Rediscover Leftover: Guinness Beer

Shorty's cake recipe didn't use as much of the Guinness Beer as we had anticipated so we had leftovers.  Although he likes beer, he's not much into the dark lagers and I'm not into beer at all.  We couldn't just toss it aside, though, so we decided to have some fun and make Irish Car Bombs.  I had only had them once before so I was definitely game for the adventure.

Shorty dug out the Irish Cream and poured a couple of shots.  The remainder of the Guinness was poured into two pint glasses.  Each ended up being about half full. (Hey, I'm an optimist at heart!)  The object here is to drop the shot glass full of Irish Cream into the pint full of Guinness and then slam the resulting concoction.  Shorty swears they taste like beery chocolate milk.  I didn't notice a flavor as much as a texture.  The drink was smooth, like the beer, initially and then creamy once everything mixed.  In the end, it definitely added a little zaniness to our cooking experience.

Rediscover Leftover: Sweetened Ricotta Cheese

So I ended up with quite a bit of leftover sweetened ricotta after making my Tomato Ice Cream and, as Shorty and my waistline will attest, I hate to throw food away.  Now I won't lie, I was tempted to just squirt it straight from my make-shift pastry bag into my mouth, but I'm trying to be creative here.  You can not imagine the willpower it took though, that stuff is delicious!  I finally decided I'd just set it back in the fridge and figure it out later, but then Shorty pulled out some frozen blueberries to snack on and it hit me.  I tossed a cup of frozen blueberries into a bowl and then covered them in the ricotta.  Okay, just remembering how delicious it truly was is making my knees quiver.  Shorty mixed it up a bit and sprinkled cinnamon on top of his mixture.  This actually added just the right amount of warmth to the flavor.  Definitely give this one a try.

I would also like to mention that keeping fruit in your freezer is a good idea.  It keeps the fruit from going bad quickly and it ensures that you will always have some delicious fruit on hand for any strange culinary experiments you may come up with on a whim.  We use them for smoothies and often just as quick snacks.  Frozen blueberries have a creamy texture and wonderful flavor when eaten straight from the freezer.  Yum.

Rediscover Leftover: No Leftover Left Behind

Several days ago Shorty made this wonderful squash soup with cornmeal dumplings on top.  I really felt it was more of a stew than a soup.  It was hearty and full of lots of chunky veggies.  Drool!  Anyway, the leftovers found their way into the fridge and, sadly, we kept overlooking them.  Tonight we decided we had to correct this oversight, but neither of us really wanted it again.  Then he announced that he was going to throw it in the blender and make a creamy soup.  Blender?  Creamy soup?  Bring it on!  I love it when he gets all creative and decides to play.  So I let him do his thing and was surprised at the result.


I came into the kitchen to find that not only was the soup now thick and creamy with just the right amount of chunkiness, but he had also fried up some spicy Italian sausage and warmed up some ready made dinner rolls (hey, sometimes you've got to bring a little of that semi-homemade in when you don't have a lot of time.)  We filled our bowls, mixed in the sausage, and dug in.  Let me just say..... Yum!  Shorty added a hint of rosemary to the soup and it was perfect.  This was one time when a good dish was better as a leftover.  Sadly, we're still new to the food blog world and our bowls were empty before we remembered photos. :o(