Share Your Refrigerator Velcro Creations
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. Beggars can't be choosers, they also say. Both sayings come to mind when you stand in front of a refrigerator, an hour after your family wanted to have eaten, wondering what you can throw together really quickly that will quell the brewing insurrection and conceal your failure to go shopping, defrost a chicken, pick up takeout, or otherwise have given their sad little tummies any thought until five minutes ago.
That is the time for the refrigerator velcro creation. Creative! Fun! Fast! Disingenuous!
No, peanut butter sandwiches or Top Ramen don't qualify. Those are Noble Foods too, but for a different time, when your message is "eat this or starve, you tiresome people". The refrigerator velcro dish says "I've been working hard to make you something yummy because I love you thiiis much" except you get to say it with your fingers crossed. Lying to your children, a honored tradition.
I made something yummy this week that was dead easy while being pretty much scraped off the walls of the refrigerator. I broke up a cauliflower head that was well past its prime, threw away the spotty moldy bits, tossed the rest in olive oil and salt, and roasted it in the toaster oven. Meanwhile, I searched around the cheese drawer and collected the butts and rinds of some bries and other soft cheeses, and a cup of grated parmesan that hadn't been used by whoever grated it. I put the cheese in a bowl, covered it with milk, melted it in the microwave, and mixed it into a cheesy sauce. Dumped the roasted cauliflower on a platter and stirred in the cheese sauce. It was the hit of the evening. I think I made up a French name for it. Told them it was the Sun King's favourite dish.
Share your refrigerator velcro successes. And failures, if they are more fun.
So..."velcro" as in brilliantly inventive? The Subject made me think of the unnamed things that you don't inquire too much of as you escort them to the curb whilst holding your nose. :)
I usually don't have to scrape that hard nowadays, and have two freezers, but my old standby, prefreezer, is, um, mac and cheese? But not actually mac. Radiatore or some similar pasta that holds a lot of sauce, but whatever's in the pantry. And made of all the heels and rejects, with some grated romano or asiago, if there is any, to beat them into submission, prepared in the standard way of the mornay. After it's thickened, I add marsala, and yummy stuff and finish the pasta in the pan.
Your zapped bowl of milk cheese sounds like a fab innovation.
I'm sure I've made things that weren't so successful, but nothing bad enough to be memorable in its awfulness.
The harder part for me is the vegetables. It seems like they all die at once, before I've been shopping. I've tried buying frozen, but then I don't use them and they get disgusting. I love greens and leaves like spinach and arugula because they can be a salad or a quiche. In desperation, however, I've been known to defrost spaghetti sauce for the vegetables. I do try to keep nice vegetables soups in the freezer, though, as well as cooked meat dishes, so there's always something decent for dinner.
- I have more than enough food in our kitchen/pantry and food storage room in the basement for a year, and follow the same meal plan I've followed since the late 1970's.
- There is a packed refrigerator-freezer with homemade ready-to-HEAT entrees (first-overs or left-overs).
I really don't have a reason or an excuse for a "Velcro creation", but my go-to meal in this instance would probably be the ever-handy breakfast-for-dinner or a Mexican Stacked Pizza made with 2 tortillas per serving and cooks in 4-6 minutes. Topped with refried beans (I have a just-add-water version of refried beans so I can make "enough"), seasoned taco meat (that's found in the freezer in the form of pre-cooked ground beef, ground turkey, shredded beef/pork/chicken, or even spiced up canned chicken. Canned chicken is your "friend"..... ;-) I have a whole set of recipes just for using canned chicken.
-Grainlady
Told them it was the Sun King's favourite dish.
That's the ticket.
I always have rice (we're Asian, eat a lot of it). I usually have spicy linguica and individual cooked pkg'ed shrimp, both in the freezer. Also homemade stock in the frig, along with a cabinet full of spices.
When I'm faced with a measly cup of leftover roast chicken, which is barely enough to feed one of us, I make a mock paella. We prefer our rice dishes moist and soft instead of dry, so I use more liquid. Some high quality agrodulce pimenton bloomed in oil, a bit of onion and garlic, either tomato paste or the sun-dried tomato pesto by Bella San Luci (super-flavorful yet very low in sodium), broth; and then simmer for a bit.
Add the (cooked) rice and in half an hour I've got dinner. I'll either make a salad, or toss in some frozen kale/collard greens while cooking the gravy.
I like to use leftover vegetables in a pureed soup. The more varied, the better it tastes. My DH loves soup, so it's a great way to serve him his veggie allotment. Yellow curry paste is sensational in a vegetable puree.
Almost always have eggs and milk. Leftover bread and ham and cheese makes a substantial 'stuffed French toast' casserole - I bake up individual servings in smaller casserole dishes so they don't take long.
Not sure if this is quite what you're after, but during the winter I often make 'hash'. For this you need onions, some soft starchy mashed stuff (mashed potatoes, cooked sweet potatoes, roasted winter squash...), and miscellaneous chopped leftovers. Chunk up onions and cook in a bit of oil till brown round the edges. Add everything else and fry till there some browned bits and the whole thing seems a bit drier. Add black pepper liberally and salt to taste and serve with ketchup for the kids and Frank's Red Hot for the grown-ups.
I used to make savory bread puddings, especially good with cornbread. I liked to have a salad or a frozen/canned vegetable, but sometimes we just had the bread pudding. These have no sugar, but the base is egg, milk, cheese and bread.
DH surprised me with canned potatoes that are pretty good. He adds the potatoes in liquid to a small pan with some butter & black pepper. These are held at low temperature for 10 or 20 minutes. The potatoes soak up some of the butter, and lose any canned taste.
A quick dinner for the two of us is to cook 1/3 cup rice; then add 1 pouch of jaipur vegetables, 1 or 2 cans chicken, and about 8 oz of thawed cauliflower. Sometimes I cook the cauliflower a bit first. We eat when it's all heated through.
Here is a link that might be useful:
Y'all are more organized and way more inventive than I am. Sometimes we have musgeaux for dinner. That is when you open the fridge, drag out all the leftovers, and declare, "This stuff must go!"
bbstx- Ha ha!!!
John,
I try and keep a lb of ground turkey on hand which can get sauteed with fresh or frozen spinach, rice and parmesan cheese. If it's only for DH, I'll add onion, garlic and more spices. Warm, satisfying and easy!
I refuse to eat leftovers. Life is too short to eat leftovers.
Like everyone else, I do have many unconsumed previously cooked food in the refrigerator and freezer.
I find it very interesting to come up with ways (recipes?) to turn (transform) leftovers into something else surprising. Kind of like Cinderella transformation.
Recently, on another food forum, they sponsored a cooking competition with "Leftovers" as the theme. I rounded up some of my leftovers and made them into a "sushi" dish. It was one of the two winners of the competition. I posted the entry here a few weeks ago.
dcarch
I often make "potage de garbage" or "stone soup" and sometimes it is brilliantly delicious. Occasionally barely edible. When I have dear friends over who know me well, and I serve them something with a French sounding name, they will invariably ask, "Wait a minute, just how long has this stuff been sitting in the fridge?!" My SO dreads hearing, "It's SmörgÃÂ¥sbord tonight!" Anything with fancy symbols over the letters has to taste good, right?
LPink, you've brought back happy childhood memories for me! While I often create something new out of stuff that needs using up (leftover or not), and do make stone soup, I never make concoctions like my mother did when we were small. I bet that's what John meant by "refrigerator velcro", though hers were unreproducible. :) My father used to say we were having "refrigerator stew" for dinner. But sometimes it was "ragout" and once in a blue moon, "goulash". :)
Tonight's dinner was a velcro moment. Leftover chicken breast, part of an onion and a bit of almost-shriveled green pepper. Some julienned carrot and lots of garlic, sauteed in a little coconut oil and simmered together in a jar of T. Joe's green curry simmer sauce (actually not bad!). An almost-gone Kumato tomato diced and tossed in at the end. Dumped on basmati rice.
If pantry velcro items count...I found a container of dried coconut milk that I'd forgotten about, so I mixed some up an threw it in (also not bad). Topped with a bit of cilantro, most of which wound up in the compost bucket, and some pepper flakes.
I know it's not good to boast, but I am a soup goddess! Last night it was "Northern Italian Style Minestrone." Fried up some uncured bacon and set aside. (just 3 pieces). Dumped out all the grease and then added a little olive oil to the pan. Sauteed the following vegetables that had been languishing in the fridge: red onion, celery, green pepper, red potatoes and shitake mushrooms. Also added a large carrot and glop of minced garlic. De-glazed the pan with some red wine that we didn't like much by the glass. Covered it all with vegetable broth and let the potatoes simmer for a while. Cooked some beluga lentils and added those, and also added a can of red beans (closest I had to "Roman" beans). Towards the end, added a half a jar of home canned tomato basil sauce and a small opened can of V-8 juice. Plus 1/4 of a head of cabbage. Added the bacon back in and a liberal shake of Italian seasonings over the top. Simmered for about 1/2 hour. Today will be served over some stellini pasta that has been sitting around too long, and topped with parmesean.
Unfortunately, I now have a HUGE pot of soup, and with just me eating it, I will be having it for lunch or dinner for probably the next ten days! Not sure how much I will love it by then!
A proper garlic and oil pasta sauce is the foundation of innumerable fridge foraging rescue expeditions.
Blanched broccoli and Romano; add cooked chicken if you don't mind being touristy. Or anchovy, a small bit of tomato, parsley and a can of tuna fish. Or anchovy, blanched cauliflower, some raisins and pine nuts. Those are all actual traditional dishes. You can improvise with anything, even a bag of salad and a can of white beans.
But a proper ajo ojo is beyond most people, unfortunately.
For those unplanned menus meals we might have...
a peanut butter with honey sandwich and a cup of hot tea....or
a cup of hot V-8 juice (preferably the spicy V-8) and grilled cheese
Our youngest son's family have Kangaroo...
you jump up and find whatever you can.....
I think I posted this before but what you are describing is what my sister called WLIF. (Whatever's Left In the Fridge). With cheese on top it is WLIF Supreme.
Nancy
I think I posted this before but what you are describing is what my sister called WLIF. (Whatever's Left In the Fridge). With cheese on top it is WLIF Supreme.
Nancy
With cheese on top it is WLIF Supreme
Hilarious, Nancy! I'll have to remember that for Musgeaux Supreme.
I don't have any problem at all with eating leftovers, and often cook enough to make sure I have leftovers. I find that things like chili and stew improve after a night in the fridge.
I also have a completely and fully stocked freezer and pantry, but sometimes I just haven't thawed anything or don't feel like making whatever I was planning. Then I clean the refrigerator.
Sometimes it's good, sometimes, well, not as impressive. My latest was turkey gumbo. It had some leftover turkey, a couple of sad tomatoes, onions, celery, a red pepper that needed immediate attention and okra that was nearly the age of the pepper. Into the pot, add some homecanned chicken broth, some cayenne and seasonings and serve it over rice. I didn't even bother thickening with the roux, the okra slimed it up well enough.
When I was a kid, Grandma would mix everything with gravy and serve it over biscuits. We always ate it, but we had two choices. We could eat it or we could go hungry.
Annie