We just got back from skiing for several days. It's become an annual tradition for school vacation week. Five of us (sometimes more) share a condo with a small kitchen. It's always a little iffy about how well stocked the kitchen is in terms of pots and pans, sugar, spices, and utensils, but we make do. Making our own meals saves us so much time and money and then we know what we're getting and that we're going to like it. Generally, we go grocery shopping for the whole week before we get anywhere near the resort, figuring (correctly) that the groceries get more expensive as we get closer. I don't usually plan meals that far in advance but, for this, it's necessary. Generally there isn't an outdoor grill, so everything has to be made in the oven or on the stovetop. Here are some of the go-to meals:
spaghetti or some sort of pasta with sauce made from lamb, garlic and cilantro with a salad;
burrito night, which involves ground meat, enchilada sauce, shredded cheese, guacamole (basically avocado, cilantro, and garlic - see how efficient that is?), sour cream, rice, salsa and a can of black beans. We ran out of tortillas so some of us just had burrito bowls;
BLT night, so more lettuce, toast, bacon (the rest gets used for breakfast or, in this case, a little went into the black beans);
and this year I tried something new: chicken cordon bleu. I had chicken thighs, but they weren't boneless, and sliced cheese and ham that we had for lunches. After I boned the thighs, I wrapped each around a little cheese and ham and then just baked them. Sure, they would have been better with bread crumbs and a little white sauce, but they were pretty good as is. As an added bonus, because I couldn't bear to throw out those bones with all that meat on them, I made a batch of chicken soup.
Dessert was another thing that required some ingenuity. Some members of our party impulse-bought a bag of frozen berries. We didn't need them for our oatmeal because we ran out of oatmeal long before we ran out of fresh fruit. Since I didn't want them to go to waste, I attempted a crisp. But again, no oatmeal. Barely any sugar, for that matter. No flour. I did have Cheerios and butter. We crushed the Cheerios and cut in softened butter with knives and put that over the berries that were in a buttered dish and sprinkled with 3 packets of sugar. This was baked at 375 for 30 minutes and served with a little ice cream. Unusual, but tasty in a breakfasty kind of way...
spaghetti or some sort of pasta with sauce made from lamb, garlic and cilantro with a salad;
burrito night, which involves ground meat, enchilada sauce, shredded cheese, guacamole (basically avocado, cilantro, and garlic - see how efficient that is?), sour cream, rice, salsa and a can of black beans. We ran out of tortillas so some of us just had burrito bowls;
BLT night, so more lettuce, toast, bacon (the rest gets used for breakfast or, in this case, a little went into the black beans);
and this year I tried something new: chicken cordon bleu. I had chicken thighs, but they weren't boneless, and sliced cheese and ham that we had for lunches. After I boned the thighs, I wrapped each around a little cheese and ham and then just baked them. Sure, they would have been better with bread crumbs and a little white sauce, but they were pretty good as is. As an added bonus, because I couldn't bear to throw out those bones with all that meat on them, I made a batch of chicken soup.
Leftover Chicken Soup
water
chicken thigh bones with some meat attached
salt and pepper
chopped up baby carrots
leftover rice (from burrito night)
leftover green beans (from CCB night)
Make the stock from the bones with salt and pepper, remove the bones and keep the meat. Add the leftovers and heat through. Reheat when ready to eat.
We decided that in the entire history of that kitchen it was probably the first time someone made soup from scratch in it.
 |
| Before baking |
 |
| After baking |
