Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and.... Avocado?

Tonight was the end of our loose meal plan week. Dan ran out to QFC to pick up some Big K (QFC store brand sparkling water in cans that Dan is addicted to, so he picked up some fried chicken and mashed potatoes, too.

I reheated the chicken in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes, and served it and the potatoes with some chopped up avocado with a little black pepper and pink Himalayan salt (a housewarming gift from Anna & Jason). The avocado was to put something green on the plate - though I'm pretty sure avocado goes with everything.

Kalua Pig, Mashed Potatoes, and Mixed Veggies

Our meal plan was pretty loose this week, and tonight we planned to hit the Columbia City Farmers Market - but Dan ended up getting a stomach bug and leaving work early. So instead, I picked up some special requests for him (mashed potato flakes, caramel ice cream and ginger ale), and then I whipped up something from things around the house for dinner.

I pulled some kalua pig from the freezer (we try to keep a stockpile at all times), and warmed that up in the microwave. I made up the mashed potatoes Dan specifically requested, and then paired those with a mix of veggies - frozen peas, white onion, & grape tomatoes - sauteed with a little olive oil and a mix of herbs from our garden. I threw a little bit of everything in there, including marjoram. Turns out we don't really like marjoram. It's too floral and tastes even more like soap than cilantro. Maybe I'll need to find recipes that use it to learn what it pairs better with?

Shrimp Fried Rice

Thanks to my migraines, dinners this week ended up shuffled a bit, with me using ingredients differently than planned to keep things easy. Last night's pan roasted chicken with spinach pasta sauce was supposed to be chicken picatta, and the spaghetti & marinara were supposed to be for shrimp pasta tonight. So tonight I instead used leftover rice from last weekend, and veggies from the crisper, to make a shrimp fried rice, instead.

I started with garlic & ginger in some peanut oil in the wok, then once they got fragrant, added some sliced carrots. Once they'd cooked a minute or so, I added chopped red bell pepper. Next, the rice went in, along with a mix of oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and Sriracha hot sauce. I let that cook up for awhile, then realized there was nothing green in the mix - so I grabbed some frozen peas and dumped them in. Once it was all heated through, I poured the rice mixture into a bowl. Then I tossed the shrimp with a little more sauce into the hot wok, and cooked them through. Quick, easy, and tasty. Perfect when it feels like something's trying to bore it's way out of our skull.

Lotsa Leftovers

Dinner tonight was a quick one, using up a lot of leftovers in the fridge. The starting point was a few slices of pizza, which I paired with a mix of veggies (broccoli, kale, green & purple cabbage, carrots, shallots, & garlic) braised on the stove with a leftover I've been eager to use for awhile: lamb stock leftover from the last Memento dinner.

Kalua Pig Burritos

We're still working through a big hunk of Kalua Pig in the freezer, so tonight we whipped up some simple burritos with some of the pork, some leftover greens, plus a little Chipotle Cheddar cheese from the Samish Bay Cheese, some guacamole, and some chopped onions cooked down with some cumin and chili powder. And of course topped with Sriracha.

Bowties & Meatballs

Throwing together some ground pork with an egg, some bread crumbs, and various spices, I rolled the resulting mixture into small balls and cooked them in a skillet, rolling them periodically to get them browned on all sides. I had to do them in two batches, as I made so many of the little buggers. After they were all cooked, I put them aside and deglazed the pan with a little red wine, then tossed in some leftover marinara from the freezer to create a sauce. Then I combined the sauce and meatballs over some bowtie pasta, and grated some Parmesan cheese over the top.

Friday Night Snacks for Dinner

It's been a tough week for both Dan & I at work - handling big projects and big workloads. Last night we forgot to do meal planning, and after cleaning out the freezer and eating party leftover the last two weeks, there isn't a lot left to choose from.

Thankfully, Dan stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some taquitos and burritos, which we had with salsa and guacamole (technically leftover from the party).

We ate them while watching some TV, and both fell asleep on the couch early.

Party Leftovers - Chicken Stir Fry

Okay - so only the pineapple in this was leftover from the party, but it still counts to make this week thematic. And the Serrano chilies were leftovers, too, though not from the pary.

The rest of the ingredients were fresh - including chicken, red bell peppers, onion, garlic, and rice - and I used the wok my Mom gave me for the first time to cook it all up. I tossed it all with a little shoyu, chili bean paste, and black bean sauce.

Party Leftovers - Shrimp Cocktail and Rosemary Bread

We bought two platters of shrimp cocktail, and although the first one went fast, I failed to notice and put out the second one (bad host!).

We planned to pair them with some marinara we have in the freezer and some pasta, but that sounded daunting after both of us had long days at work - so we agreed to just eat the shrimp cocktail as God intended, and warm up Rosemary bread that Anna & Jason gave us (along with a variety of salts from around the world - as salt & bread is a traditional housewarming gift in a variety of cultures.)

Party Leftovers - Kalua Pig Nachos

After reviewing what we had leftover from the party, we put together a meal plan for this week and ordered a few additional items to flesh out dinners for the week.

I forgot to put out guacamole we bought for the party (sorry!) and didn't get around to making the kalua pig sliders until almost everyone was gone (doubly sorry!), so we decided to put those together with some of the leftover salsa & tortilla chips and add some beans, cheese and olives to make Kalua pig nachos.

Note to future tiki bar guests: we still have Kalua pig and Hawaiian buns in the freezer, so be sure hit us up for some sliders when you come over. They only take a few minutes to make up, and will be one of the official bar foods of Ke Ala 'Ula (The Red Road) - our tiki bar.

Party Leftovers - CPK

Between making and receiving more food and drink than could possibly have been consumed, and being so busy that I forgot to put out several items - we've got a house full of leftover party food.

Tonight we ate a couple of the California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas we bought, just in case we needed something quick to put out at the end of the night.

Cleaning out the Freezer - Cuban Sandwiches

Using the extra French bread we had from making fondue (which Dan put in the freezer), and all the extra pork and ham from making Cuban Sandwiches on New Year's, we made another round of the delicious sandwiches today.

I'm really happy we've realized bread freezes and defrosts great - as with just two of us, we often can't burn through a whole loaf before it goes bad. By getting it in the freezer early, we can make use of the entire thing.

Cleaning out the Freezer - Yellow Curry

When we made yellow curry a couple weeks back, the recipe produced way more than we could eat in two meals (our usual dinner + lunch routine). So we froze the rest.

Tonight, we pulled that out (along with another container that was God knows how old), and I defrosted it in the microwave first, then transferred it to my paella pan with some fresh chicken, and leftover red bell peppers and chili peppers.

Although the recent batch of curry was vegetarian (we cooked the shrimp separately), the old batch turned out to have some shrimp in it - which ended up a little tough after being reheated. But adding the chicken worked out great, so I think we may stick to making the yellow curry recipe without meat in the future.

Cleaning out the Freezer - Mancha Mantel

Day two of cleaning out the freezer has us dining on the Mancha Mantel leftovers, which I froze when I realized there was way more than we could eat for dinner and lunch the next day. Paired with some tortilla chips, it heated up perfectly in the microwave (I always choose a long time at a low power setting to ensure it heats through evenly), and had even more flavor than the first night.

Cleaning out the Freezer - Gardenburgers & Hum Bao

We've got a housewarming coming up, and I'm panicking a bit about space in our freezer. After a couple years of being diligent about not wasting anything that can be frozen and reheated/used later, I've got a very full freezer.

To remedy that, I made a list of all the things in the freezer, and we used it as the starting point of this week's meal planning. Tonight, we used leftover garden burgers and buns from the freezer, topped with a little Swiss cheese and bacon made by our friend Gerald. We paired it with a hum bao each - and I topped my burger with some pineapple we had left from brunch the other day.

One Pot Wonder

On our meal schedule tonight (or rather, last night, but we swapped) was the plan to use some or all of the leftover pork shoulder we cooked for our Cuban Sandwiches last weekend... and to use some of the veggies we bought this week.

I wasn't sure what to do with the pork, but decided the easiest thing to do would be to make a stew of some sort in our big red pot. I wasn't totally confident in what I was doing, but hoped it would work out okay. I served it to Dan with some leftover French bread slices, and ran back to the kitchen to grab salt & pepper & Sriracha - not sure if the seasoning was off or not. When I returned and started to apologize and offer salt - Dan interrupted to say how good it was. I took a bite and had to concur. It was a little salty, actually, but really flavorful. Here's what I did (as best I can remember):

Put our enameled cast iron pot on the stove over medium-high heat, with a little olive oil and a little vegetable oil - maybe a tablespoon each. I fried up some minced garlic, some small pieces of bacon (about half a strip worth), and a tablespoon or two of pork fat. Then I added a couple tablespoons of canned black beans, and stirred vigorously. In went 1/2 a minced shallot, then the pork (about a pound of it, cut into 1/2 inch cubes). Then the rest of the can of black beans went in, followed by a half a bottle of beer and 3/4 of a can of V8 juice. I tossed in some cinnamon, dark cocoa powder, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne, red chili flakes, and dried basil. Then I chopped up some cauliflower, broccoli, a few red potatoes, and a tomato and threw all that in, too, along with a splash of apple cider vinegar, a handful of peanuts, 6 or 7 dried chili peppers, and some of my Mom's pico de gallo. (At this point I would've thrown in anything that wasn't nailed down or slated for another meal.) I lowered the heat, put on the lid, and let it all stew for about 45 minutes. Then I tossed in some more broccoli, asparagus, and some black lava salt (which is when I over-salted the dish, I think), put the lid back on, and left it another 15-20 minutes.

It all worked out so well, I'm sure I'll do it again in the future - particularly if we end up with leftover meat, veggies, and potatoes around.

Jerk Chicken w/ Roasted Plantains & Sweet Potatoes

Since we didn't make use of the plantains we bought for Tostones on New Year's Eve, tonight we roasted them (along with some leftover sweet potatoes) in the oven at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes, tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and allspice beforehand.



We had them with chicken breast paillards (chicken breast pounded out so they have an even thickness), which I dry rubbed with a spicy jerk seasoning we found online and made once before, though this time we had to improvise on a few ingredients (like omitting thyme and using fresh garlic). I pan seared the chicken at medium heat for about 5 minutes per side, just until cooked through. The chicken ended up moist and spicy, and the plantains and sweet potatoes offered a good counterpoint to the heat... though we relied on a home-brewed beer given to us by our old neighbor, Jonathan, to cool our mouths.

NYE Cuban Sandwiches

For our first New Year's Eve in our new home, Dan & I made Cuban sandwiches for dinner. This is the second year in a row - so I guess we're starting a little tradition of our own. We'd planned to make tostones (fried plantain chips), too, but since we didn't roast the pork shoulder ahead of time, the thawing, marinating, and roasting of it took up a good chunk of the evening, so we opted not to go to the trouble and instead relax and enjoy the sandwiches.

We used the same general recipe/guidelines as last year, using some ham leftover from Bridging The Holidays, and using leftover hoagie rolls we had around (rather than buying new bread and letting them go to waste).

Looking back on 2009, I think I learned a lot about food and myself through this blog, and hopefully it's had value for others as well - whether my writing made someone smile, my pictures made someone hungry, or the recipes I've shared inspired someone to try something new. Looking forward to 2010 I hope to continue reading & writing about food, trying new recipes, and sharing my successes and failures. I'll also aim to write more often, as I've become a little lax the past few months.

Chicken Nachos

Tonight we made up some simple chicken nachos, with some chicken breast (seasoned and pan seared), beans, salsa, cheddar cheese, guacamole, tomatoes, olives, peppers and onion (leftover from the other night).

Philly Cheese Steak

Although I've never been to Philadelphia, I have some idea of what a Philly Cheese Steak is, and when Carolyn gave us a bunch of leftover prime rib from Xmas dinner to take home, Dan quickly suggested we use it to make cheese steak sandwiches.

We sliced some green & red peppers and onions thin, then cooked that in a pan until soft and set it aside. Then I chopped up the meat and heated it in the pan, while we toasted a couple hoagie rolls under the broiler. Then we topped the crisp rolls with the pepper/onion mixture and meat, put on some slices of Swiss cheese, and popped them back under the broiler for a few minutes to melt. Before plating them up, I wrapped the sandwiches in some parchment paper, to make them a little less messy to eat.

We had it with some Caesar salad from a kit.