Tuesday, November 28, 2006

making up meals

I am so glad I have been graced with an ability to cook. Not just the ability to follow a recipe and have it turn out good either. But the talent to make up entire new recipes out of stuff we have in the fridge and pantry. Case in point. I'm so sick of eating turkey in the style of a Thanksgiving dinner (i.e. turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, gravy, etc.), but we still have turkey left over from Thanksgiving. I made a turkey soup for the freezer (by boiling the carcass to make stock and what not) but really wanted to do something completely different with some of the turkey we had in the fridge. So tonight I just went for it and made a sort of mexican "paella" type casserole. Here's what I did:

Made two cups of brown rice in our rice cooker (1 cup rice to 2 cups water). Diced up half each of a red pepper, green pepper and onion along with a couple of cloves of garlic. Sauteed all of those for a few minutes and transfered them to a plate. In the same pan I added some diced turkey and a bit of chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt, and red pepper flakes. I warmed those through stirring to coat & season the turkey. Then I added the last of some medium salsa we had in the fridge along with a couple of small ladles of hot salsa some friends of ours made. That didn't seem like enough liquid to me so I added the juice from a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes and half of the tomatoes (I'll use the rest for a sausage, peppers, and onions pasta I'm making later in the week). Once that was heated through I added the rice and all the veggies back to the pan and stirred it through to coat and heat. I poured all of that into an 11x7 baking pan (which I sprayed with Pam for easy cleanup). I'm going to top it with shredded cheddar and throw it in a 350° oven to melt and brown the cheese once Josh gets home from school. To go along with it I made some coleslaw (nice crisp, creamy, cold cole slaw to contrast the spicy casserole). It's going to be yummy!

13 comments:

Sam said...

I just wanted to say that I found your blog searching for a picture of a cat penis. You probably don't want to know why, but I swear it's not dirty. Or not really dirty. I read your post about ornaments and tradition and I thought it was beautiful.

Lynda said...

I love to make up recipes too. My hubby hasn't been disappointed yet.

Cat penises?! That is a surprising way to get a new reader. :)

Anonymous said...

Paella was delightful!

Cat penises not only sounds odd, when written out it looks odd.

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

Sam—Oddly enough, lots of people pop up on my stat counter from that cat penis picture. It was just part of a joke when I was referencing the Monty Python song "Isn't it great to have a penis". I took all the pictures down and think I even deleted the post but they still get here via that search. To each his own. Thanks for the lovely comment on the ornament post though.

Lynda—Would Dan tell you if it sucked? Josh would let me know, but thankfully that's not the case 99.9% of the time. Except that one bad chicken incident (but that wasn't my fault—there was a nasty tumor like thing in the chicken when we cut into it). So, technically I'm 100% good on the meal front.

Josh—Thanks baby! I aim to please.

Blogarita said...

I love to cook this way. I plan my menus out in advance, but I usually leave a "free" night every week or two just to use up the leftovers...hopefully in a creative way.

I learned to write down what I do as I do it, though. Otherwise, I'll end making something we love and have no idea how to duplicate it.

Your paella sounds wonderful!

Naynayfazz said...

That sounds really yummy. I may have to try it, well minus the cole slaw. I am not a fan. Let us know how it is.

Anonymous said...

Cat penises are hard to find on the cat too. I've got two males and I've never seen their wangs. Interesting.

I've learned to cook that way out of neccessity. I never have money for groceries and I've learned that everything's better with a little onion and garlic. Your recipe sounds delish. I'll have to give it a go.

Jen said...

I've been doing that alot, latelyl, too!

Yours sounds good!

Anonymous said...

I'd like to point out that Paella is not in fact Mexican, but rather Spanish.

Also, from wikipedia:
The male cat's penis has spines which point backwards. Upon withdrawal of the penis, the spines rake the walls of the female's vagina.

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

Alex—I said "some sort of mexican paella type casserole" which was not really paella either. I never claimed it to be an authentic dish of sorts. Did you not notice the title of the post is "making up meals"? Here's an addition to that post title: "and meal names".

Also, regarding the wiki: Was that really necessary?

Anonymous said...

I found it relevant.

Naynayfazz said...

How did I miss the first comment about cat penises? And when did u blog about that?

That last bit of info that Alex wrote literally made me get goose bumps. I will NEVER look at my male cat the same way ever. ever. again.

Cupcake Blonde said...

I can't believe I missed the cat penis post. I feel denied.

That dish sounds yummy. I wish I could cook.