Gathering Fragments: November Week 3

 

Saturday:  I thought I'd share what I know is in my fridge at present that I ought to use up this coming week:   Cooked rice, leftover mashed potatoes, most of a whole raw potato that was left when I was making oven fries Friday evening, a little tomato sauce from last pizza making, 2 hard boiled eggs, a bit of chopped raw cabbage.   I also have fruit juice awaiting jelly making which will happen this week.

In my cupboard I have some white cheddar cheese crackers that I found too salty to eat on their own.  I repurposed them by crushing them.  I spread chicken breast (cut into fillets by myself from a bone in  breast) with sour cream on both sides, dipped into crumbs and baked in the oven.  This was pretty good.  I still didn't care for the crackers but they were more palatable on chicken than they'd been when eating out of hand.  Note to self, don't buy that brand again.

I saved the skin and bone I cut from the chicken fillets and put them in my bag in the freezer so I can use it for broth at a later date.

Sunday:  It was jelly making day.   After we'd come in from church, I'd done minor chores and read another two or three chapters in my book, I decided that it was a good day to prepare jelly.   From a recipe that was meant to give me four jars, I got five.  I'm not sure if it's going to jell or not.  It was sheeting on the spoon and the cooled bits were certainly soft jelled on the counter and pan rim, so I'm hopeful.   At present it's all still quite warm.   I topped with paraffin and made a bit of a mess on one of my dish drying mats.

I couldn't bear to wait so I took the paraffin off the top of the fifth jar and tasted it.   It was syrupy but so good.  John and I made a piece of toast each and spread it on.  Yum!

I cleared the fridge of rice, minced raw cabbage, a final carrot in the bag, a partial stalk of celery, and two green onions harvested from my planter out by the carport.  I added in an egg, which I scrambled and we had a very good pan of fried rice.   I had some leftover sauce from our Chicken Pot Stickers and tossed that in, too.  John was quite happy.

I retrieved a jar of fridge pickles from the very back of the fridge and we had those with our supper.  It was just what was needed, that bit of tart and crispness, to offset the rest of the meal.  

Tuesday:  I have one banana that was perfectly ripe but just slightly firm.  Sent it home with Bess for the little Princess to have as baby food.   It's been more waste prevention than making new meals from odds and ends.  I gave Bess butt ends of romaine I'd cut into salad for lunch yesterday, trimmings from a red cabbage and some bread that I simply don't need to repurpose so that the chickens could have treats.

About mid afternoon, I realized I'd done it again: nothing out for supper.  Nothing I could do to get on target with my meal plans.  I grabbed the packet of meat nearest the top of the freezer, a package of 3 pieces of cubed beef steaks.  

But what to go with it?  I know that John loves what he refers to as Italian Green Beans, which to my country girl eyes looks pretty much like  Kentucky Wonder Green Beans and at which I scoff mightily.  However, there was a can of beans of the sort he likes beyond all other green beans and a can of potatoes that expired last December that I'd meant to use up.  Into the pan went both.  Not my favorite potatoes either by the way but I've used that last can of potatoes by heavens and it's not gone to waste.

That left me with no clue what else to make but I drew inspiration from a recipe for a stuffed cubed steak.  I don't want to stuff cubed steak tonight (but I'm tagging that recipe in my favorite oldest cookbook to go back to this winter) but I do have boxed stuffing mix on hand.  

And then the real inspiration struck.  I had half an apple that John declined to eat last night, some dried cranberries from the cabinet and in the freezer some fresh frozen sage leaves.  Since I always season my cubed beef steak with allspice I felt these ingredients would add immeasurably to our stuffing and to our meal.  I sautéed the apple, and then added the cranberries and warm water to the pan.  We'll see how this comes up but the idea of it has my mouth watering.  

Wednesday:  No slight of hand today in reinventing things.  I had leftover sausage gravy the other night and we ate that this morning over our own homemade bread.  I'm hopeful that this week, I finish a whole loaf of homemade bread but we shall see.  It's more a matter of me pushing it.  John's pretty much made it clear that he likes it fresh and then it's only good for toast or French toast or croutons, etc.   So if he's wanting a sandwich he grabs the store bought stuff. 

I left all the current lot of leftovers in the front of the fridge and instructed him what each were and told him to eat what he wanted.  He assured me he'd eat the sandwiches left from yesterday's take out but when he texted he had eaten the Chicken Salad...I thought he meant the Honey Mustard Chicken Salad..  And that led me to think perhaps we'd eat the leftover sandwiches for supper.  

Upon investigation, I found he had eaten the Chicken Salad Sandwich.   Never mind then, I've decided I would make grilled cheese sandwiches.  I used the filling from my Pimento Cheese Sandwich to make a Grilled Pimento Cheese for myself.  I heated a can of tomato soup to go along with it.   I'm more shattered today than I've been being after my day out.  Cozy and comforting and chill chasing.  That's just what I needed!

Thursday:  I didn't think I'd even have a gathering post for today.  Surprised myself!

I had on hand today: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 cup of leftover canned peas, 3/4 of a raw potato I'd put in water and refrigerated to keep from darkening, leftover cubed steak and stuffing, and leftover chopped breaded chicken tenders and salad makings and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.

The salad, chicken tenders, dressing became lunch for me.  John ate one piece of cubed steak and half the stuffing.   That was lunch done.

I put on eggs to boil today for family day on Saturday.  I added the two leftover hardboiled eggs to those eggs.  No one is going to complain over a couple more deviled eggs!  There's a chance I'll decide to have hard boiled eggs in the morning.  Did you know you can reheat hard boiled eggs once they are cold?  I leave the shells on until I'm ready to eat them, so if I want hard boiled eggs for breakfast, I just boil water in the kettle, add to a bowl and pop in my egg.  Setting a plate over the top will help allow you to leave the egg in the water longer, so it gets warmer still.

From the freezer, I took out about 3 cups of chicken that I'd pulled from bones used in stock.  I chopped the potato, two carrots, an inner stalk of celery (which I expected to be more bitter than outer stalks), half an onion and cooked those in a cup of chicken broth.  Then I added in a can of cream of chicken soup and the chicken meat.  I added the peas and the liquid in the dish.    I put about 2 cups of this mixture into a small pan and made the pour over crust (1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 cup melted butter).   This is one of John's favorite forms of Chicken Pot Pie.

I had enough filling leftover to set aside in a container in the fridge.  If my family stays long enough to have dinner with us on Sunday, I'll make a second pot pie or I have the option of adding more broth and dropping in dumplings.  Either way, I have a meal almost prepared.  If the family doesn't stay, I'll probably freeze the filling to use another time.