Restaurant portions can be huge, so I’ll often end up with leftovers. Some people have a serious aversion to leftovers (I don’t get it), and others eat cold pizza or Chinese food for breakfast the next day (I don’t get that either).

My favorite thing to do with leftovers? Freeze them in small portions for work lunches. I’ve talked about my dedicated work lunch freezer drawer, and while most of it is home cooked, it’s great to bring along a memory from a favorite restaurant. Yesterday was the first afternoon warm enough to eat my lunch outside, and I enjoyed Eggplant and Shrimp with Garlic Sauce over rice, from Gold Stone. We’d been over a month ago and it was great to revisit the tender eggplant and flavorful sauce.

Another way to enjoy leftovers is by transforming them into another dish. We came home from Gold Stone with a lot of rice, so I made the extra into rice pudding – just simmer with milk, sugar, raisins, and spices for a half hour or so. Sometimes I’ll bring home a choice piece of meat or fish to eat on a salad the next day. If  you’re not fond of leftovers, why not make a completely new meal out of them?

It’s always a pleasure to unpack a delicious, healthy lunch on a Monday. Today’s was leftovers from a dinner I cooked on Saturday – I enjoyed it and thought I’d share the recipe.

Maybe this is blasphemy, but I think turkey is turkey and the sides are the exciting part – especially when your guests are not stodgy and you can play with flavors.

Last year we roasted potatoes, carrots, and brussels sprouts, and made creamed turnips and these two winners:

• Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
• Cornbread Stuffing

For cranberry sauce, I like to make a traditional cooked version as well as a fresh version with orange.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving sides?

I’ve made all of the components of this meal separately, but this weekend I thought I’d put them all together to make a fun, informal meal for guests. This is a low-stress dinner party because almost everything can be made ahead and you can supplement with store-bought extras like pita bread, olives, and a tasty feta (try the Hungarian feta from the deli case at Sonia’s). For dessert, pick up some good dates – or if you are lucky like us, one of your guests will bring a delicious olive oil cake.

Bonus: this makes for great leftovers. I have to admit that the photo below is actually the leftovers, which we ate tonight with a couple of friends!

Here are links to the recipes I used (or similar ones, because some of these live in my head):

• Hummus
• Baba Ganoush
• Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper Dip)
• Tabouli
• Cucumber Mint Yogurt Salad
• Cuminy Carrot Raisin Salad
• Ground Lamb Kabobs
• Yogurt Marinated Spiced Chicken

If you’re in the Providence area, we picked up most of our ingredients at these two stores:

•  Jerusalem Meat Market, 88 Rolfe Square, Cranston
• Sonia’s Near East, 816 Park Ave., Cranston

After a fishing trip to Alaska last year (which I still need to blog about), we have some large pieces of salmon in the freezer. As someone who rarely cooked fish before, this has given me a wonderful opportunity to try new recipes and cooking techniques.

The large pieces sometimes mean several days of salmon.  Crafting a new meal out of leftovers is a creative exercise of which I’m very fond!  Here’s how I got three delicious meals out of one generous piece of salmon.

Day 1
Dinner: White wine-poached salmon topped with Pungent Parsley and Caper Sauce.  Green and yellow beans almondine.

Day 2
Lunch: Salmon sandwiches on 7 Stars Olive Bread spread with leftover Parsley and Caper sauce.

Day 3
Brunch:  Salmon cake benedict on 7 Stars Olive Bread with bearnaise sauce.  The leftover salmon and sauce made 5 salmon cakes when mixed with some onion, egg, old bread, and spices.

Sometimes, leftovers can be quite luxurious.

Pictured above: A salmon sandwich I made on olive bread – albiet a different one

This St. Patrick’s day, we were on a plane to Kansas. Today, a half month later, I finally got around to cooking our belated Irish dinner. I tried two new recipes that were definitely worth repeating.

• Lamb’s liver with whiskey cream sauce from The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews via the Guardian
• Irish heritage cabbage from AllRecipes
• Irish soda bread (I use a mixture of recipes depending what’s at hand – I always include currants and caraway)

Halloween is a favorite holiday in this house, so we hosted a dinner party last night – 8 spooky courses!  One of the advantages of this menu was that much of it could be prepared ahead, so we didn’t have to stay hidden in the kitchen for long.

The table setting, my favorite chef with 3 Liter Duvel, and Escargot

Aperitif: Unicum (drank out of test tubes)
Snack: BBQ Spiced Meal Worms

1: Chouriço Assado -Chouriço set aflame in a terracotta dish (ours is shaped like a pig)
Duvel – we got a GIANT 3 liter bottle!

2: Escargot
White Wine

3: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
White Wine

4: Blood Red Romaine Caesar Salad
White Wine

- Intermezzo Spoon of Rhubarb Sorbet -

5: Black (squid ink) fettuccine with lemon and caviar
White Wine

6: Roasted spindly carrots and squash
Red Wine

7: Steak Tartare
Red Wine

8: Chocolate Ganache Mini-Tartlets with white chocolate tombstones
Port

- Coffee -

I’m an IT professional, and people constantly ask if I studied Computer Science in college.  Nope, I majored in…German.  I loved the coursework and my semester abroad in Berlin, and though I can’t say I’ve used my major after college, I still harbor a love for the country’s language and food.  My family is German, so I suppose you could say it’s hereditary.

An Oktoberfest party seemed like the perfect idea this year.  You might be wondering, why an Oktoberfest party in September?  The real Oktoberfest in Munich actually starts during the end of September and continues through the first week of October.  But if you still want to throw your own party, I think any time in October is fair game.

We took the planning seriously, testing recipes and tasting beer.  We chose Paulaner Oktoberfest for the keg and picked out a number of recipes.  For our sausage needs, we took a drive to Karl’s Sausage Kitchen in Saugus, Massachusetts.  I especially enjoyed their Weisswurst, which along with Seven Stars multigrain bread, was a tasty breakfast for our friends who came early to help in the kitchen.

Sausage from Karl’s, the beer, prepping for Hasenpfeffer, “Bavarian camouflage”

My favorite recipe source was Luchow’s German Cookbook, a 1950s gem with recipes from the legendary, and now sadly missed, New York restaurant.  I also browsed one of my favorite food books, Culinaria Germany, for inspiration.  Each book in the Culinaria series is a vivid, comprehensive encyclopedia of a region’s food.  The German volume has a chapter for each state, with descriptions of regional specialites and food customs, photos and recipes.

Here’s our final menu:

• Assorted Sausages – Knockwurst, Bauernwurst, 2 types of Bratwurst
• Himmel und Erde – mashed potatoes and apples topped with sliced blood sausage and crispy onions
• Käsespätzle – Spätzle (noodle dumplings) baked with layers of Emmentaler, topped with crispy onions and browned butter
• Goulash – finished up in a crock pot while we made merry
• Hasenpfeffer – a red wine rabbit stew, also finished in a crock pot
• Pretzels – brought freshly baked by Sean and uglyagnes
• Potato Salad – generally, German potato salad is made without mayonnaise
• Cucumber Salad – just like Mom used to make, herbed with dill
• Baked Sauerkraut with Apples
• Red Cabbage
• Assorted Mustards
• Assorted Breads
• German Apple Cake
• Linzer Torte

Weisswurst for breakfast, my red dirndl, the first guests at the table, washing the steins

The day of the party, we filled the iPod with drinking songs, covered the living room in blue and white tablecoths (fortuitously left over from a party my parents had two decades ago!) and cooked all day. Even though more than 30 people came to help us eat and drink, we ended up with plenty of leftovers. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – my shopping list included 20 pounds of apples and 10 pounds of potatoes!

Last night’s dinner was delicious! It was inspired by yesterday’s post-work trip to the Wickenden farmers’ market.

First, we started with a caprese salad made with a striped German tomato from White Barn Farm, mozzarella from Narragansett Creamery (also from the market, sold by Wishing Stone Farm) and basil from our garden plot. The tomato was giant and so sweet. I thought we’d have leftovers, but it was impossible to leave any.

Then, Jeremy grilled a chicken breast stuffed with arugula from the garden, spicy dried sausage and hot pepper cheese, both from Tony’s Colonial on Atwells. Meanwhile, I sauteed beet greens, also from White Barn Farm, with some garlic and hot pepper flakes.

What a feast! And what a great city we live in.

This year my boyfriend and I cooked Christmas dinner for my family. It’s been a busy December and we didn’t have much time to brainstorm a menu, but I think we came up with a good, and somewhat traditional, dinner.

The beef before baking, shrimp cocktail on the table, the main course

This menu was fairly easy to time. We started the tenderloin first so it had time to rest before going into the oven. The soup could be prepared ahead of time, and the blue cheese and bacon added just before serving. The vegetables were simply roasted with the beef, and the puddings went into the oven as we were eating the main course.

Here’s what we made:

• Shrimp cocktail
• Potato soup with blue cheese and bacon (recipe)
• Beef tenderloin with ancho and fennel seeds (recipe)
• Sides: Garlic mashed potatoes, Roasted carrots, Roasted asparagus
• Individually baked lemon puddings (and a surprise dessert from mom)