Waste Not, Want Not!

“Quarantine Log: Day 736.  Or something like that.  My scale is clearly a traitor, siding with the enemy, Calories.  My pantry and refrigerator are conspiring to only contain mismatched, half-empty containers, and fresh produce is scarce.  Nonetheless, I persevere in the goal of completing my cooking project.  Despite a critical lack of ideal supplies, progress is being made.  If anyone reads this… please send fresh baguettes and gouda!” – From the diary of a Lockdown Chef.

Hunker-Down Hash?  Made it.  Pandemic Potato Salad?  In the fridge.  Corona-Cranberry Muffins?  Last week’s breakfast.  Quarantine Quinoa?  Well no, not that one!  Truly, this is the first time in the lives of most Americans that we have had to get uber-creative with what we put on the table.  I used to run to the store 3-4 times a week to grab that “one thing” that I’d forgotten on my big shopping trip (plus a candy bar).  Ah, I was so innocent back then…in February.  Now, my friends, I make do with what I have.  It’s not worth putting myself or my family at unnecessary risk by hanging out in the grocery store.  And to be honest, it’s made me a better cook and far less wasteful.  Instead of tossing the little bit left in that can or that vegetable with the not-so-fresh-feeling in the crisper, I’m brainstorming hard trying to find ways to use up every last ingredient.  Here are just a few of the success stories from the pages of Magnolia Table.    

Normally an appetizer, Baked Brie served as my breakfast and lunch for at least three meals.  The impetus for making such an unusual choice for our current situation (not a lot of cocktail parties happening at the moment) was a glance in my cheese drawer.  I’d purchased about 10 different cheeses in late December, gearing up to make a lot of holiday dishes, as well as snacks for poker nights, Bunco nights, and friends coming over.  Remember them??  Alas, my wheel of Brie was shoved in the back and had been overlooked.  Secondly, Costco does not simply sell one apple, nor even three.  You’ll buy 8-10 pounds and you’ll like it!!  At least 15 Granny Smiths were taking up space and thankfully held up much better refrigerated than in my countertop fruit bowl.  Finally, I have been quietly ignoring a jar of spicy preserves for years, which I purchased at a specialty store several summers ago.  Did this recipe call for that?  Nope!  But it did require a partially desiccated lemon I needed to use up, so I took Jo’s recipe and used it as a jumping-off place to make my own creation.  It should be noted that generally I eat the rind of Brie, and leaving it in place allows it to keep its shape much better while baking.  However, my cheese was, to put it politely, aged.

And not in a good way.  Still, if the French taught us one thing, it’s that mold can be our friend!  Or at least not kill us.  Setting aside my penicillin allergy, I carefully removed the slightly fuzzy exterior, and voilà!  The inside looked as good as it ever had.  Preserves are by definition, “preserved”, so the date on the jar didn’t concern me.  I doubled up flavors by using a different one in each layer, Apricot Habanero on one, and Sriracha Peach (a gift from a friend and local apiary entrepreneur, Mother Tucker Honey and Jam!) on the other.  The original recipe called for pecans and brown sugar and butter.  I’m sure that would have tasted fine, but I was more than pleased with the spicy, sweet, nutty concoction which burned my tongue because I couldn’t wait an appropriate amount of time for it to cool.  That’s a sign of good food right there!      

The Breakfast Chapter is dead!  Long live the Breakfast Chapter…  This was the single recipe standing between me and finishing Chapter 1.  I put Baked Egg Bread Pudding off until the bitter end, because, bread pudding.  With a mere 27 recipes remaining, I had to bite the figurative bullet and be done with it.  I decided since I possessed the clutch ingredients (Boursin cheese, bacon and eggs), everything else had a little wiggle room.  Shallots?  Not so much, but finely shaved onion and a little garlic worked, since shallots lie somewhere in the middle.  Day-old baguette to make sturdy chunks of bread that hold up to liquid?  Not a chance.  But I sure had a few smooshed slices plus the butt-end of a stale (not moldy!) loaf of wheat sandwich bread.  Creativity is key, so I sliced those puppies into cubes and toasted them lightly in the oven to dry out properly.  Spinach…  Technically yes, but it was skirting inedibility, so luckily in this application, mushiness was actually a desirable trait!  I suppose one could even use frozen spinach in a cinch.  My expectations for this dish were abysmal, but I was a fool…  Talk about a sleeper hit!  The smell coming from the oven while it baked was enticing, and adding the egg on top knocked it out of the park.  She may not be a looker, but she has a GREAT personality!

“Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf, I HATE meatloaf!” – Randy, from A Christmas Story

I feel ya Randy…  I know I said “success stories”, but since others in the house ate this and appeared to like it, I guess it counts.  If I never made it again, I’d sleep just fine at night.    I thought this was just plain weird, although to be fair I may have messed up the proportions a smidge.  That Costco run a while back yielded 12 metric tons of ground beef, which, with the aid of a FoodSaver, became individually wrapped bundles of meat.  I think this was the tail end and didn’t quite make the 1.5 pounds required for Jo’s Meatloaf.  I failed to make the mathematical adjustments necessary to calculate how much less of a “sleeve” of saltines should be used.  The odd yellow bits that look like corn in the picture?  Yeah, those are saltines.  I have seen meatloaf recipes call for bread crumbs or even oatmeal as a binder, but crackers were a first.  The second strange ingredient was my remaining nugget of cheddar cheese.  Theoretically it should have added moisture back in, but a) what I had on hand fell short of the suggested amount, and b) the excess crackers dried out the final product too much for my taste.  Not one of my faves, but it served its purpose of clearing out bits and pieces from the fridge, and with a little tweaking, I’m sure I could do better.  Challenge accepted!