Souper, Thanks For Asking

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If we pull out that ole college cookbook again, we’ll find another well-worn page with the Cream Soup recipe.  The reason this was such a favorite was because it had four variations listed that were each basically: add 2 cups <insert vegetable> and 1 tsp <insert seasonings>.  This was probably one of the first recipes that encouraged me to just make it up as I went along.

So today, I decided it was cold enough outside for soup and I was getting closer to the one-week deadline with no exciting ideas for a leftover Green Bean Casserole.  The result: Cream of Green Bean Casserole Soup.  Jason won’t eat it, so I will freeze the extra in small containers for some more warm lunches.

Family Affair

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In the true spirit of the Holiday Season, this breakfast was a complete family effort.  Grandpa Wally brought over his amazing sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving.  Nana Dee emailed the sweet potato pancake recipe used as the basis for this creation.  I measured out all the ingredients last night for a quick morning.  Jason mixed the batter and cooked the pancakes.  And Logan gobbled up 4 pancakes before we all sat down.  Yum.

And There Were Shepherds Eating Leftovers

Or something like that.  Tonight Jason begged, “please no turkey.”  Oooo-K.  I still have LOTS of leftovers to conquer, but I also yearned for the taste of red meat, or really, anything but turkey.  So I pulled some frozen ground beef out and got to work on a shepherds pie.  I’ve never made shepherds pie before and I’ve only had it maybe once or twice, so I am not really sure of the “rules.”  I mean, I know ground beef on the bottom, mashed potatoes on top and that’s about it.  So I looked up a few recipes and decided to make something up based on what I had and what sounded good.  Jason liked it.  Logan dismissed it.  I think he just doesn’t like all his food mixed up together.

After dinner, when I was putting away cleaned dishes I exclaimed, “Oops. I forgot to take a picture.”  Sorry.  At least I remembered the recipe, right?

Cass-a-roooooollll

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Back in the day, the college days, to be specific, I had a paperback cookbook that was my go to just about every time I set foot in the kitchen.  Chicken & Stuffing Casserole was one of my favorite recipes in the book and the pages that contain the instructions are torn, worn and scribbled on.  I probably made the dish 50 times and every time, I think, I changed something.  At some point, I came up with this Thanksgiving Leftover Edition of C&SC, and then, just like the Thanksgiving leftovers, we were bored with the casserole recipe too.  Well, its been a few years since I’ve made it, so I thought it was time to revisit.  It was better than I remembered.

Morning Remix

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You have a fridge full of Thanksgiving leftovers and the thought of simply having a second Thanksgiving Dinner is just not appealing.  So here’s the mission: you have one week to use or freeze (with clear intent to use) the insane amount of leftovers.  Yesterday, with brains still groggy from overindulgences, we went the obvious route – turkey & stuffing sandwiches.  Now, its the weekend and its time to step up our game.  We’ve got a halls to deck and trees to trim.  Today’s breakfast:  Chestnut stuffing, scrambled eggs and cranberry sauce.  There is not really a recipe for this, because that is pretty much it.  Heat some leftover stuffing, scramble some eggs, top with a little cranberry sauce.

A Pizza Adventure

Tonight, around 9pm, I checked my spreadsheet and notebook and tried to remember what I did last time. I came up with this list of ingredients:

  • flour
  • water
  • poolish – 210g
  • salt
  • yeast

Then I put a plastic container on the kitchen scale, hit the tare button and added about 1/8tsp of yeast. It didn’t even register as a gram. Then I added 105g flour and 105g filtered water. I covered the container and let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes. Then I stuck it in the fridge and went to bed.

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