The Celebration of Leftovers and a Challenge

As I was packing for our short trip to my in-laws house for Thanksgiving, I turned the TV on for background noise and ended up being sucked into a special on the Food Network called The Big Waste. Of course there was a cooking competition between world-class chefs coupled with impossible deadlines. But, what caught my interest was that they had to create a delicious meal for hundreds with ingredients that were on their way to the trash or compost bin. The chefs went to local farms, grocery stores and meat packers only to find that hundreds of pounds of nutritious and delicious food was being thrown away because it didn't look absolutely perfect.

Knowing that we throw away so much good food but then one in four kids in my home state of Texas is food insecure (meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from), is a sinful contradiction. So, this Thanksgiving I’m challenging myself – and you  - to eat leftovers or re-create meals using leftovers more than just once a year when turkey is involved. And, I up the ante by challenging you to re-purpose ingredients from one recipe to another (egg whites left over from baking, how about an egg white omelet for breakfast?), and think creatively about fruits and vegetables that are on the brink of expiration.

With that in mind, I looked at the leftover meat mixture from the empanadas, and with a recommendation from Susana, I reinvented the mixture into another meal.

The Celebration of Overalls from Argentina to Texas

Mishpuchah is a Yiddish word meaning family but in the broadest sense.  It’s used to describe extended family and friends who are family. When I met Andrea in 8^th grade, little did I know that we would become each other’s mishpuchah. But, I did know that I wanted to be friends with the girl who was standing there in overalls with a lot of pockets and more attitude than she could fit in them.

Through the years, our friendship took root and flourished. I think we found similarities in being two kids trying to fit in, at a particularly awkward time in any kids life, while trying to embrace those things that made us different – foreign born parents (hers being from Argentina) and different languages spoken at home among other things. I loved going to her house because seeing her father’s artwork displayed in their home coupled with his sense of design reminded me of my father. And, her mom, Susana, who had a thriving dental practice, brought a sense of calm and comfort to her surroundings and those around her.

Hot from the oven empanadas with wine makes for a delish
Friday night.

But what Susana was most known – and begged for – in her family was empanadas. As Andrea says “While growing up, this recipe was part of every holiday, semi-holiday … both my parents worked so getting to spend a day with my Mom making these was the best of both worlds; made only better when my Grandmother visited ... This was a full morning of filling, dough and assembling. The whole house smelled delicious and we could not wait to try them, usually burning our tongues. This recipe has celebrated every birthday goal reached, holiday, long weekend, it helped snag two son-in-laws and comforted us at the saddest of losses.”

Snagging a son-in-law is what made us mishpuchah.  Before my wedding, I told one of my husband’s close college friends that he and Andrea had to meet. I just knew they would hit it off. And that they did – less than a year after our wedding, Richard and I were attending their wedding. Andrea’s parents were glowing – probably more than she was. While the band was taking a break, tango music played to fill the time. The dance floor cleared other than Andrea’s parents. They danced on every inch of that dance floor and for a few minutes, we saw the spark that brought them together, the courtship that ensued and the glue that bonded them through the years.  A group of Andrea’s girlfriends, me included, watched them from the side of the dance floor, our mouths open. After the dance, Susana came to us and said “you don’t know a man until you tango with him.” I. Might.Have.Passed.Out.

Years have passed since our weddings and in that time, we have traveled together, celebrated professional milestones, supported each other during moves across county, rejoiced in the birth of our children and mourned together. So last night while I was testing Susana’s empanada recipe, it was hard for me not to think of Andrea and her parents. As she said “This is the kind of recipe that brings all of my life’s memories together both making them, eating them and now watching my kids devour them and all with memories from Argentina to Texas.”

The Celebration of DIY

I get on these weird money saving kicks once in a while. I say weird because they really make no sense in terms of what I decide to save money on and what I don't. 

One classic example is when I decided to start waxing my own face (don’t act shocked … if your family heritage is anywhere near the Mediterranean, hair removal is a major expense.) When I got into bed that evening with a few self-inflicted wounds on my face, Richard asked why I had done it myself and not gone to my usual place. When I explained how expensive it was and I was trying to save money, he responded that maybe I should cut back on my morning latte’s at Starbucks instead.  That's the closest he's ever come to sleeping on the couch.

Luckily, my affinity towards DIY'ing this part of my personal grooming has ended. But, I still look for small and big ways to save money … I often pack my own lunches for work, we pack the kids school lunches, we do meatless dinners at least once a week and I obsessively make shopping lists so we buy what we need and don't waste as much food as we used to.

While at the grocery store over the summer, rather than mindlessly putting the bottle of cold-brew coffee in my shopping cart, I actually looked at the price. Between that "omg, I'm spending how much on a bottle of coffee" moment and paying attention to the price of my daily lattes at the hipster coffee place in my building, I decided it was time to DIY my coffee. (Yes, Richard, you were right). 

Making cold-brew coffee requires a bit of investment at first but it will save you money in the long run. I love cold-brew because you get all of the flavor of coffee, without the bitterness and you can keep it in a carafe in your fridge for two weeks. Because it’s concentrated coffee, you can adjust the strength based on how much water and/or milk that’s added. Finally, you can make hot coffee, iced coffee and anything else in between. Oh, and I no longer have a coffee pot/Keurig taking up precious counter top real-estate.

The Celebration of Necessity

These aren't the loaves of bread but
they are fresh Challahs just out of the oven.

Two loaves of bread sitting on my counter ... fair warning, the punch line is a little gross. One loaf was thrown away last night after sitting on our counter for a little less than a week because it had more green fuzz growing on it than I care for. 

The second loaf is still on our counter ... it's been there for close to 4 weeks. Although the barbecue that it came with has long since been eaten or thrown away, this loaf of bread looks as fresh as the day we brought it home. At this point, this bread has become my own counter-top science experiment and I'm fairly convinced I'm going to get sick of staring at it before a speck of mold appears.

Several thoughts go through my mind when I see that loaf of bread. First - my family is really lucky to have access to healthy, fresh food with knowledge of how to cook. The highly processed bread on my counter is closer in its nutritional make-up to the plastic "food" that came with my daughters tea set. And second - real bread tastes really good and that's when I think of my Aunt Omi. 

My Aunt with after a Challah Baking lesson
with her best students!

My Aunt Omi is an incredible baker born out of necessity. "For me in the late 60's and early 70's, Austin was a bread desert. You couldn't even get a Lender's frozen bagel. French bread? What's that? Challah? Never heard of it. Houston or Dallas were a little too far to go for Challah (or a bagel), so I thought I'd try to make some myself." 

Remember, these were the days before Whole Foods and Central Market who now sell Challah everyday of the week. Or organizations like Challah for Hunger (I would be remiss to talk about Challah and not mention them) where Challah is made and sold by college students on campuses across the United States to raise money to combat hunger in the US and Africa. Here's the link for the University of Texas Chapter although there are chapters around the country and I hope you'll consider supporting them. 

Let's just say that Omi's baking skills have come a long way since then and what was a skill born out of frustration and craving has been elevated to an art form.  She makes all of the desserts and cakes in the family including birthday cakes that make the Cake Boss look like a junior apprentice. And, her baklava (stay tuned for that recipe) has started family feuds about who gets to bring the leftovers home, who has the right to eat those leftovers and I've seen friends take spoons and fight over the syrup at the bottom of the pan. 

The Celebration of Comfort

Cream of Tomato Basil Soup

Recently, with a dear friend, we have been putting ourselves through what we’ve jokingly referred to as a “deep thoughts” process. Deep Thoughts are guided by a series of mental exercises meant to put a framework around setting professional and personal goals. Yesterday, she asked me the “9 lives” question and that really got me thinking. The gist of the question is that if you could have 9 lives and you have to work in all 9 lives (no winning the lottery) but you assume you have the training and skill to accomplish the goals and the prestige is the same within each job, what would you do?

Before I could stop the thought, my answer was open Comfort. 

The first steps of Couscous Royale

Comfort is the restaurant that lives in my head with a menu centered on those soul nurturing dishes that recharge your psyche with memories of home however that place is defined in your heart. And although I think there are as many variations of comfort food in the United States as there are people, Comfort’s menu is centered on my culinary framework of comfort food. Nothing on the menu requires tweezers to plate or micro greens for garnish although a few in-depth descriptions might be necessary. 

Starter salads on the menu are mezze salads like Moroccan carrots, a roasted red and green pepper with cooked tomato salad called chakchouka (my first post) and of course, guacamole. Soups range from matzah ball to a chicken tortilla soup. And the main courses ensure multiple countries are well-represented since I will serve Couscous Royale (stay tuned for that recipe), garlic rosemary leg-of-lamb a la Provençale, slow roasted chicken, falafel, the obligatory brisket tacos and well … mac and cheese.