We're staying at home...hostages to a vicious virus... hopefully we are well stocked for a longer than 2 week siege...we also need to use up the bits and dregs left in jars, fridge drawers and fruit bins before things spoil...or just to make room ...but trying hard to use up everything and not let anything go to waste.
My friend Karen did something I thought was pure genius... she found she had multiple jars of jam and jelly in the fridge, none full but all still good. To save space and be thrifty, she put them all together in a pan, brought it to a boil and recooked them, making mixed fruit jam. She had strawberry, red raspberry, and black cherry, but you can do that with whatever combination of different jams and jellies you might have on hand. Karen washed the largest of the jars and stored the mix back in it.
Yesterday I found I had a dozen Granny Smith apples and 4 or 5 pears that would soon spoil if I didn't do something with them...so I cut them all in chunks, put it all in my Dutch oven, added a bit of leftover apple juice that was in the fridge, a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar, and cinnamon... Cooked them down to a pulp and mashed it all into 'a fruit butter'... I got enough to fill a 32 ounce jar and a smaller jar I gave our next door neighbor.
Are bananas rotting? Banana bread is simple to make and delicious...
Easy Peasy Banana Bread
1/2 cup mayonnaise or dressing
In a bowl mix together mashed bananas, mayo and egg. In a separate bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and pecans
Add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir just until combined. Note: The mixture will be very thick, do not over mix
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Tip: when greasing the pan, use butter and use granulated sugar instead of flour to coat the sides. It gives the surface a slightly crusty finish giving you a nice satisfying little crunch when you bite into it.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from pan and allow to cool completely. Can be wrapped and frozen.
If you have bits and pieces of leftover veggies and chicken, or beef, pot pies are easy and delicious...you can use a combination of fresh or canned veggies, if that's what you have on hand.
Homemade Chicken (or beef) Pot Pie
3 chicken thighs - boneless, skinless (or bits and pieces of leftover chicken or beef)
3 medium-small potatoes, quartered
3 medium-small carrots, cut in several chunks
1 small onion - diced small
1 shallot - diced small
1 garlic clove - minced
I cleaned/cut off all the fat globs left on the chicken. Placed chicken in medium saucepan with water and added the peeled and quartered potatoes and peeled and chunked carrots...Of course, if the chicken or beef you have on hand, are leftover, just ignore this part...
Saute the onion, shallot and garlic in just a little bit on olive oil, just long enough to sweeten the taste, but not brown.
When the chicken and veggies are cooked, add the sautéed onion, shallot and garlic combination, season with salt and pepper (*) and cook down to a very small amount of chicken broth. Take the chicken and potatoes out and dice small and cut the carrots in small medallions.
To the chicken and veggies combination I added petit pois leftover from a previous meal, and the leftover Broccoli-Cheddar Cream Soup from a couple of days before...and heated it just a little bit to combine with the little bit of chicken broth and to meld the flavors.
Use your favorite pie crust recipe for the top. I used a Bisquick dough for the topping and I did not put a bottom to ours.
I love coming up with new ways of using leftovers... and sometimes cannot duplicate my efforts because it all depends on what I have on hand...!
