kitchenhacker.net

Yesterday, I made a pot roast.

Today, I used the leftover sauce to make a pasta risotto that formed the basis of the world's beefiest mac and cheese.

I read a lot of food blogs. One of the original purposes of this blog was for it to be a place to collect the best ideas from them. I need to do that more. Today, over at playing with fire and water, I saw just such a great idea: using leeks to make vegetarian sausage casings. Think about it: Leeks, like onions, have rings. Leeks, unlike onions, are long. Thus, the rings form a series of concentric tubes. Cut off either end, and what do you have? Tubes. Perfect for stuffing things in.

I'm not certain why I decided that I needed to make champagne ice cream for New Year's Eve.

It was a good idea. No. A great idea. Definitely great.

'Tis the season to find eggnog in your fridge.

Truth be told, I never have a problem finishing eggnog off... unless you count "too quickly" as a problem. Still, it is (barely) conceivable to me that someone might find themselves with too much eggnog.

It is more conceivable to me that someone might say, "I like eggnog. What can I do with it besides drink it (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Tonight's dinner was fairly simple, but quite tasty. I took a couple of chicken breasts, sliced them up, and sauteed them with butter until they were beginning to get nicely browned. While they were cooking I added 2/3 of a medium shallot and a handful of pecans. While that was going, I lightly toasted some orzo in a sautee pan, added the rest of the shallot, and doused it with some pecan liquor. Then I poured in some boiling water, salted it, and let it simmer until done. I added the drained orzo to the chicken. The result was very brown, so I decided to add a bit of frozen spinach.

Sometimes, when I'm in the grocery store, I look at what other people have in their carts and imagine what they are going to make... or what I could make with what they have. On occasion, this leads to good ideas. Other time, not so much. Yesterday, the woman in front of me in line had nothing but: