Sept 30: What's in your pantry?

Ended a wonderful trip, arriving home last night after eating our way across 8 states. We stopped for milk and bread as we drove into town, so this morning, the fridge looked like this:

(eee! I'm on my way to understanding the picture thingy!)

that's milk, eggs, cheese, butter, salsa, peanut butter, a ginger root, tofu and pickles.

you'd think I'd have grabbed the keys, jumped back into the car, and gone shopping. Instead, I find myself in the grip of a mad desire to just..stay..home. Perhaps because I'm also in the grip of cold I picked up in Tupelo.

Fortunately, the pantry and the freezer are in okay shape, so, for as long as I can, I'm playing a game called "pantry magic". And from what at least two of you say, you'd like to play along.

So, here's what I'll be doing before I break down and go shopping, as well as what I may do after that:

FRI: Bean Soup tonight, with one of those bags of a billion different dry beans from the back of the pantry. Two cans of tomatoes, some chicken broth hiding in the freezer, an onion, garlic, and the rest of this morning's coffee. (really- adding coffee to things like this doesn't make them taste like coffee. they only taste a little darker & richer)

Paired that with some grilled cheese.

Sat: There was cooked rice in the freezer, and a bit of cooked ham, and I've got eggs and an onion, so tomorrow it's fried rice. Here's a recipe I'll be riffing from 

http://www.food.com/recipe/healthy-fried-rice-66932

Sun: Omelets for breakfast, and a first attempt at reliving the greatest hits of our holiday. Starting with...Beignets and coffee.

here they are at Cafe du Monde.

We liked the ones at Beignet Cafe better, but the picture I tried to take of them didn't do them justice. And, here's the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/costas-french-market-doughnuts-beignets/detail.aspx

Sunday night, I'll add some ham and rice that I left out of the fried rice to the leftover's of tonight's bean soup, and stir up some corn muffins. I'm still hunting the holy grail cornbread muffin recipe, so if you've found it, let me know. I'll be trying this one:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/down-home-with-the-neelys/honey-cornbread-muffins-recipe/index.html

by Monday I'll be craving some fresh veg, but that doesn't mean I'll be in the mood for anything but a quick stop at the shop. I've got pasta in the pantry and cooked meatballs in the freezer, and some Parmesan in the fridge. Let's pile that on top of some fresh spinach. Yes, yes, turn it into Alfredo if you want to, but I'm keeping it simple. Here's a go-to Alfredo Sauce recipe, in case your fridge has cream in it. hey. wait. there's evaporated milk in the pantry. I may do Spinach Alfredo after all.

http://joelens.blogspot.com/2008/04/alfredo-secrets.html

Tues: I have two teeny bags of frozen wontons. Hmmm. One bag in a wonton soup (along with any leftover spinach leaves), and one pan fried with green onion and ginger sauce. Really, try the green onion sauce. It's pretty amazing.  

http://www.gourmet.com/food/2008/11/ginger-scallion-sauce

for the soup, I'm going to simply whisk about 2 Tblsp cornstarch into a pot of chicken broth, add a bit of soy sauce, drop in the wontons, let them simmer, then stir in the spinach.

Okay, by Wednesday, I'm going to have to go shopping for real. How about I give that some thought, and post the rest of the week tomorrow?

As always, suggestions welcome!