Even after all these years living here, a July 4th in the Bay, with its fog never really feels right, so we rarely make plans for much unless its a bbq here at the house.
But this year, we made no plans, since we both were planning to work Monday, and again on Wednesday, I opted for some kitchen time.
First, off it was protein breakfast prep for the next few days with my super simple egg “muffins” (aka no flour) with leftover grilled chicken and veggies from last night.
That will cover us for breakfast for a few days (and they freeze well by the way).
Then having snagged some of my pal Bryan’s left over Irish mashed potatoes from book club, I repurposed them as “Irish potato hash cakes” and topped off with a few cherry tomatoes right from my own plant.
For dinner, I put in to bake a “Cheese Quick Bread” from Martha Stewarts collection. Her recipe for Cheddar Bread is the basis for it and can be found here: http://www.marthastewart.com/1165536/cheddar-bread. My only change was using a combination of types of Cheddars. The recipe is easy and fast to mix up, but with a solid 50 min bake and cool down time it’s a think ahead deal.
But once cooled, the part I like is it can be sliced thin and topped with jam, meat, sliced apples or pears, drizzled with honey or even more cheese. Sliced thicker it can be used as a “dunker” with soups and stews. Or as I found out becomes a great alternative bread option for Italian Panzanella Salad, a traditional salad that used cubes of hard bread with tomatoes and dressing. In this case, I used the leftovers from pickled cucumber & tomato salsa from the other night.
Leftovers for dinner just carries the repurpose theme with a cold chicken & veg salad. The final “re-purpose ” was adding fresh corn and tomatoes to go with the grilled tri-tip on Tuesday. While Mr. Dino gets ready for the fireworks.
