Being a Garbahz (pronounced like “garage”) Cook means throwing meals together without using a recipe. Ingredients often come from what I have on hand as leftovers (also known as “Refrigerator Cooking”), or what I got on sale or even for free. (Zucchini, anyone?) Sometimes it’s a success, sometimes not so much — but I always learn something to use, to try, or to avoid the next time.
Note that most, if not all, ingredient amounts in this diary are “guesstimates”. Feel free to relate your own kitchen conquests or disasters in the comments!
My spouse cannot make his morning oatmeal without a recipe and precise measurements. OTOH, I use ingredients going by what looks or feels “about right”, or what I have a taste for at the moment. As a result, Spouse insists on me being the family chef, while he will only occasionally bake cookies or Peanut Butter Pie from his mother’s recipe.
Recently, I had about 8 ounces of canned pumpkin leftover, originally bought to enhance our dog’s kibble meals (but he seemed to be having tummy issues whenever I mixed the pumpkin in, so I stopped that.) I decided I’d make pumpkin soup with it, but 8 ounces isn’t much for soup. Luckily, I had the cooked and mashed pulp from a Butternut squash on hand in the freezer (from last autumn’s grocery store sale on hardshell squash.) I thawed that to add to the pumpkin puree — I’d guesstimate about two or three cups of pulp from one medium squash. Maybe four, depending on your own definition of “medium size.”
In my ceramic non-stick stewpot, I sautéed about 1/2 cup each of diced onion and diced celery tops (with the leaves), and tossed in 1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic. The sauté medium was 1/4 cup of avocado oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. A bit of salt and grated peppercorn to taste (in my case, not much; if more is needed, I can add it when dining.) I also threw in a handful of craisins for the tart fruity flavor contrast.
After the savory ingredients had cooked for a couple of minutes, I added the pumpkin and squash. I had some cinnamon sugar at hand, so I shook some of that in — again, not a lot, since my aim was to taste the squash — and a couple of shakes of Tsardust Memories — a Penzeys spice blend with salt, garlic, cinnamon, black pepper (already in the pot at low levels) PLUS nutmeg and marjoram. Added a bit of chicken broth to make the squash mixture more soupy.
Once that started blurping in the pot, in went the critical (imo) ingredient: 8 ounces of cream cheese, to add another hint of flavor and a smooth, velvety texture. I use the real deal cream cheese, not fat free or the other type of “foreign” (Neufchâtel) cream cheese; imo, those don’t really cook up well, although they probably taste OK when filling jalapeño pepper halves. Stirring now and then to promote the melting of cream cheese, I also added another cup or two of broth intermittently, until the ingredients were all smoothly combined.
The soup was ready to eat, but since I had some leftover salad greens (spinach, chard and kale mix) that wasn’t enough for a salad, I threw those into the soup as well, stirring until they’d wilted and become one with the soup. The end result was a “soup” that had more in common with a “sauce”…was definitely squash-y in flavor, but also both sweet and savory. And it was goooooood!
I ate about 2 cups’ worth for lunch, and refrigerated another 4 cups of soup for later.
Nutrition analyses: LOLOL! Good luck with that.
It’s not something I’ll eat every day, so I don’t stress over it. However, if your doctor says you must not have, or severely limit, certain ingredients, you shouldn’t try to be a Garbazh Cook. OTOH, my spouse has a recipe for oatmeal that he’ll share.