Gathering Fragments: Post Holiday Week Leftovers

 Sunday:  As I put away supper leftovers last night I realized that I am going to need to do some major gathering this coming week.

I put half the cake Mama gave us in the freezer.  There are only two pieces in the fridge now.

I have an idea of how to use a few of the leftovers already.  I will do a comprehensive listing on Monday.

Monday:  I waited until late today to make out my list of items in the fridge.  These days I seldom make it to the cupboard or pantry or freezer to see if anything needs to be used up, but I'm especially glad I checked my fridge today!

I have:  A portion of Sweet Potatoes (warmed in the oven tonight to go with our dinner)

1 cup of homemade Cranberry sauce 

2 serving portion of a Tortilla Casserole I made for Gathering Fragments last week (now Wednesday night's supper plan...)

1 quart of chicken broth

1 cup of chicken gravy

1 quart of various liquids from canned veg and cooked potatoes

1 quart of beef broth

1 portion of roast beef

too much coconut pie (I set aside two small slices for our dessert tonight and put two larger pieces into the freezer)

two containers of Apple Blondies (combined and frozen)

mere crumbs of the chocolate cake served on family day (tossed)

about 2/3 of a gallon of milk that is a bit past fresh drinking stage

2 yogurt parfaits expiring December 1

2 canned cinnamon rolls

1 deli sandwich (lunch for tomorrow which we will share)

1 pint of homemade spaghetti sauce

We've got our first really cold weather this week with freezing temperatures at night.  Today was blustery and chilled us to the bone as we drained water hoses and rolled them for the winter and wrapped faucets.   It's definitely soup weather.

I definitely plan to make soup this week.  

I did pull a package of shelf stable Mushroom Tortellini from the pantry that I've had for a while.  I'll use that, the beef broth, the veg and potato broths and the bit of roast to make a soup for supper one night, probably tomorrow night, just to free up the space in the fridge.

I know we've had a ton of sweets of late but I really need to use the apples on the counter.  I want to make an apple cobbler but I'll probably make homemade Applesauce which is so good and warming and can be frozen in flat packets if it proves to be too much for us to eat.  I'll save the cores and peels

I'll have a yogurt parfait with toast tomorrow morning.  I'll probably make John eggs and give him the warmed cinnamon rolls.   We'll have the deli sandwich for lunch tomorrow.  

Tuesday:  I've got my soup ready to start up for supper tonight.  I'm going to put it on in a minute or two and let it simmer so that I can taste to see what additions to seasoning it will need.   Later this evening, I will cook the Mushroom Tortellini separately and add to our bowls.  I've found that pasta seldom holds up well to a second round if there are leftovers.

I have also got all the apples on the counter in a bowl with a paring knife.   I'll sit and pare apples later this afternoon when I'm needing a break.    I'm going to make the apple cobbler, but also will use the rest to make applesauce.  I'll save the peels and cores to make apple jelly with next month.

I thought I'd share the Pineapple Banana Nut bread and note the changes I'd make at the bottom of the recipe.

Pineapple Banana Nut Bread

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 eggs beaten

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups mashed ripe bananas

2 tsp vanilla

1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350F

In large bowl combine sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt;  stir together and add walnuts.  In a separate bowl combine eggs, oil, bananas, vanilla, and pineapple.  Mix well.  Add dry ingredients and stir until well blended.  Spoon batter into bread pan.  Bake about 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes.  Remove from pan.

Mu notes: I had problems with this recipe in that it specifically says to put into loaf pan, not the plural pans.  I assumed the recipe was geared to the pan in which the recipe had been stuck by the manufacturer.  I could not possibly fit all this batter in one little 8 inch loaf pan!

I was out of cinnamon and walnuts and chose to skip those ingredients.

I used only 5 ounces of pineapple because that's what I had left from a recipe I was already making.  I used 2 mashed ripe bananas.  I misread the recipe and did not see that it called for 2 CUPS of bananas.

And the baking time, even for the smaller pans was hitting the 65 minute mark.   So be aware of that when you bake.

The taste is very good. John noted, while it has the texture of a nut bread, it's sweet like cake.  I personally feel that the sugar could be decreased and so could the oil, by at least 1/2 measure for both, especially if one is using 2 cups of bananas as the recipe is written.  I'd even be tempted to leave out the oil entirely, because my favorite banana nut bread recipe doesn't call for any oil at all and uses fewer bananas (hence my misreading the recipe for the quantity of bananas required).   

end of day:  I just put a full quart of soup back into the fridge.  I am always amused at how we can eat hearty meals of leftovers and have still more to put back.

I made the Apple Cobbler which was super yummy.  Those apples came up beautifully as a cooked apple.   I also made a quart of homemade applesauce and I have about a gallon bag of cores and peels and offcuts that weren't nice enough to eat that I will try to make into Jelly.

John has asked me out on a lunch date tomorrow.  This means that my whole week's menu will likely shift a bit into the weekend.  I've truly got no room in the freezer for anything more at the moment, so let's hope I can dispense with stuff in the fridge and get on to using freezer items!

Thursday:  This morning I decided it was as good a day as any to start cooking the chicken and turkey breast frames I had in the freezer.   Since I remembered I had that big stock pot, I was able to put both in the pot and still had room to spare.  I did wonder briefly what I'd do with the resulting broth since my freezer is FULL but that sorted itself out.  

I had lots of poultry to pick from the bones.  I think it netted about three cups of meat total.  I tossed bones but kept the skin and softened gristle to feed as extra to the dogs and cat.  This will give them a few extra calories tonight to help them fight the cold.

As for the broth, Katie and family came by and she mentioned that she thought homemade chicken soup would be nice to have and I said "Here have some broth...."  She took home three 29 ounce jars of broth.  She said she'd put them in her freezer.   I had a quart and a half to put in the fridge for our soup...and just remembered that I have a quart at the back of the fridge.  Phooey!

I also put on the apple cores and peels to turn into juice for jelly.   This time I did use a flour sack towel to squeeze the apple and peels to get all the juice.  Tomorrow I will measure and then make jelly.  I'm saving the peels and cores I cooked to see if I can possibly maybe make homemade vinegar with them...This will be something new to me but I've saved some maple syrup bottles to use to store vinegar in.

Friday:  I made the apple jelly first thing this morning after breakfast.  I have 7 pint jars and 2 1/2 pint jars on the counter cooling.  I will put the two half-pint jars in the fridge but may have to put one of the pint jars in as well since I knocked it over before the paraffin had set fully.   We'll see how that one goes.  I will likely take Mama a half pint of the jelly.

I think I've done well enough this week using up our fragments.  I still have milk that needs to be used but will see how that lasts over the weekend.  If it goes completely off, I'll toss it but I've used far more of it than I thought I might and I'm glad of that.

I'm planning to use the spaghetti sauce as my supper tomorrow night and likely will make Chicken Rice soup for supper on Sunday.   But you'll see at the beginning of next week what it is we're working with.

I hope you had a good week in your home and managed to Gather fragments into edible and delicious foods for your household.