belated PFW

I feel so bad, but I totally missed this month's Party Food Wednesday. So we're celebrating a little late. And also hopefully next week, for the real May PFW. Have any of you observed this holy food holiday yet? If you haven't, you should.

Its been incredibly quiet and boring at work lately. So I've been passing the time by doing a little homework, listening to npr podcasts, pretending to be busy, and checking out some food blogs. This week, I was looking at Deb's spring inspired recipes on Smitten Kitchen and decided that her leek toasts with bleu cheese would be a perfect edition to this week's hors d'oeuvre dinner.

I started by chopping and washing two large leeks, and soaking them in cold water. Don't skip this step! It was pretty disgusting how much dirt was in the bottom of the bowl after a few minutes.

Then, I sauteed them in a little booder and awl. Actually, I melted the butter and oil in high heat, then added the leeks and turned them down to low, covered and let simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.

A few cranks of pepper and some sea salt, and they're done. Easy!

While those were sautéing, I started on my shaved asparagus pizza, also from Smitten Kitchen. Shaving asparagus with a potato peeler is actually a lot harder than it looks. It took the entire length of Sanne's shower for me to finish shaving a bunch of asparagus. 

This pizza had 1/4c parmesan cheese, 1/2c mozzarella cheese, and shaved asparagus...

but I didn't measure, obviously...

I grated a little extra parmesan on top, and a little salt and pepper, and broiled it on high for about 5 minutes. 

And no Party Food Wednesday would be complete without some bone marrow and parsley salad...

and Indian boxing (?).

We may or may not have been given a little Indian rum after dinner, and Susieji may or may not have made some of his beef curry. It was a genuine Party Food Wednesday, complete with matching party.

I'm going to miss these guys so much when I'm gone...
Susieji and I were talking tonight and he said something that managed to stick in my foggy mind: "When you are cooking, you get to just be you." He is a wise one, that Susiegee.

oh man, this smell...

I made a quiche with the rest of my leeks, which turned out to be perhaps my best quiche to date. 

Susieji and I share not only a love of cooking, but a love of the Cranberries. I can't even tell you how happy this video makes me:



And that was PFW3. A very good one.
By the way, we are a mere 10 posts away from 200!!! Hopefully I can knock those out before I move. I think I can...

m

leftovers Sunday

Tonight, I looked at my leftover spinach and heavy cream in the refrigerator and immediately thought of this recipe that I had seen months ago.

I knew I didn't have enough to make a substantial serving, so I added some sauteed shallots to the mix, and it turned out pretty good!

isn't that a pretty green?

There seemed to be a lot of steps in this recipe, but I think the main point was to get rid of all the water and replace it with cream, butter and flour.

Which I am more than okay with. I topped it with parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs, baked it at 375 for about 15 minutes and ate it before I could snap one last picture.

Hope you're having a good Doomsday Sunday!

m

leftovers, pot pie style

I've been wanting to make a pot pie for a while now, and now I finally have my chance! Pounds and pounds of leftover turkey in the fridge, begging to be mixed with other various leftovers and covered with pastry. It's the weekend, which means Susie is over, so he helped me out with this one.

I browsed the web for some recipes and drew from several different ones. Here's what I landed on:
roughly...
1 1/2c shredded turkey
3/4c chopped crimini mushrooms
frozen peas
1 chopped onion
2-3T butter
1/2c leftover gravy
1 splash milk
1c or so leftover thanksgiving vegetables
s+p
pastry of some sort. I had a pastry sheet like the one I used for my baked brie, but I would've used crescent rolls, too.

The first step is to sauté mushrooms and onions in butter.

Then, I added the peas and then gravy. I had probably 1/4c of that leftover. The recipes I found called for things like 6T butter or a cup or so of heated milk or, God forbid, a can of mushroom soup. I decided to use gravy as my liquid, and then added a splash of milk at the end until I got to a consistency I was comfortable with.

Then add some Thanksgiving vegetables. I used Sanne's roasted root veggies with harvest grains. Next, add the turkey.

Then, spoon the mixture into a 9" pie dish, or a few individual dishes.

...cover with pastry and pinch edges. Be sure to cut a few slits for the moisture to escape. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees.

I'de never made a pot pie before, of any kind. This was pretty easy, and since I already had everything I needed on hand, I didn't have to make any extra trips to the store. I think this might be a new week-after-Thanksgiving tradition.

Mmmm. Pot pie, Sam Adams and the Muppets. I am a very happy person right now.

Merry Christmastime! Tomorrow, Sanne will give you a bread recipe using some more leftovers, we'll show you our Christmas tree/decorations and I'll hopefully put a dent in my two 10-page papers that I haven't started yet...

I still want to see/ hear about your leftovers recipes. I've heard talk of a cornish game hen pot pie on Facebook that I'm dying to see, but I'm also interested in a fresh take on turkey sandwiches. Come on, people! Send them our way! fedishblog@gmail.com

m