Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

Will this be a weekly feature?  Maybe.  But probably not.  I didn't even post once last week so that tells ya a lot.  Will it be weird, yet wonderful?  I think so.  Is it Wednesday - for most of the world, it is.

I wrote about these fantastic roasted potatoes a couple of weeks ago and had some leftover which inspired my wacky creation.  However, in the interest of food safety, I must be clear that these posts (though I would like to be more up to date) are not in real time.  I ate the potatoes the day after making them, not a week and a half later.  Though I'm sure a few days old wouldn't hurt.  As my mom used to tell me when I frantically called her with food age questions, "Is it green (and shouldn't be)?  Does it smell bad? Then I'm sure it's fine."  Those are definitely words to live by when cleaning out the fridge for weird and wonderful leftover meals.

Here's what I made:

I quickly fried up the potatoes and reheated some spaghetti sauce and then layered everything together (a little sideways so the potatoes didn't get soggy from the sauce) : potatoes, spinach, sauce and crumbled goat's cheese on top.  It was delicious.  I'm not sure I'd purposely set out to make this from scratch but the next time I have these items in my fridge I will give it another go.  All things I love in one bowl (not the spinach - that was for a bit of greenery - I don't dislike it but I wouldn't say I loooooove it).

Tell me - what's your weird and wonderful creation?  It doesn't have to be made on a Wednesday (this wasn't).  Something you thought might be hit or miss but was a straight up hit from the start...

Smoked Salmon Spaghetti

I may have mentioned once or twice (or three times) how much I like leftovers.  I like the challenge of turning one meal into something completely different, though sadly, not being able to replicate it ever again, because the same ingredients might not be available and I never ever write things down.  Until now.  Blogging about what I've made ensures I have a written record of my latest creation. 

About a month ago, I threw a dinner party for some girls I used to work with.  I had quite a few leftovers since I only used a little of the salmon to make the blinis and made an entire tray of roasted Mediterranean vegetables.  What followed was a dish so simple I'm surprised I haven't made it before.  I fried a little garlic and onion in some oil, tossed in some of the vegetables and the smoked salmon and threw in a few green olives.  Mixed with some whole wheat spaghetti, this was absolutely divine.  For something I just threw together it felt like I was eating in a restaurant; one where the dress code is very lax and so is the health code - think track pants and two dogs sitting next to me.

I won't be waiting for leftovers to make this again.  

Christmas Dinner Leftovers

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.

Lamb Leftovers Take 2

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I still had loads of lamb leftover from my roast on Sunday and not wanting another wrap I had a look in the fridge and cupboards to see what I could come up with.  I love mixing up a lot of different ingredients without a recipe to follow.  It's fun to see how it turns out.  Sometimes it's fantastic but other times it goes straight in the bin!

I thought some sort of tagine would work nicely with the ingredients I pulled from the fridge.  Here's what I had to work with:

 And these are the spices I thought might work best:

Ah - just noticed the spelling mistake on my spice jars! The horror!

The roast vegetables (butternut squash, red onion, carrots and garlic - still in the skin) were also from Sunday's dinner and the sundried tomato paste was starting to near its expiry date.  This way I could use up all the leftovers one go.

Here's what I did:

Saute finely chopped onions in a little oil for a few minutes until soft.  Add a tsp each of cumin, turmeric and cinnamon.  Take roasted garlic out of the flesh and mash in with onions and spices.  Thinly slice red chili (or finely chop- however you like it and include the seeds for extra spice).  Chop tomato in sections and add to the pan.  Toss in the lamb already cut into chunks.  Add one can of chopped tomatoes and 2 tbsp of sundried tomato puree.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until desired thickness.  Add the vegetables in at the end as they are pre cooked.  (For uncooked veg I would par boil or add in at the beginning with some stock to allow them to cook through)

I also tossed in a handful of raisins and dried cranberries (they are already pre mixed in a container as I have them on cereal).  This added a little sweetness to the spice and was really good.

I ate this over couscous. Really delicious.  It's fun to play around with different flavours and I hate waste.  So I gave myself a little pat on the back for this one.  Nothing ended up in the bin and there was enough for 2 servings too!  Win win.

Lamb Leftovers

Last Sunday I made a roast dinner because I had bought a huge frozen leg of lamb and there were actually people here to eat it.  My brother was visiting before he heads off to France for the winter.  It was delicious but try as we might we were unable to finish it off.  And then he was gone and I was stuck with loads of leftovers. 

I didn't fancy eating the roast dinner as it was the night before so rummaging in my fridge I found some wraps (it's only a small fridge - there really wasn't that much rummaging to be done) and thought a lamb wrap of some type might be nice for lunch.  I took to Google for inspiration and realised I was missing a vital ingredient for a lamb wrap - tzatziki.  I had a looky loo to see how I might make my own - cucumber? check! (I actually had 2) Everything else?  Nope!  So I improvised.

 I had some sour cream (the base of tzatziki is supposed to be natural yogurt but hey, it's in the same food group) and herb and garlic cream cheese.  I stirred about 2 tbsp of each together until blended well and added finely chopped cucumber (about half).  I shredded some lettuce, thinly sliced some red onion and chili and then layered everything on the wrap, heating the lamb through while I fried the leftover roast potatoes to make hash browns.  Then I dug in!

It was delicious and super easy.  Sure, nothing probably beats the real thing but you gotta do what ya gotta do!  There was still some lamb left after this meal and I'll tell you all about that concoction in tomorrow's post.  Anyone else get creative with lamb leftovers or totally fudge a recipe by substituting pretty much every ingredient?  Do tell!