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!

"Busia's" Stuffing

By now, I hope that you know we love traditions and remembering our loved ones.

My husband's Polish American Grandma was known as "Busia" by my older daughter before she passed away a couple of years ago.  The title "Busia" was at her request. 

My husband and his family have always loved her cooking and her Thanksgiving Day stuffing was no exception.  It's not the stuffing I'm used to but that's the beauty of family, each one has it's own traditions. 

And I still make it in memory of her.  She was a wonderful woman and was always very kind to me so deserves to be remembered.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of Bread torn apart (she preferred white bread)
1/2 an Onion, peeled, washed, finely diced
1 rib of Celery, washed and finely diced
2 cloves of Garlic, peeled, washed, finely diced
2 Eggs
handful of Curly Parsley
1 Turkey Liver, well chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chicken Broth, roughly 2 cups


Tear apart the bread.  Add all ingredients and mix together.  Add enough chicken broth to make the dish moist.

Stuff the bird and use one end of the bread to close the opening.

I took this photo after we were done eating, sorry, I was too hungry beforehand...

Smacznego!



Note:  You could add marjoram to this.  You can also use leeks or shallots instead of an onion.  It's really just whatever you prefer.

This is a great dish to have your kids help.  Have them tear apart the bread and curly parsley while you cut the ingredients.  They can also add the cut up onions and celery.  My toddler helped with this recipe this year and was extremely dumna (proud).




Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!



Related Posts: 

Busia's Mushrooms

Thanksgiving and Remembering Our Past with Sauerkraut

Pumpkin Pie from a Pumpkin (Not a Can)

Creamy Carrot Sauce

This is actually not a Polish dish.  This is a cooking experiment by a preparations-for-Thanksgiving-frazzled Polish Mama gone right.  Happily.


I tried to make a creamy sauce for Pork chops and noodles inspired by Carrots in Cream or Marchewka w Smietanie

It was very easy to make and snuck vegetables into the kids.  Well, I'm not sure it's sneaking when they see tiny bits of carrot in the sauce.  But they didn't even really think twice to try the sauce and loved it.

So, I'm sharing with you a, what I would call, Polish American twist for dinner.  Obiat!  As my toddler calls to everyone when she sees Mama start to plate up.



Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Butter or Sunflower Oil
5-6 Boneless Pork Chops, seasoned with Salt and Pepper on both sides
5-6 Carrots, washed, peeled
1/2 Sweet Onion, peeled, washed, diced
2 tablespoons Flour
1-2 tablespoons any combination of the following:  Curly Parsley, Marjoram, Dill
1 cube of instant Beef or Cicken bouillon *
1/4 cup dry white Wine
1 1/2 cup of Milk or Cream
Pepper to taste


Finely chop carrots or place in food processor.  Set aside.

Melt butter in large skillet and cook pork chops over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Turn pork chops.

Add carrots and onions and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until pork chops are cooked through.

Set pork chops aside. 

In same skillet, add flour and herbs and stir together.  Add wine and milk.  Add pepper to taste.  Cook and stir until thickened. 

Return pork chops to sauce and cook a few minutes longer until the flour flavor is gone from the sauce.

You can mix in whole grain pasta to the sauce, if you like.

Forgive the hastily taken photo, Thanksgiving preparations are leaving us very busy...

Smacznego!





Notes:

*  Instead of Instant Bouillon cubes, you can use a 1/2 cup or so of broth and just add as much milk as you like, probably a bit less.




Related Posts:

Stuffed Pork Chops, One Way

Pork Chops in Sauerkraut or Schab w Kiszonej Kapuście

Polish Herbed Meatloaf or Klops Wolowy





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Stuffed Porkchops, One Way

By now, I'm sure you are aware that we Poles love to stuff our foods.  Stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, stuffed chicken breasts, stuffed rolls, we even like to stuff under the skin when roasting a chicken.

For dinner last night, I decided the thick cut pork chops I had were begging to be stuffed. 

The review by my father was "Good idea!  Like stuffed peppers.  Next time, we put some green peppers chopped in it maybe."  My husband thought it was delicious.  My toddler gobbled it all up but my elementary school aged daughter hates tomatoes and didn't enjoy it.  Sadly for her, I will continue to feed her dishes with tomatoes in it.  Because I am raising two future foodies.



Ingredients:

3 thick cut Pork chops
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked Rice
2 Carrots, peeled, finely chopped *
5 dried Polish mushrooms, crumbled
1 Egg
1 tablespoon, Parsley
1 teaspoon, Marjoram
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 can Tomato Sauce


Slice a pocket into each pork chop, using the bone as a guide to the back so that you don't cut all the way through.

Mix together the rice, carrots, mushrooms, egg, parsley, marjoram, salt and pepper.

Stuff into the pork chop and pour the remainder around the outside area of the pork chops in the baking pan.

Pour the tomato sauce on top of everything.

Bake covered with aluminum foil on 350 degrees until pork inside temperature is about 170-175.  About 45 minutes to an hour.

Finished baking...

Served with a roll of Whole Wheat Cottage Cheese bread, which I baked earlier that day...

Smacznego!



* Because I sneak vegetables in my family constantly.

Other Posts:  Rice Keugel

Polish Tomato Soup Made by My Tato

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