I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day celebration. Ours was quiet but filled with wonderful food, flowing drink and lots of puppy cuddles (we still had one left on Christmas day but we are now a two dog family). And Santa stopped by too!
Chances are, like me, you have a fridge full of turkey dinner leftovers. I love leftovers. I'm sure I have mentioned this before. I'm pretty sure I cook purely to have leftovers. We toyed with the idea of an M&S Christmas dinner since there would only be three of us and it would take all the of stress out of Christmas day as all that needs to be done is a little maths to know when to put things in the oven and when to take them out (so only a little stressful - I hate maths). All the trays and tins can be thrown away and there's very little cleanup. But the downfall - no leftovers. It's nice to just pile up a plate with last night's dinner but what I really like to do it create an entirely new dish. Nothing fancy - just something a little different than the day before.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm blogging about something too simple - not interweb worthy (though there is A LOT of stuff out there that isn't quite web worthy so...) but if someone hadn't shown me then I couldn't show you. My roommate at university introduced me to this fine mashed potato delight. This is a perfect midnight snack. All that is required is leftover mash, a chopped onion and some grated cheese. Then just fry the onion until browned, add the mash and fry that too until it gets brown and crispy and finally stir in the cheese just before serving. I douse it in ketchup. Perfectly comforting. Though it doesn't pose well for photographs.
I also whipped up a little quiche when some friends stopped by for lunch today. A little sceptical when I first saw this in a Morrison's free magazine about a year ago because one of the ingredients is frozen chips but I gave it a go and was glad I did. Easy and delicious - my favourite combination. I would have used leftover roast potatoes but I had those with breakfast yesterday - mmm hashbrowns.
So, just layer the bottom of a bread tin with frozen chips (or chopped roast potatoes), sprinkle some chopped ham on top (or bacon or sausage), add some grated cheese and top the whole thing off with a mixture of beaten eggs, cream and spinach. I baked it for about a half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius - until the topped had puffed out and was golden brown. I used a wax paper liner in the bread tin to be able to pull the quiche easily from the tin and I sliced it once cooled slightly.Went down a treat with my 1 year old goddaughter, who gobbled up two slices, and everyone else enjoyed it as well.
You might be thinking, wow that picture is so clear and in focus and wondering if I've stolen it off the web or something (or not). But it is and it's mine. And it didn't require any strategic flashlighting. A little hint to what Santa brought me for Christmas. I'll recap our holly-days tomorrow; what we ate, drank and even a little impromptu Boxing day shopping. I know you're dying to know! For now I'll get back to taking pictures of "nothing" as the husband puts it. And well, these two.
That'a how my Ma made hash browns from leftover potatoes - they were the best! Never had twiggy has browns or nuggety ones when we had mashed hashed. The stuff of my youth :)
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