I’m off to the city tomorrow, for an unknown period of time (probably a week) so this will be the last post for a bit since the laptop is kaput. I do have a couple of nice things scheduled, so if I can I’ll post them while I’m there. Tonight’s dinner is unremarkable to look at, for sure- but to taste, well, that was another matter. It began with some ground (local, organic) turkey. Now…
Category: The Circle of Leftovers
Just as we brought some excellent raw and cooked materials to Vermont, we also returned home with leftovers that have been enriching the meals back here. In this case, I used the fennel risotto, the end of the seared duck breast, and some local blue cheese that I can’t remember the name of to make supplì- or arancini- to go with a little of the first batch of sauce from our plum tomatoes that I…
We spent the long weekend in Vermont, and Sirkka and Nissa joined us for a couple of nights. Though the last two days were crystalline late-summer perfection, the beginning of our stay was gray and a little muggy- though it didn’t actually rain more than a few drops. So we let the kids do their thing, and between what we brought from home and what we picked up at the farmers’ market, we did all…
Probably the single best thing about a garden in summer is that if there are even a couple of pantry staples in the house the question “what’s for dinner?” becomes a reason to smile rather than worry. In this case, with some leftover lentil soup and half a recipe of pie crust in the fridge, a sumptuous and exalted pot pie was brought into being on short notice. I took a little hunk of salt…
We had company this weekend, and went to John’s birthday on Friday; I’ll post about that out of order because I’m waiting for a photograph. Today was pretty Italian in spirit, if unconventionally so: arancini (supplì) for breakfast, and penne for dinner. I took the leftover risotto from the other night and formed it into balls around fat, crispy lardons of our homemade bacon (think that phrase is one I’ll tire of soon? Stick around…
Sometimes a simple jumping-off point can become pretty complicated. Especially if you’re hungry, and have a lot of interesting leftovers in the fridge. So what began as an idea for an easy chicken and veggie curry quickly spiraled out of control and ended up as four dishes. It really came down to my desire to let certain things retain more of their individual identities, and my love for having lots of plates of Indian food…
This morning I did some much-needed shopping, and also picked up some things for the garden; the experiments at overwintering some of the veggies have been so successful that I started a bunch of things in the ground a month early, figuring that the plastic will protect them from the colder nights. Time will tell, but they’re all hardy things and should be fine (until we tear them from the ground and devour them, that…
I woke up this morning figuring that I should have planned something nice for Easter, but that since I hadn’t- bad parent/husband that I am- I should pretend that I had and figure out what I could bust out convincingly. To begin with, we had eggs. A good start, and lucky, because the wife she likes the eggs so we’re often low or out. And I had bought a big bar of organic super-dark chocolate…
The fridge was getting silly with crowded containers of leftovers, so I took those that were not certifiable biohazards and tried to convert them into something good. To start, some of the local 10-grain mix went in the rice cooker- it’s a beautiful thing, since some dissolve while others remain toothsome- they cover the full spectrum of doneness and have a really rich flavor. Then, the baked sweet potatoes from last night, the pheasant broth…
It’s amazing what a difference tortillas can make for a fridge full of leftovers. Tonight, I made broth with chicken thighs, saving the broth for tomorrow, and wilted some spinach with garlic and lemon. In the fridge, black bean soup (really thick) and veggie curry, brown rice, our pickled serrano-carrot mix, and some wicked roasted beet salad from the weekend all lurked. I pulled the chicken meat apart and tossed it with garlic and chili…