…or, I tried. I had big ideas about using up lots of odds & ends from the fridge, in various dishes – but I still ended up throwing food away – UN-characteristically, at least I hope.
I made the last of the caramelized onions from the galettes into onion dip with creme frâiche and sour cream – that was a success, and I made sure by tasting it on corn chips, honey wheat sticks, and wheat thins. (corn chips & wheat thins won).
I tried to use up more of the salad greens from Pie Palooza by making them into veggie broth – with squash and herbs, that woulda been good – but the greens turned the broth black, so in the morning I threw it out.
I made the leftover squash cubes, also from the galettes, into a gratin with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. It was really good, I ate a big bowl of it for supper – the crumb topping was perfectly crispy, almost like those Parmesan chips you can make, frico, I think they are – in contrast to the soft squash. But Mark didn’t want any, and although I packed a serving into a plastic container for work lunch, in the morning I ended up pitching that, too – although I did wash out and save the container.
I had a really pretty head of red cabbage and a pound of Brussels sprouts in the basement fridge, from a CSA box a few weeks ago, and I wanted to make this slaw, that I had made for a dinner last winter. It has too many steps and ingredients, but it’s really good – disappeared in a flash at that past dinner, anyways. Another success, with cashews instead of pine nuts, and Farmer John’s Asiago instead of Parmesan curls, and still good for lunch without any cheese added at all.
And I made a batch of hazelnut & chocolate meringues, to send on the plane with Rach – she’s going to have Thanksgiving in upstate New York with her no-gluten-eating fiancé, and the rest of her family – and to use up the toasted hazelnuts that had been sprinkled in the salad on Saturday night. I usually make these for passover – it’s 4 egg whites, and about a cup of sugar, and about a cup of chocolate, and or nuts. These were a lot more chocolate-y and nutty, because I had close to a cup of the hazelnuts, and I used some expresso chocolate chunks that were lurking in the bottom of the baking bin, plus part of a bag of milk chocolate chips. Another success.
And I never got around to making that pear cake – to use up the pears – maybe I’ll do that tonight. It’s got a bunch of steps – marinate dried fruit in brandy, caramelize pears, make the cake itself – and it has a caramel sauce, but I don’t need to make that, because I still have some caramel sauce from the pumpkin sticky pudding, to use up.
