I consider myself a decent cook. And by staying home with Mimi, I've had some extra opportunities to improve my skills. I don't tend to do anything fancy - 9 times out of 10 it would be wasted on a finicky toddler and an exhausted wife - but I do like to experiment, and there's no better way than with leftovers.
Our fridge always has a few tidbits, a few remainders, that have no use alone, but could fill out a more complete meal. I genuinely enjoy rummaging through our stores putting together different combinations that may just result in a decent dinner on the table. Mimi, of course, loves to lend a hand. In addition to yanking every glass bottle out of the refrigerator and dangling them over the tile floor - she's innately brilliant at this - Mimi's wonderful at selecting (and filthifying) all the pans I'll need.
Cooking is a tough job, though, so Mimi likes to take an occasional break. This time it's with a Porsche. Wish that I could do the same.
The other night, with Sumie on call and coming home late, I needed to come up with something I could serve to Mimi around 7pm, but would keep until 10 or 11 at night. I'd be making it from whatever we had in the fridge. After some serious rummaging, here's what I had.
- One pound of rib-eye steak (frozen)
- Romaine lettuce
- Croutons
- Mayonnaise
- A dribble of Caesar dressing
- A bag of pistachios
- Havarti cheese
Not much - some bell peppers, mushrooms, or corn would've been nice as well - but enough to get the job done. I decided to make a steak salad. Mimi could have some of the steak with her dinner and I could prepare the salad, but not mix it until Sumie got home so that it'd be fresh. It was coming together. But a steak salad with just lettuce, dressing, cheese, and croutons is lacking. We had no bacon (if in doubt, add bacon) no blue cheese, no red or fried onions. Nothing that could, for lack of a better term, add a bit of zing. Struggling for a solution, that's when I hit upon the pistachios. "Hell," I thought, "Why don't I candy them? That'll work!"
Naturally, I had never candied anything in my life, but that didn't stop me. I poured a few spoonfuls of sugar into a non-stick skillet, threw in a chunk of butter, and cooked it on low heat until I had what looked like caramel. In went the pistachios (which Mimi had helped me shell). I mixed for a bit, again on low heat, and then, with all the pistachios fully coated, let it rest. Half an hour later I came back to find pistachio brittle! Buttery, salty, sweet, and good. I set some aside for snacks and the crushed the rest to mix in with the salad.
After grilling the steak on the barbecue, I let it rest a while and chopped the lettuce and grated cheese. I then made a salad dressing from the remaining Caesar dressing, mayo, garlic, and fresh ground pepper. With the salad prep finished, the steak had cooled at it was time to feed Mimi. I sliced up a bit of the steak (Costco rib-eye is delicious and very reasonably priced), shredded some lettuce, and warmed some frozen peas and carrots (the girl must have her veggies).
Mimi loved her dinner at 7:00 and Sumie, who didn't get home until 10:30 that night, appreciated coming home to some fresh food (if not such a fresh husband).
We cooked often in NYC, but after moving to SF, it's three meals a day at least 5 days a week. The change has been a good one, particularly for Mimi. One thing hasn't changed, though. She must have juice with dinner.
She'll start eating just fine, but if she doesn't have her juice after five minutes or so there will be hell to pay. One can hear screams of "Jooosh!" even from the far reaches of the back bedroom (where I sometimes hide). And so, while we don't need to worry so much about the food in our fridge, the drinks are a different story. There are no leftovers for juice!
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