Getting Creative with Leftovers.

When you open your refrigerator door and stare into the abyss… it makes you want to experiment. At least with me it does. I don’t like leaving covered dishes of leftovers in my fridge and waiting until they grow mold. I ain’t Old MacDonald and my fridge ain’t a farm… E-I-E-I-O. No fuzzy stuff growing in there because cooking at home means you get creative in order to beat the high costs of groceries or eating out.

I ain’t French, and don’t really speak it. But anything like this ought to have a fancy name, right ? So let’s call this dish…

Petite Lupin de Fromage et du Pain.

Which means in English Little Bunny with Cheese and Bread. Hahahahahahahaha. What can I say ? I'm not a total barbarian.

Earlier today I broke out some more of my long term storage items, and ended up baking a loaf of rye black bread. (Click here) Next… I scrounged around in my cabinets and saw a jar of three color quinoa. Hmmmm….. my brain started churning… the gears grinding.

So…. Half a cup of quinoa went into the InstantPot with a whole cup of bone broth from the rabbit I recently cooked. (Click here) I added some turmeric, black pepper, and some red pepper flakes. Cooked for 1 minute on high pressure and let it release naturally.

Time to make some gravy just in case this odd combo may be kind of dry. It’s pretty simple. Add some butter and flour to a pot on the stove. Melt the butter and blend the flour to make a roux (gravy base). Next… a tablespoon full of chicken Better than Bullion to make 16 ounces of broth. Then I started pouring dry sherry to taste in and stir until the consistency you want. Don’t worry. Not too much alcohol, but it makes a really, really tasty gravy. Kendra gave me this recipe.

 Now I know what you might be thinking — what kind of gastrointestinal abomination is this ?

Hey ! Why not ? Up here in Popsickle Country (Maine), the Canadians just over the border from us put gravy on French fries and call it “poutine”.

I cut a slab of black bread and scooped some of the quinoa over it. Then I added some chunks of last night’s rabbit meat I had cooked. Waste not, want not with leftovers.

The whole thing gets covered in the sherry gravy, then a light sprinkling of cheddar cheese. Why not ? I had some cheese left over too, and don’t want to waste it after all. Now I know what you might be thinking — what kind of gastrointestinal abomination is this ? Well….It's called getting creative with your leftovers and I liked it so much I went in for a second helping. The dish has almost everything. Bread for carbs, and gravy too. Quinoa for… I don’t know…is quinoa a vegetable or grain ? Quinoa is actually seeds from a plant, but it tastes good. Meat group is covered by the rabbit, and cheese covers the dairy part.

Winters in Maine are kind of rough and long. I’m a cheapskate and keep the thermostat down to about 55*F, because I don’t have money to burn for heating oil. So it’s sweaters and long johns in the house. I run a fireplace at night, but you burn serious calories in the Maine winter just twitching muscles to stay warm. Plus I’m old and need to maintain my warm layer of fat like an old walrus. I’m sure you don’t want to imbibe in the glut of calories something like this might pile on…. But this ain’t summertime. You ain’t gotta be worried about your bikini bod for the beach. After chasing this down with Guinness, I tend to pile up on the bed at night under some wool blankets, and huddle against the dog for heat.

There’s a trick to surviving a Maine winter. You curl up between two black bear furs and hibernate until Spring. The real trick is to make sure you don’t wake those two black bears up while there’s still snow on the ground outside.