Eating Dinner With My Family

The war on clutter continues.  Victory is in sight but still about a week away.  Tonight, I deliver a blow that I consider more of a stalemate.  I used a jar of harissa from the pantry I bought a while ago, but since I didn't finish it, it moved from a pantry combatant to a refrigerator combatant.  But I do not despair, one day soon, I will finish him off!  I did deviate a bit on this one.  I don't care much for the frisee or radicchio called for, and I had arugula so I used it.  I think I will use arugula for all future BLTs.  It was yummy!  I also used an extra tsp of the harissa.  My jar was not very hot, and I thought it could use some extra.  In fact we spooned some of the straight harissa on to the sandwich,  but I was under the impression it was pretty fiery usually.  I haven't cooked with it before, but I have had it in restaurants; sometimes the dish was hot, sometimes not.   I also forgot the ...

My husband wanted back in the kitchen, so I let him:).  He didn't want to do the post, so I cut him some slack and said I would do a brief one for him.  He cleaned up the extra pancetta I bought and the one loose head of broccoli we had lying around.  He also found this frozen pie crust in the freezer in the garage.  He is as happy as I with his critical blow to the food clutter!  I thought the end result was really yummy!  If I were to give any critique or advise, it would be to make sure that the pancetta was well rendered.  I am only saying that because 1 (yes only one) cube of pancetta was a bit rubbery.  Every other bit was perfect, chewy goodness.  I think that piece was just a bit larger than the others, and constitutes no mistake, but if you aren't familiar with pancetta, keep that in mind. He wrote down the recipe as he cooked it.  Will also take this moment to not complain about the sub par pictures he took, but I was out wit...

I am finding yet another advantage to this blog.  If I write it down here I seem to stick to it better.  I guess a public declaration keeps me honest;).  I was sorely tempted to just pick a recipe from the to try file and forget my war on the kitchen clutter, but I said to myself, you said you would do this so do it and don't give up yet.  (hey if this works, maybe I should write that I am getting a supermodel figure, write a best selling novel, open a successful restaurant and will make a million dollars!:)  So, I hit the pantry and the fridge with a serious blow.  I started with the pantry.  I have some corn husks in there from the last tamales I made.  Half a bag of something, a specialty something, has to go.  I remember the collards from my Front Porch Pickings Thanksgiving basket.  The tamale  we loved had kale; why not make that recipe but with the collards.  Oh and it will almost finish off that bag of masa in the pant...

I really dig Korean food.  I am still trying and learning, but so far, me likey!  Last night's meal wasn't the yummy goodness I associate with the Korean food I have tried, so I decide to try again.  Tonight's clean up item (see Sunday's post to read my declaration of war on kitchen clutter:) frozen meatballs.  I know, I know.  Why, in the name of sanity, would I have purchased such a thing??  Well, sanity had nothing to do with it and lets move on.  So, what was I going to do with my little processed balls of meat?  I head to the web and look up different Korean sauces, and find a wing glaze I think will work nicely. (The recipe for the wings I based my meatballs off of can be seen here .)  I'm a little embarrassed to say they were delicious!  The prefab meatballs also made this supremely easy.  The hardest part was the 3 minutes I grated ginger.  (tip:  buy ginger root, peel it, wrap it in plastic wrap, and freeze ...

If you read my previous post, you will know I am a woman on a mission.  Every meal, I vow, to get rid of something cluttering up my pantry or fridge!  Now, I can't get rid of too much in one meal if I want it to taste good, but one thing must go!  Today, being Meatless Monday, I am getting rid of an ancient piece of dried kelp.  I don't think it is the seaweed called for in this omelet, but in it goes!  Unfortunately, the kelp was the part of the dish that made it kind of meh.  Mostly because it was one long sheet.  I think I would have preferred it shredded up and mixed in, or something less massive.  However it gets made, it needs a sauce.  I used a little soy and sriracha.  It sure looked pretty, but the flavor a bit less so.  I love the idea of a rolled omelet.  Next time I make one, I am trying it rolled.  My darling husband cooked tonight, so I hope it wasn't too difficult.  He didn't say it was Korean Rolled...

I have leftover odds and ends I need to use up.  A couple of potatoes rolling around in a drawer, a random onion, and some almost empty cartons of chicken broth.  I bought the broccoli and chicken for tonight's dinner, but the rest of the ingredients were just taking up space in my kitchen. In the upcoming days, I am going to have to be doing the culinary equivalent of jazz improv just to get rid of the crap I have accumulated.  And I do mean crap.  I am all about fresh food and hate processed food, but I find my self continually, for no sane reason, buying the stuff I will avoid eating or using.  For example, I saw bags of frozen meatballs, BOGO, and I thought, hey for the tailgating party, knowing full well I was planning on sliders.  I went to the store sick, and canned soup was on sale.  What do I do, oh hey this will be good for me and I stock up.  I really hate most canned products.  I can taste the can, but that didn't stop m...

A great recipe for leftover ham and who couldn't use a salad the day after Thanksgiving;).  We have had this salad at the Columbia restaurant in St. Augustine and we loved it.  Then, some years later, we were in a cabin in North Carolina with some family and they had recreated the salad for dinner one night. It had become one of our family recipes and we all love it.  It is super easy and the dressing is wonderful on any salad.  If you have kids that require some extra calories or carbs, we add a baguette and butter for them.  Not only is is a great use of leftover Thanksgiving ham, but we had a lovely oriental salad mix from the Front Porch Picking basket.  Normally the salad is made with romaine, and it is great that way, but also wonderful with the mixed greens.  The recipe is a little vague because it was never written down properly and I hate to now assign an arbitrary measurement now, but for the sake of, some, clarity, I will throw out a m...