Cleaning the Fridge 1

   Sometimes things get lost, left behind and generally forgotten. That is why every once and a while I will make a meal from Cleaning the Fridge. So yesterday was one of those days. I had been gone on holiday for about 4 days and when I got home I realized that there were a few items that were close to expiring or giving up the ghost so I gathered them to see what I could make. 

-some Broccoli starting to change color to yellow.

-some wilted cauliflower

-an onion starting to dry out

-wilted celery

-a sad looking carrot. 

-half a cup of left over potato bacon soup (previous incarnation of a hash brown and bacon breakfast)

-1/2 cup of whipping cream just past the expiry date

-Some avocado's that were just ready 

-1/4 cup chicken broth

-Bread loaf that was starting to dry out. 

So I pulled out some frozen chicken sandwich slices and thawed them. 

Chopped up the veggies and started to saute them with olive oil.

Added the left over soup, stock and whipping cream to the veggies with a can of cream of chicken soup. 

Used some homemade spices (thyme, garlic powder, parsley), sea salt & pepper in the soup to season it. 

Took the bread and added mayo, chicken slices, avocado and cheddar cheese, buttered the outside  and then grilled like a panini until both sides were brown. 

In the end I had a delicious supper of Cream of Vegetable Soup and Grilled Chicken Avocado Panini! This is something I would have paid $12 to $17 dollars for in a new trendy restaurant. Instead it didn't cost me anything but the time to use up items I had already paid for rather than throwing them away. 

This is the left over soup that I now can have for dinner today or if I freeze it then dinner for another day. 

 I also saved the small bits of onion and celery that were left over to dry for spices. 

Here is the drying trays I put them on and then I just leave them on top of my fridge to dry out naturally. There is not enough to warrant starting up the whole dehydrator. 

And here is the end result. 

                                           Celery Salt                            Dried Onion Powder

 I use my spice grinder (a very old coffee grinder from Superstore) and when I have enough to fill the cap I grind it up and add it to the jar. 

~The Pasta Salad Reincarnation~

~The Pasta Salad Reincarnation~

   We had a not so amazing pasta salad at an event at work the other day. It was a children's event but the mushrooms were whole and huge and the carrot circles were at least 2 inches thick and large, giant pieces of peppers and onions and very little dressing, just greasy. Overall unpleasant but... the pasta wasn't over cooked and since the dressing was so flavorless I thought "Hey! I can re-purpose this! "

    So, I removed all the soggy cucumbers, added a can of cream of mushroom soup, some previously cooked ground beef from the freezer, salt & pepper and covered it with crumbled Gruyere cheese and slices of Colby cheese before baking it in the oven. Tah-dah! Delicious Casserole. A happy recreation using only what was in my house already. Gotta love free leftovers. 

The Lowly Turnip

   I am a very lucky person. What I mean by that is that when there are left overs from an event, often the staff and myself can divide it up and take it home. Just recently we had a whole mess of mashed turnips left over so I packaged it into Tupperware and let the staff know to help themselves. I ended up taking home 2 medium sized containers with turnips home.
  I had ideas of a creamy turnip soup when I brought them home but it wasn't until the second container that I was able to make this happen. Container number 1 was just eaten with butter for several meals. I don't follow recipe's very well and tend to cook with a pinch of this and a dab of that so this is my recipe process for you to follow.

SAVORY CREAMED APPLE TURNIP & CHEDDAR SOUP

  I had in mind a creamy turnip and cheese soup. Since these mashed turnips were fairly sweet and not bitter at all, this would be a good flavor to combine with cheese. I was picturing a cheese with a nutty finish and a smooth creamy taste. What I imagine, and what actually happens are not always the same thing. lol. While shopping today I found canned coconut milk for .99 cts per can. So when I got home this is what I did. 

-put the mashed turnips into the soup pot.
-added the can of coconut milk... this didn't thin the turnips out that much as i anticipated.
-added about 1/3 cup whipping cream...still to thick
-added about 1 1/2 cups 2% milk... now it's a bit thin

Maybe I should see if I can find a recipe online? I couldn't find a recipe that paired turnips with cheese but I did notice that apples & onions were used often and I had an apple that needed to be used up so...

-chopped up the apple and 1/2 white onion, sauteed in olive oil.
-While the apples were cooking I decided to add some "base" to increase the mouth feel of the soup and add balance. I squirted liquid chicken oxo (about 1/4 cup) into the soup and stirred it in.
-I found the "fancy" cheese in the freezer. The oka didn't freeze well and smelled off ( I am not a picky person so if I thought it smelled off it definitely is) so unfortunately I had to send it to the great garbage can (I hate wasting).
-Since a hint of cheese was still on my mind I pulled out the Marble cheese from the fridge and shredded it (1 1/2 cups) and added it to the soup with the apples and onions.
-I pulled out the hand blender and went to town, making sure all items were blended.
-I decided to taste test the soup and it was very creamy, sweet and delicious but I decided to add a sprinkle of pepper and salt.
-I let it simmer on a very low heat (2) as the thickness of the soup made it sputter a hot burning magma of liquid and I don't like to get burnt.

While this was cooking, I made some toast with butter and when it was ready I had a delicious hot soup with toast for supper.

Tomorrow I will take some to a good friend I am going to visit.  :)