The Final Nights of Fridge Clean Out

Night 3 of refrigerator cleanout went well.  I made whisky barbeque sliders that I had seen from “The Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond who has a great blog and suggests wonderful recipes.  It started by making small “slider” sized patties from my abundance of ground beef.  Then I removed the patties and started to sauté onion in the cast iron skillet.  Once it got going really well I added some whisky and let it reduce by about half.   Then came the barbeque sauce, hot sauce and jalapenos.  Cooked that for a little while and added the sliders back in to season up.  For the side I boiled some red potatoes about 90% of the way done.  From there I removed them from the water and put them on a cookie sheet that was greased with olive oil.  I took a coffee cup and smashed down on the potatoes on the cookie sheet.  I added salt, pepper, red chili flakes, paprika and olive oil to the potatoes and stuck them in the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  What an easy and tasty dinner! With left over apple pie I was certainly full!

                Friday night Michael and I were supposed to head out of town to let our new year’s celebration begin but I ended up needing to stay for work.  I was very discouraged about having to stay for work as I wanted a fun weekend away.  It was a reminder that duty calls and the need to feed 60,000 head of cattle every single day of the year regardless of holiday or previous plans takes priority.  I was pretty sad about also not having a special pantry dinner planned and was exhausted and had no want to make something up either.  What a great surprise we had though!  Michael’s parents called and asked if we wanted to meet for supper!  They took us out to a new Italian restaurant that was delicious.  I had the manicotti and I adore this simple Italian cuisine!  I am the number one supporter of carbohydrates so this supper truly fed my adorations for the food group.  It was a good end to a good week!

                Overall I am proud that I did not go to the grocery store and managed to cook with what I had.  I hope I can continue this as I still have very full freezers and cabinets!