Now in all fairness while re-reading that blog it became obvious they do spur me on to challenge my culinary skills. After all, if I hadn't been trying to WOW them with a new dinner idea that particular night I might not have used my salad spinner to "dry" off my homemade hash browns. A big thank really goes to PBS for airing Graham Kerr's cooking show. The one where he used his creative culinary talent to reduce the fat and calories in his favorite recipes. He was using his spinner to evenly coat his mixed salad with dressing giving it the entire flavor while whirling off all the excess. Serendipity does play a role in my kitchen because I just happened to be looking at my spinner when I remembered that show's segment and thought, "ah ha!"
While providing something "fresh" every night has expanded my culinary horizons like I just shared with you, the "L" word still causes a conundrum. Yes, years ago my darling DH announced he was going to the local gas station in search of a hamburger. He needed to eat something "fresh". I know I should have known I was doomed when a greasy hamburger procured at the gas station was preferred over humble portions of food that might have rested in the refrigerator for a day or two. YES, I am talking about LEFTOVERS! Go figure, you make something "fresh" everyday and those confounded things are bound to appear!
Many wise cooks out there give their families 2 choices for dinner-TAKE IT or LEAVE IT! so why can't I? Because years ago I made the same mistake people sometimes make about cats in trees. I was a afraid my poor guys would starve so I catered to them. My BAD! Way back when it hadn't occurred to me I'd never seen a cat's skeleton in a tree.
You know what? I have found my way of getting even. It might even be sneaky. It could be thought of as underhanded and it does generally confound me but I am learning how to elevate my leftovers to new reformed heights. Hence, my confession, I must hide what I am doing from the guys. If they have any inkling they are getting leftovers grumblings and rants can occur. You would think I was trying to kill them. Given I was an extremely picky eater and my Mother would have throttle me, I didn't complain about dinner I simply didn't eat it. My mother enforced that TAKE IT or LEAVE IT dinner choice. However, I did know where the peanut butter and crackers were and could help myself later. IF I sat thru dinner and helped with the dishes afterwards.
That is why I feel so compelled to share what I can only describe as a truly "L"inspiring moment which happened a couple of months ago. I had help, of course, and where I can name my sources I will. It all started with my last roundup. Namely the pulled pork leftovers. Which were quite good at the time and do freeze well but how do you repurpose it? Again. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one suffering with this dilemma. Someone, I cannot for the life of me remember who, posted on AR asking for recipes to use l/o pulled pork in. Like I wasn't going to check that thread out? Don't even remember how many recipes were suggested but one stood out, Chili Verde. Hmm, what is that? Even now I'm not sure which particular recipe was suggested but I believe B'Nana recommended one and I went looking to see what was in it. You might know how it goes, the whole idea of the recipe sounds great but... It won't work tonight or they won't eat that but just maybe I could use some elements of that recipe to tweak what I have into something they will love. Ok so actually I am going for just eating it and not whining! And not leaving anymore leftovers!
To disguise some leftover chicken one night I had experimented with a salsa verde which caused me to create this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63753470/spicy-green-tomato-sauce/detail.aspx. Never had or made it before but again the idea sounded good. Better yet, different. Everything needed was right out there in the garden and clean plates came back. So did I remake my l/o pulled pork into a chili verde? Not exactly. I still feel that is really doable since I don't sauce my pulled pork till it hits the table.
However, I had a Roast Cubano waiting to be cooked in keeping with the "fresh" thing. Given that this blog has been in the works for awhile and I wanted to share links, I looked up my recipe. I had been attributing it Emeril for years. Boy, does it pay to look up stuff! I'd been following a mental recipe which had evidently dropped some stuff. Like orange juice and where it was from. How I got the recipe still confounds me but luckily it is still out there on the net. Yah, cause Emeril had nothing to do with it. It is from Better Homes and Gardens http://www.recipe.com/pork-roast-cubano/?recipeId=1620333776 and it is really good IMO.
This is a Monday thru Friday trip thru our dinners but this is how the leftover nirvana came to be.
When I have a chance in the morning, I check out Lucky Noodles post “what did you have for dinner”. Again I do not remember who posted this recipe as what they had for dinner
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Black-Bean-Burritos/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=delcious%20black%20bean%20burritos&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Hub
But I thought it looked good. I had black beans to cook and the fridge had cream cheese that needed to be used. I did have to add Italian sausage to the beans since the guys can't go meatless. So now I have leftover seasoned black beans. Now since this all happened in the same week we are back to serendipity again! Earlier with the grilled Roast Cubano, I made http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-bacon-wrapped-corn-on-the-cob/detail.aspx. for a side. So now I have leftover corn & bacon, beans, leftover chopped tomatoes and pork. We'd had some side salads and the kid can't eat tomatoes unless he is at his Grandma Jennie's house hence the l/o tomatoes.
Well, what do you do with those items? You Google! Maybe I could do a casseroly type of thing and hide everything! Remember they can't handle seeing leftovers being revisited!
Looked at 4 sites or more and stumbled over one that was topped with a corn pudding. Hmmm, what if I use the leftover corn in the corn pudding? I can always use the bacon chopped up on top ;)
This lead to more googling to compare corn pudding recipes. This is what takes me so much time some days. If I am not familiar with a recipe or ingredient, I will spend time reading reviews and recipes to see what they have in common. For me, it rather helps to weed out what I don't want or can't use. Remember I have the picky W-2's. Refer back to the "Whatever" blog.
Ah but this day I got them and I would like to present to you the successfully hidden leftovers from not 1 but several meals!!!!
I give you "Pulled From the Pantry Pork Casserole". Yeah it should be pulled from the larder if you want to be technical but it doesn't sound as good. And yeah, it ain't so pretty but it worked :)
In an 8x8x21/2 qt baking dish layer in this order:
2 cups cooked l/o black beans
1 1/2 cups shredded Roast Cubano
1/4-1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese (needed something "fresh")
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa verde (leftover from earlier chicken dish)
1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
Top with Corn Pudding for a crust.
(this is a combo of recipes using what I had)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup baking mix (made my own- 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt ( used my homemade seasoned salt) and 1 T canola oil)
1/2 cup milk
Mix together and add in corn kernels from 2 ears of l/o bacon wrapped corn on the cob. Reserve bacon. Spoon over casserole and top with leftover chopped bacon.
Bake @ 350 for approx. 45 mins.
Not only did they eat it they went back for seconds. If they only knew how many leftovers they got that night!
Now for you, Mr. Harvey, cause I promised. Due to all the cooking, I need low fat low cal snacks. Low sodium is a bonus too. If any of you are like me, if it doesn't satisfy you the first time you just keep on grazing. Not a good thing after 50.
So what can you make with these things and an oven?
Spicy crunchy popcorn that is low fat, low cal and hits the spot. I do not like chewy air popped popcorn. But when I found that I could have 3 cups of air popped corn vs. 1 cup oil popped corn which do you think I was going to pick? Nope, neither. Remember air popped is chewy, I want CRUNCHY! So I ordered a citrus sprayer, yeah they do really work. Went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and the little gal there said "we only have that online. I can order it for you and you can use your coupon. There will be no shipping." I must go back and thank her!
Why a citrus sprayer? To wet the popcorn that I'm going to bake after air popping it. It has to have something on it to get Mr. Mike Harvey's wonderful spice blend to stick to it. Yeah, I am out hence that empty container with the green lid. With much experimenting which is still going on, I have discovered if you spray lime juice on air popped corn and coat with seasoning (Mike's has no salt, he did a blog about it in his corner of AR on his "Life...It's Why We Cook." blog. I am almost 100% sure. I am almost positive we spoke about it and he said, "good memory, Cat". Well, I can't find it as I type this blog but Mike has a wonderful spice recipe that I do know!)
I am still tweaking this but after popping and spraying with the lime juice then carefully coating with seasonings, I bake the popcorn till it is crunchy. I can't give you times and temps cause at this stage it is still an experiment but I am getting a snack that satisfies me.
Till next time when the Confounded Cook confronts the "F" word, I hope you have a family that can eat leftovers or that you can craftily hide yours too!
