“Potluck Pasta”

Lately we’ve been freezing or Tupperware-ing just about ALL of our leftovers, even if it’s just a few bites of this, a little sprig of that, scrapings of this and that. And we think, “We’ll need it/use it/want it at some point.”
Be it the last four bites of sauteed spinach, the bottom of the pan cracklings of ground beef, some corn, tomatillo salsa, roasted jalapenos, a third of a container of ricotta cheese, the last squeezes of a bottle of ketchup…
Well, all of those things came into play last night, when we realized we’d never eat these things on their own, or play them up as the highlight of a meal. So, I made some penne and with that a sauce of: the last of two pounds of ground beef we’ve been hacking away at for three days in a row, about half a cup of ketchup, half a cup of salsa, about a cup of frozen sauteed spinach, half an onion, 2/3 cup ricotta cheese, some hot chile powder, and the juice left over from a jar of pickled jalapenos. Mixed it up after it had cooked and incorporated, and poured it onto the penne.
On the side, I used the last of our Napa cabbage, the corn I’d taken out of the freezer and nuked for three minutes, a chopped jalapeno and a chopped green onion for the salad. And that, my friends, is a “potluck pasta.” Not to be confused for a pasta dish you’d make for a potluck party, but more along the lines of a pasta you’d make AFTER a potluck party, lol!
It was, I must say, great, if not a bit too much. So now we’re having leftovers of leftovers sitting in our freezer. Don’t know how many lives this meal has left, but I’m guessing its next incarnation will be baked, with melted bubbly cheese on top. And hopefully that will be its LAST incarnation.
But I’m not complaining. I adore making whole new meals out of what’s left over. It forces creativity, it saves money for the really important things, and it gives us time together to enjoy what we have, to not have to tip, and to dictate exactly what goes into our meals.
I love restaurant meals too, but we really try to limit going out to once a week Then it makes it special, an “event,” and MUCH, MUCH lighter on the pocketbook. Anyway, with MY random pregnancy cravings, I think it’s best to be at a private location where I CAN indulge in lemon poppyseed scones mushed up with banana and yogurt, served with a side of pickled jalapenos

Dinner: Not for the faint of heart!

So tonight Christian made cheese soup, a recipe from his brother back in Bavaria, and even though it’s only 8:30 p.m., I find myself slipping slowly into a post-cheese soup dinner state of oblivion. You see, this soup is made with about 2 pounds of ground beef, a complete round of soft Baby Bel white cheese, one chopped onion, one chopped zucchini, a can of mushrooms and half a can of corn. Basically a cheeseburger in a bowl, and a heart attack (or mega-dose of iron?) waiting to happen.
I had my entire bowl of soup, served with a hunk of toasted rosemary-potato bread and a salad, and we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow, although I’m seriously contemplating the wisdom of eating something like that two days in a row.
All’s I know is that our little beanie baby in my tummy either LOVES the soup or is protesting wildly, lol.
But it was damn good, and I KNOW I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.

A pregnant pause

This has been the best Memorial Day I can ever remember, and my last one before I have a child. I realize I am SO ready to celebrate holidays and special days with my baby, and to rediscover the meaningfulness of these days as well as the excitement. I guess in a small way I was reborn when I found out I was expecting.
Today has been so much about reflection, and amazingly it seems the pictures I took this morning on our walk reflect, well, reflection! The gorgeous reflection of the morning sky on the water in the irrigation ditch, the reflection of the trees in the water of someone’s newly-irrigated lawn… I’ve stopped to notice these things I took for granted until now, and it’s like a second childhood.
•••
Today we attended a potluck with a group of friends, expecting really nothing out of the ordinary hot dog/chips/potato salad/dry cookie variety, but we were oohing and aah-ing at the amazing variety of dishes people really took the time to make. Hmmm. Ribs or hamburger? Enchiladas or 7-layer salad? Spinach salad or strawberry/blueberry/cream salad? Pasta salad or egg salad? BBQ beans or hummus? Cheesecake, German chocolate cake or apple pie? Well, simple. I had all of the above, including the coleslaw I made, just so a dent would be made in it No, it went well, amazingly, since it wasn’t presented as artistically or intricately as many of the other dishes. But hey, it was awesome.

My recipe for spicy slaw (feeds about 12)
One head green cabbage
One carrot
One can sauerkraut
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup Srirachi sauce or a hot sauce with garlic (Louisiana hot sauce and 3 minced cloves of garlic can also work)
Copious amounts of cracked black pepper

Slice and shred the veggies, add the can of sauerkraut (drained) and the rest of the ingredients, and mix. How simple is that??? It makes for a great topping for a simple hamburger (as I had it), and of course it’s good on its own. There were no leftovers. ‘Nuf said.
•••
We’re settled in at home for the rest of the afternoon/evening, trying to stay out of the 100 degree El Paso sun, and I’m tucking into….no, not food (that’s later, when we have leftover pork, potato salad and sauerkraut from last night)..but YouTube videos on pregnancy and birth (although it’s hard to watch those without covering my eyes and peeking through my fingers I’ve got some toughening up to do. I also bought the Good Housekeeping Illustrated book on pregnancy and birth, which is so totally for me. Every single step of diapering, feeding, cleaning, etc., is illustrated. I’m totally engrossed. As a matter of fact, I will end this by saying, “reflect on your life and look at all the good out there. Don’t worry about tomorrow or yesterday. Just look at the little details right in front of you and be grateful.”
Happy Memorial Day.

Mum’s the word

Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours! This is a very lazy Sunday, with the two of us just enjoying the gorgeous weather and having just finished another leftover lunch. But at LEAST we went grocery shopping today, and that means no leftovers for a few days (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but well, a new dish is always nice).
Tonight it’s ribs again. I’m letting Christian do the cooking and I’ll just sit and smell as the aroma envelops the tiny apartment.
Albertson’s, where we get our groceries, was filled to the rafters with flowers, flowers, flowers. Oh, and husbands, sons and daughters frantically searching for a very-last-minute gift for mom. We thought we were in for a crazy-long wait at the checkout counter, but I guess we hit the counter right when everyone else was way in the back at the meat or wine section. No lines at all. THAT makes for a great Sunday in itself, lol.
Then, after we got groceries and rented “Sherlock Holmes” from the RedBox, we headed over to the in-store Starbucks for an Americano (me) and a Vanilla Bean Frap (him).
I’m rambling so much! Ha ha. It’s been an incredibly crazy 48 hours.
Getting my head together and until I do (hopefully later today), I leave you with a bit of abstract impressionism. Can you guess what it is?

Chess and a mess

So, my husband dragged me to a chess tournament in South El Paso today. Susan Polgar, the No. 1 female player in the world and a 5-time Olympic medalist, was in attendance, and she played 50 people simultaneously. Wearing stiletto heels and nursing what appeared to be a heavy cold, I might add. She was still at it around 6:30 p.m., having started at 2:30 p.m.
Now, admittedly, I’d never heard of her, but she’s a big cheese, hubby says. She’s obviously a Grand Master player, nonchalantly moving chess pieces on people’s boards with nary a blink of an eye. We couldn’t stay long because we were due at a German-theme potluck at a local club and, well, we had to satisfy our curiosity to see whether or not anything remotely authentic would be served, besides Christian’s Kartoffelsalat.
I’m not complaining about the tastiness of the food that was served, but let’s just say some people have a sad idea of what is German. Served at the potluck:
• brats: Actually very good and charred to a blistered perfection
• American/generic hot dog buns. Shouldn’t be allowed!
• Blaukohl, or red cabbage boiled with beets and raisins. I actually liked it, but Christian almost gagged at the sight.
• Mustard/mayonnaise potato salad with pickles and pimentos. As un-German as you can get.
• Brisket (!!!!!!) Might have been good, but most definitely not German.
• “German” potato salad, consisting of sliced boiled red potatoes with a bacon dressing. Raw potatoes and undercooked bacon. Nice try, but…
• Christian’s kartoffelsalat. We stuck to that and the brats.
I do appreciate the fact that there was indeed a German theme to the potluck and that people did try, though. I wish I could serve them all a true German meal to let them know what they are missing. One guy didn’t even recognize red cabbage. Frankly, what other food remotely resembles red cabbage? Well, it was an experience, and we enjoyed ourselves. And we didn’t have to take home any leftovers!!!! (Not that I’d mind).
We continue our quest for authentic German food in El Paso!!!!!

Request for admissions, er, submissions

What is the strangest culinary concoction you’ve ever made, and have you ever eaten it in front of others? Most I’ve read about have included some indulgent item like peanut butter and/or chocolate mixed in with something savory, like vegetables.
Tonight I used both, in a sauce for lettuce wraps! Since we had no Asian fish sauce/soy sauce/teriyaki sauce for our lettuce wraps, I had to dig to the depths of the pantry to come up with a nice dipping sauce for the garlic pepper salmon/cucumber/carrot/chopped chile-lime almonds/green peppers/cabbage we stuffed in Chinese cabbage. A very healthy dish, by most accounts. I really wanted a zinger of a dipping sauce, so this is what I came up with. And it was a hit. Shhh. Just don’t tell anyone what’s in there:
• Asian garlic chile sauce, hot as hell
• white vinegar
• sugar
• ginger
• peanut butter
• a square of, get ready … Chunky chocolate/fruit/nut bar
• dried mint
• basil

Sometimes I feel like a child in the kitchen for the very first time, indiscriminate and fascinated by the different textures and colors. And sometimes this child-like fascination turns out some great, great finds. And sometimes it doesn’t. But the pride in me doesn’t allow me to toss out a failed project. I still have some wanna-be success stories in the freezer, waiting to be reincarnated as the next eat-every-day-for-a-month-because-it’s-so-good dish.
By the way, what can I do with leftover bok choi? Any suggestions? And Gary, thanks for the tip on leftover Semmelknödel! That is on our recycle list!
Recycling in the kitchen is so much fun, and I feel sorry for those who say they cannot or will not eat leftovers. Even if I had the luxury to never have to eat leftovers again, I’d do it. I paid for the food, it’s still good, others aren’t as fortunate, and I can create a new dish that doesn’t even resemble the original one. Christian’s family taught me that important lesson: either buy exactly what you need, or, use what’s left to create a new dish for the next day. Never in my time in Germany did I EVER see edible food go in the trash. NEVER. Can you claim that, as well?

Less cash=mish-mash

We haven’t gone to the grocery store yet this week … we figured hitting Albertson’s on Easter Sunday would mean most of the crowds would either be at church or their kiddies would be searching for eggs at home or the nearest rec center. So we’re making today our “mish-mash” day. For breakfast, I had a piece of toast that I had made yesterday and my husband didn’t eat, and some plain yogurt and Waldorf salad leftover from dinner last night. For lunch I had leftover Döner (yeah, I know, but it really wasn’t too bad the next day). For dinner we’ll cut around the flowering buds on our potatoes and make potato/poblano soup and salad.

There’s something gratifying about making the most use of things, especially groceries and leftovers. Things I honestly wouldn’t bother to keep or save in the past I am now finding creative ways of re-serving. I think — no, I know — I learned this while in Germany, where there is no tolerance for waste. That’s one thing I am so grateful for learning, as I was a former “eat half and toss the other half” person, or I’d chop half an onion and throw the rest away because I couldn’t conveniently find something to wrap it in. Same with not letting water run when I’m brushing my teeth, turning off lights religiously, etc.

In what ways do you re-use and recycle? Any novel ways that you’re particularly proud of? This is a cultural difference, between Germany and the U.S., that is of particular interest to me. There’s a REASON Germany is so clean, green and robust. I have a lot of bad habits to un-learn, but I’ve begun to learn some great habits from the German culture.