My family situation has changed dramatically in the last five years as children have moved out and are fending for themselves. When my oldest son moved to Los Angeles,he figured he could survive on Ramen noodles (yech!) on the cheap. Yes, they were cheap, but certainly not healthy and a steady diet was becoming monotonous. A room mate decided she was going to help him out by teaching him to make a chicken. Bless Miranda! Even at age 21, she had the right idea. So here are some thoughts on chicken making. If you roast a chicken, you have a very nice dinner and leftovers. Leftovers turn into a variety of meals such as chicken in a white sauce, chicken casserole, chicken tostadas, Caesar salad with chicken etc. For a 6-7 pound chicken, 1-2 meals for 4 are possible from the leftovers. AND...don't forget about the rest of the chicken. Homemade chicken stock from the carcass is a thousand percent better tasting than from a can. Making a stock is not rocket science. You add water to cover the bones in a large pot with a stalk of celery, a chunked carrot and a half onion. Bring it to a simmer and let it go for an hour or two. Strain out all the bones and vegetables and what you have left is chicken stock; a very healthy, homemade delicious base for soups. You can even freeze the stock, (or the carcass for that matter) for another time. So, from Miranda's chicken, we have a fancy weekend meal, two 'leftover' meals and a big pot of soup! Certainly better than Ramen noodles and probably less expensive.

Marty

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #2

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS!

I hate to waste food, but I also have a husband who absolutely refuses to eat the same meal more than twice in a row. This has allowed me to become very creative in the kitchen. I enjoy the challenge of creating new and different meals out of the same ingredients. It saves a lot of time in the kitchen and money too. I recently created three different meals from a venison roast. We had the roast the first night with plenty of veggies (carrots, potatoes and onions) and yogurt biscuits. Venison meat can get fairly dry, but we had cooked bacon that morning and I was able to sear the roast in the leftover fat and then drizzle the remainder over the roast to keep it lubed up while cooking. Caution: This will not work with the watery stuff that you get from typical supermarket bacon. That is injected with a brine to speed curing. You need some real bacon from a farm-raised pig (more on this in a future post). You could put uncooked bacon over the top of the roast too, but I prefer eating the bacon for a separate meal. The next night, I cooked some rice, sauteed the venison and some of the onions with a red pepper and some fajita seasoning, served with sour cream, some salsa (or relish) and cheese and Ta-da! Fajitas!

The third night I put the bone from the roast, some meat (reserved when I cut it up the night before), the leftover veggies, a bit of flour and we had a wonderful venison soup. It was supposed to be a stew, but I wasn't really paying attention and added too much water. I crumbled the leftover biscuits from the first night over the top, and served it with fresh bread and a mixed salad. And, if I do say so myself, it was wicked good.

This combo of meals actually served us five suppers and five lunches, but my kids are pretty small yet, so it may not last you quite as long. I still have leftover rice that I am going to do something with tomorrow. Probably fried rice?

Anyway, the point is: it is completely possible and makes excellent sense in terms of both time and money to make meals that taste very different, and yet still use the same basic ingredients. By varying the meals, you can keep your family happy, and your pocketbook too!