Leftover Cold Cuts

We had a party this past weekend that included a big cold cut platter from the deli. We had ample leftovers. After eating about a dozen sandwiches, I was hunting for ideas to use the more of them up that didn't involve two pieces of bread and mayo. I decided on breakfast for dinner! I used ham and cheese in the frittata and pastrami in the hash. Breakfast for dinner is always fun, easy, and for some reason just easier to wrap my head around making after a long day than a traditional dinner. The hash also let me use up some leftover vegetable crudite as well. Hash is great like that- it's a good catch-all.

When a potato is a meal

I have a memory of having twice baked potatoes at my Aunt Kris's house when I was visiting for an overnight when I was in middle school and loving them. As I've mentioned before, I love potatoes with a passion. This treatment takes the potato into main course territory because it is so filling and has nearly every food group in it! I've had trouble in the past with how long to cook the potato in the first baking and in scooping it out to create the filling. I initially figured I should slightly under cook the potato at first, as I would macaroni for a baked ziti for example- leaving some of the cooking for the second time around to avoid a mushy mess. This is not the way to go with twice baked potatoes because if they are still "crunchy" at all when you pull them to scoop them out, you can't mash the potato properly and the end result, even when baked the second time, ends up being lumpy with harder, not quite cooked enough, pieces. My second mistake was scooping out the potato too much- leaving barely more than the skin. If you do that, the potato loses shape and can topple and make a mess. You need to leave a good lip of potato intact all around the skin.
With those tips in mind, here's how I did my twice baked potatoes.
Rub the potato with olive oil and sprinkle with Kosher salt before baking on a cookie sheet until they are easily pierced with a fork. Do NOT cover your potatoes with aluminum foil. You will steam them, and the skin will not crisp at all. That crispy, salted skin is one of the best parts!
When the potatoes are done, cut them in half and let them sit for a few minutes, just until they are cool enough to handle. Then carefully scoop out the meat of the potato, leaving a good amount all around the skin to hold their shape and give them the strength to hold the filling.
Put the potato insides in a bowl and then the sky's the limit with filling additions. I went relatively traditional here, with crisp bacon pieces, scallions, sour cream, butter, shredded cheese, salt and pepper. I've seen recipes that add chopped shrimp, crab, chicken, and others, so use your imagination.
Put the filled potato halves back in the oven until heated through and enjoy!

Harvest Moon Pancakes

Erik made the name up for these. They are our favorite weekend breakfast at this point. It's a simple pancake mix (Bisquick Heart Smart to be exact) which I make as directed except with Buttermilk instead of plain milk, and then add about a cup of canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and then blueberries. They are soooo yummy, filling and have some extra vitamins from the berries and pumpkin. What's not to like?!
I have also used cooked, pureed butternut squash, and cooked, pureed or mashed sweet potato as additions to pancakes. Both are good too. So go experiment with your pancakes this weekend and enjoy!