Conserving Food - Using Leftovers Creatively

I apologize to my loyal followers for not getting these recipes posted sooner, but I've been canning like crazy for the past week and well, I guess you could say I was in a pickle! - Literally.

I do want to share a tip or two about conserving food. If you're like most cooks, every night, you have leftovers from dinner. It might not be enough for a full meal, but those bits and pieces can become a future masterpiece.

Always keep a stock of quart size and smaller ziplock bags in your kitchen. When you have leftover meat, whether it be poultry, beef or fish, as you're cleaning up, slice or dice the leftover meat. Put it in a bag, press out the air and label it with a freezer marker. Keep these little bags in a basket in your freezer. They come in very handy when you are making homemade soup or casseroles. Just toss them in to your recipe and no more wasted meat! Who hasn't roasted a chicken or turkey and had tons of leftover meat. Don't toss it. It only takes a few minutes to pull the meat from the bones and freeze it.

This tip works great for vegetables too. When you have a few spoonfuls of leftover corn, carrots or other veggies, store them in a freezer container or bag. When the bag is full, defrost it in the microwave and stir in into your pot of soup or stew.

There is no easier or faster weeknight dinner than to heat a pot of chicken or beef stock (canned is fine), toss in a few bags of leftover meat, a few bags of leftover vegetables and in no time you'll have a delicious soup.Thicken it up with a little cornstarch and water and voila! stew!

Don't throw away those fresh vegetable trimmings either! Keep a gallon size freezer bag in your freezer. Toss in the ends you cut from onions and carrots, the leaves from celery, the green tops of leeks and any other trimmings you may have. When the bag is full, place a whole chicken in a pot. Cover with water and add all of your vegetable trimmings (you don't even have to defrost them!)Throw in a couple of unpeeled, whole garlic cloves and a teaspoon of peppercorns Simmer for about an hour and strain. Remove the chicken from the bones and add to the stock. Stir in a bag of noodles and cook until tender and you have the world's best chicken noodle soup!

Do you have other creative ways of saving leftovers? Please share them!

A Few Words About Food Waste on Earth Day...

How much food do we waste? The statistics are staggering. It is estimated that 30% of the food we produce, or about $48.3 billion annually is thrown away in the United States. But, this is only a small part of the picture.15-35 percent of crops are lost in the field and another 10-15 percent is discarded during transportation. It doesn't end there. The average American family of 4 throws away an estimated 122 pounds of food each and every month. A study conducted in 1995 estimated that 96.4 billion pounds of edible food is wasted each year. Not only are we throwing away the food, we are also throwing away the resources used in producing this food. As much as half of the water used to produce food is wasted. In layman's terms, that's enough water to fill the needs of 500,000 families for a year. Add in the cost of labor and transportation and those numbers climb significantly.

Where does all of this food go that we throw away? To landfills. What's wrong with that? Food biodegrades. Right? The problem is, when food degrades, it creates methane gas. Methane gas is 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2). While we worry about what plastic and inorganic materials in the landfills are doing to the earth, we seldom think of the effect of the tons and tons of food we are throwing away every day.

It all seems so overwhelming doesn't it? How can just your little family make a difference? It can make a HUGE difference.Have a pound of ground beef sitting in the fridge that you forgot about and now it's went bad? Just throw it out, right? Did you know that it took 25,000 gallons of water to raise just one pound of beef for market?

Your family can start making changes today. We all need to be more concious about what we buy and how we use it. We buy far more food than our family can use. With careful menu planning, smart shopping and creative use of leftover food, we can turn all of this around.

Over the next several days, I will be posting some recipes that creatively use the leftovers that you probably have in your fridge right now. It's time to make a change. Change starts with you.

CONGRATULATIONS! Sue Compton from Delanco, NJ

It's the creme de la creme of cooking competitions and Pillsbury has made a new millionaire!

Congratulations to Sue Compton from Delanco, NJ for her winning entry. Here's her million dollar winning recipe:





Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups

INGREDIENTS

1 package (16 oz) Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ refrigerated sugar cookies (24 cookies)
4 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup Fisher® Chef’s Naturals® Chopped Walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup Hershey’s® semi-sweet chocolate baking chips
1/4 cup Smucker’s® Seedless Red Raspberry Jam
1 1/2 cups vanilla bean ice cream, softened
24 fresh raspberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray. Place 1 cookie dough round in each muffin cup. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
2. Place 2 teaspoons of the sugar in small bowl. Dip end of wooden spoon handle in sugar; carefully press into center of each cookie to make 1-inch-wide indentation. Cool completely in pan, about 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix walnuts and remaining 2 teaspoons sugar; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds, stirring after 30 seconds, until smooth.
4. Run knife around edges of cups to loosen; gently remove from pan. Dip rim of each cup into melted chocolate, then into walnut mixture. Place walnut side up on cookie sheet with sides.
5. In another small microwavable bowl, microwave jam uncovered on High about 15 seconds until melted. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon jam into each cup. Freeze cups about 5 minutes or until chocolate is set.
6. Spoon ice cream into cups, using small cookie scoop or measuring tablespoon. Top each cup with fresh raspberry. Store in freezer; let stand at room temperature 5 minutes before serving.

Pillsbury Bake-Off Winner Will Be Announced Today!

Well, it's finally here. The Superbowl for contest cooks. Pillsbury will announce the $1 Million winner of the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. They did things a bit differently this year. The category winners were chosen on Monday, April 12th. The finalists were all flown to Chicago to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show where the $1 Million Dollars will be awarded live. Here are a list of the finalist and the names of their recipes:

BREAKFAST AND BRUNCHES: Tomato-Basil Eggs Alfredo in Bread Baskets from Niki Plourde Gardner, MA

DINNER MADE EASY: Zesty Lime- Fish Tacos from Kellie White St. Louis, MO

ENTERTAINING APPETIZERS: Salmon Pecan-Crusted Tartlets from Evelyn Henderson Roseville, CA

SWEET TREATS: Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups from Sue Compton Delanco, NJ

These category winners wowed the judges... each receives $5,000 and a GE Profile™ Induction Free-Standing Range. One of these category winners will be named the $1 Million winner.

Be sure to tune in to Oprah today to find out who wins. As a previous finalist, I personally know what an incredible time these finalist are having and just how nervous they are right now. Enjoy the moment! you will never forget a second of this journey! It was definitely the time of my life. Pillsbury has a way of throwing an incredible party.

They never forget the previous finalists either. I received a Fed-Ex package this morning with an apron, a hot pad, a cookbook of all the finalist recipes, and lots of goodies from the sponsors. While they know those of us who didn't make the cut will be sobbing softly when the winner is announced, they made sure we were a part of the fun. Thanks Pillsbury!

Good Luck to the finalists and bring home the gold!

Grand Marnier French Toast

This delicious french toast is easy to make and will be a big hit. Grand Marnier is one of my favorite cooking ingredients. I add it to lots of different dishes to give them a sophisticated orange flavor.

Grand Marnier French Toast

5 eggs
Dash Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)
zest of one lemon
zest of one orange
Juice of one orange
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

1/4 cup canola oil
1 tbsp butter

In a baking pan, combine the first 5 ingredients. Mix well. Stir in milk, sugar and salt.
Heat skillet until butter is melted and oil is hot. Do not overheat or french toast will burn.
Dip slices of bread (see note) in batter. Place in heated oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown and crispy.
Drain on paper towel lined plate.
Sprinkle warm slices with powdered sugar and drizzle with real maple syrup.

Note: Any good, sturdy bread can be used for french toast. Brioche is an excellent choice. Purchase a loaf from the bakery and sliced to the desired thickness. When dipping bread slices in the egg mixture, allow it to soak up some of the liquid, but not enough for the bread to start to fall apart. The above will make about a standard loaf of french toast. If you are cooking for fewer people, simply cut the recipe in half, using 3 eggs.