at home with ann

The day after Thanksgiving, you make the turkey sandwich with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce.  It's amazing.  The next day, you make the same thing.  It's slightly less exciting, but still good. By the third day, you want nothing to do with any of it, and still have a refrigerator full of leftovers. We hosted 20 people for Thanksgiving. Never mind the fact that I had never hosted Thanksgiving before and we don't have a dining room table.  It all came together and was great to have a crowd.  In my true fashion, I was worried there wouldn't be enough food and prepared enough for twice as many people.  And wine for four times as many.  Needless to say, we had a lot of leftovers. Here are a few ideas for repurposing all that delicious food without going out of your mind with boredom. Stuffing Muffins recipe from Budget Bytes Ingredients: 3-4 cups leftover stuffing 1/4-1/2 cup chopped ham or turkey 1/4 cup chopped spinach (...

Yesterday we had an unseasonably warm day, and I couldn't be happier about it.  Sure, during the summer I complain about the humidity during a heat wave, and turn on the air conditioning upstairs for sleeping (it's for the baby ); but I'd take heat over cold any day.  This salad is the perfect combination of all the wonderful late summer food; sweet corn, crisp green beans, juicy tomatoes and fragrant basil.  It makes an excellent side dish, we ate it last night alongside broccoli quiche and roasted potatoes, and it is also a perfect light lunch.  Especially if, like me, you're planning to use up some random marshmallows and make rice crispy treats later.  Or, just be healthy.  Whichever. Green Bean, Corn and Tomato Salad modified from Self Salad Ingredients: 3-4 ears fresh corn, removed from cob 1 lb. green beans, blanched in boiling water and cut into bite size pieces 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced 1...

These are the best green beans.  The Best.  They are so good they make you excited about green beans.  Plus, they only take a few minutes to put together.  If you serve them with a very simple sauteed fish, like I did here, the whole meal takes about 10 minutes.  You could easily use this sauce with other vegetables, it would be delicious with asparagus. These measurements are approximate, I usually just throw all the ingredients in a bowl, so adjust to taste. Lemon Garlic Green Beans 4 cups green beans 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 garlic clove, grated or finely minced 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2-4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese Boil or steam beans until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Immediately immerse beans in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and maintain their bright green color. In a large bowl, mix together lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add in green beans a...

It's that time of year when we have more tomatoes, corn and zucchini than we know what to do with.  We got 8 ears of corn and several pounds of tomatoes in our CSA pickup last week, so our meals have been all about corn, tomatoes, corn and tomatoes.  On Saturday we made homemade pizza (using this dough ) and topped it with fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, corn and basil.  I really liked the addition of the corn on pizza, but I would recommend leaving the basil off until after baking because ours got kind of toasted. We were at the beach, so we used cookie trays instead of the pizza stone for baking, and we could totally tell the difference in crust crispiness.  Pizza stones are well worth the investment.  Also, taking crappy pictures with the flash in bad lighting doesn't do it any favors, but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looked like. Sunday night we had burgers, topped with tomatoes, and grilled corn on the cob.  I asked Jon to grill all t...

If, like me, you ate far too many jelly beans or peanut butter eggs this weekend, you might also be ready for a healthy, filling, and very nutritious dinner.  This is one of those meals that I love making because once you've done the prep chopping, it's easy, delicious and even better the next day.  You can certainly customize it based on whatever vegetables you like or are quietly sitting in your produce drawer on their last legs.  Vegetable Chickpea Curry Serves 6 Ingredients: Olive oil 2 cups potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 28 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice 1/2 small can tomato paste (about 1/3 cup) 2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can, drained and rinsed) 1/2 pound green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces A few handfuls of fresh spinach leaves 2 teaspoons coriander 2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon garam masala 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated...