Corned beef redux

One of my favorite things about corned beef is that it stretches really far. So, you have your night of corned beef and cabbage, but you also have a chance to make a LOT of other dishes from the original meal. And since I KNOW all of you went out and bought a beautiful slab of corned beef (most likely at a discount since St. Paddy's Day is over), I thought I would share my ways of enjoying corned beef in different ways.

Frozen corned beef broth

Corned beef broth

When you're putting leftovers away, don't throw out the broth! That took hours to make and you now have several quarts of it! Pour it into a few ice cube trays and freeze. Next time you need beef broth, all you have to do is grab a few cubes from the freezer and melt them. Instant homemade broth. If you have the capability, you might want to strain corned beef broth because of the spice packet's abundance of mustard seed and other odds and ends.

Corned beef hash
1 cup diced corned beef

1 cup diced potatoes (this is a great opportunity to use up the leftover potatoes)

1 cube corned beef broth

2 eggs

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the beef, potatoes and broth and cook until heated through, stirring to keep the bits from burning.
3. Lower the heat to medium-low and crack open the eggs right on top of the hash.
4. Cover and cook until the eggs reach your preferred consistency.

And a quick rundown of the recipe in photos:

Chop the corned beef and potatoes

Fry in a pan until almost crispy. Add the cube of broth and cook until incorporated. This adds the amount of liquid needed to help make everything sort of stick together.

Crack two eggs right on top. Don't break the yolk unless you don't like creamy yolk running into the corned beef hash.

Let cook until the whites are solidified and the yolk are cooked to your desired doneness. I covered mine to help the process along.

Serve with a cheddar biscuit and French press coffee. YUM!

Corned beef melt
Inspired by the Summer Reuben at The Weekend Pub

2 slices bread
1 pats butter, melted
Corned beef, sliced
Swiss cheese
Spicy brown mustard
2 tbsp shredded cabbage

1. Preheat a large frying pan or griddle.
2. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Spread mustard on the other sides.
3. Put cheese on the bottom and beef on top of that and grill on both sides.
4. Add the cabbage last so it stays cold and refreshing. I actually cooked the sandwich, then when I pulled it out of the pan, I opened it and added the cabbage.

Food is better when it's round

Obviously my love of pie belies a certain fascination with all things circular: Pancakes, pie and pizza. You name it, I love it; and I want to learn how to make it. Luckily I live with a bonafide "expert." OK, Travis only worked for a pizza place over the summer sometime before I met him, but he still makes a mean pizza crust, not to mention pizza sauce. Traditionally, because it's easier to make, we've mostly made deep dish in a rectangular Pyrex pan. But traditional really is better, and for us, traditional means circular. So that's what we did recently.
We made the dough in the bread machine, which gave us more time to get our errands done and a safe place for the dough to rise while we were gone. We threw everything in the machine before we went shoe shopping, and when we got back, we got down to business - pizza-making business. Have a look:

Travis did a fantastic job making a round crust. The only mistake was forgetting to buy cornmeal at the store. The final result came out a little more floury than we like, but it was still delicious enough.

We got the pizza paddle for Christmas from Dad. Apparently our fame as pizza lovers is well-known.

Travis also made homemade sauce. He loves doing it and believe me, he has perfected his recipe over the years. It's delicious. I know I've been saying this for years now, but someday I'll share it, I promise! Our favorite pizza for the last year or so has been sausage and pineapple. It's amazing!

The secret to the perfect crust is a pizza stone. The key is to put it in the oven as it preheats so the stone will be the same temperature as the oven and is able to cook the pizza evenly and quickly. This creates a perfect crust that's still chewy. By the way, that oven thermometer is great. Without it, we'd never know that our oven is exactly 25 degrees above the set temperature. I recommend getting one if you don't have it.

The paddle allows us to slide the pizza on to the preheated stone without it falling apart. I'd give you a finished picture, but as the case usually is, we had consumed the final product before I remembered to grab my camera.

A note on toppings: One of the things I love most about pizza is that the toppings can change according to what you have and what you are in the mood for. I had fried up Italian sausages last weekend for dinner and used the leftovers along with the last of the fresh pineapple from a tub of fresh cut fruit I had purchased from Harris Teeter's grocery section earlier in the week. Yum!

Stewed garbanzo beans and chicken

I'm a big fan of repurposing my leftovers in new dishes. There's a show on Food Network I watched a lot (when I had access to cable) that revolved around the idea. The host would show you how to cook a big meal when you had more time and use the leftovers from that meal to stretch into two more dinners the rest of the week.
For me it's more about saving money than time, but not eating the same thing every night of the week is also a perk.
After the wedding we took home a bit a food. We ate most of it over the honeymoon, but we had several grilled chicken thighs leftover that I had frozen to use later. So when I stumbled on a recipe that I had every ingredient for (even a can of garbanzo beans I had been saving for a batch of hummus that never appeared) on Budget Bytes, I couldn't wait to get started. So I present my version of Greek stew with garbanzo beans and chicken.

Stewed garbanzo beans and chicken
3 chicken thighs
1 med. yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
dried oregano
dried thyme
cumin
crushed red pepper flakes
1 28-oz. can of dices tomatoes
1 8-oz can of tomato sauce
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained
feta cheese

1) Rinse the chicken thighs and pat dry. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large, deep skillet over medium/high heat with 2 Tbsp. of olive oil. The oil is ready when it has a wavy appearance. Cook the chicken pieces on each side until golden brown and crispy (5 min. each side). (Mine were already cooked, I just crisped up the skin in the pan.
2) While the chicken is browning, dice the onion and garlic. Once the chicken has browned, remove it to a plate and add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook the onion and garlic until they are soft and transparent.
3) Add the canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, oregano, thyme and half of the chopped parsley to the pan. Stir well to combine then add the chicken pieces back to the pot. Reduce the heat to low, place a lid on the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.
5) After the stew simmers for 20 minutes, remove the lid, drain the chickpeas and add them to the pot. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes without a lid.
Serve with couscous and sprinkle with feta cheese.











I made my couscous with chicken stock instead of water and added golden raisins to it. I have no final picture because everyone ate it too quickly! That seems to be a regular happening around my food.