Easter Leftovers

If you are like me, you have leftovers from Easter, such as hard boiled eggs, kielbasa (smoked and fresh which has been steamed or boiled), bread and a few other leftovers which need to be eaten.

I decided to share with you some ideas of what can be done with those foods.  Remember, if you had any of these blessed at the church, you aren't supposed to just throw them away if you can't eat them all.

Our Easter table this year

Bread:

Remove whatever bread is leftover from the bag and allow to dry or toast.  Since it's Tuesday, it's best to do this quickly because your bread will be growing mold soon anyway. 

Use the bread to make breadcrumbs.

Use in an a la Polonaise topping for cooked vegetables or sweet fruit filled dumplings.

Make Chicken Kiev as a welcome break from all the pork and sausage.

Polish Breaded Pork Chops or Kotlety Schabowe

Or, search "bread crumbs" on my blog in the right hand column to find other uses.

Eggs:

Polish Stuffed Eggs in Shells or Jajka Faszerowane w Skorupkach (think deviled eggs but with a delicious twist)  This would also use some of the bread crumbs you made.

Polish Potato Salad or Sałatka Warzywna

Pea and Corn Salad or Sałatka z Groszki i Kukurydzy

Kiełbasa:

Fasolka po Bretonsku or Breton Beans

Polish Hunter's Stew or Bigos

Or, cut up and put in Spaghetti or use to top a home made pizza.

I plan on making a pot of Zurek today and will share the recipe later this week.

Ham:

You can add into the Pea and Corn Salad or Polish Potato Salad you are making (see above).

Cheese:

Make Cheese Stuffed Zucchini to help your family recover from all the candy they ate this past weekend.



Also, check out this American creation meant to use up traditional Polish Easter ingredients, called a "Smigus-Dyngus Casserole".




What other leftovers do you have?  How do you plan to use them?

Smacznego!

Mushroom Soup With Letfovers From Thanksgiving

Every year for Thanksgiving, I make Busia's Mushrooms for my husband.  While living in Baltimore, I usually made about 15 pounds worth every year for about 8-12 people. 

This year in Illinois, I made 10 pounds for 5 people, two of whom are young children.  So, my husband has a larger amount of mushrooms for himself, which he gloats over and eats.

My Tato wanted to have some soup made with the mushrooms for himself and I thought to share the recipe.  It's extremely simple and still satisfying.



Ingredients:

2 cups of Busia's Mushrooms
16 oz. of Beef or Chicken Broth
pinch of Curly Parsley
Pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon of Vegeta, if you like
Sour Cream


In a food processor, add the Mushrooms and a bit of the broth.  Finely chop.

In a crock pot or small saucepan, add the chopped Mushrooms, all the remaining broth, the curly parsley, pepper and Vegeta.

Cook on low for a while until the flavors have developed.

Serve with a dollop or two of Sour Cream mixed in.

Smacznego!




Notes: 

You do not need Vegeta for this recipe, it's merely an ingredient my Tato grew up with and on occasion enjoys in his soups. 

If you find that the recipe could use a certain something instead, you could add a small bit of celery, carrot, garlic and onion into the food processor as well, enough to make no more than about a 1/4 cup total after being chopped.  You don't want the soup to be dominated by any added ingredients, just to help bring out the flavors of the Mushroom Soup.




Related Posts:

Barszcz Czerwony One Way

Mushroom Soup or Zupa Pieczarkowa

Our Date at a Local Polish Restaurant: Smak Tak

Leftover Salmon for Breakfast

The other day I made Salmon with Lemon, Dill and Eggs.  It was delicious.  But we had a lot of leftovers, which I wasn't worried about.  In our house, we love protein for breakfast, not sweet processed sugar cereals.  In fact, in most Polish houses, traditionally breakfast is hearty and with protein to get you started right and going right on your day.

So, I decided to soften some Cream Cheese and mix in some leftover Salmon.  I put it between two slices of Wroclawski Chleb (a very lighty delicious rye bread from Wroclaw, by now I think you might have noticed it's one of my favorite breads) and placed some thick slices of Tomato in it and ground pepper.

Smacznego!