Brielle's Avalon

Well, this is a rather country continental old fashioned dish. Basically, if you have leftovers of bratwurst, apple sausage, smoked sausage, pork chicken…whatever you don’t have enough of to do anything else…then make this! Of course you’ll need onion, celery & carrots (who doesn’t usually have those around) but you can also toss in whatever else you don’t have enough to do anything else with. That broccoli or cauliflower that’s still good but past putting on the crudité plate…cut it up and add it. Peas, beans…whatever. It’ll be a bit different every time but it’ll be good. Have fun in our frugality!

Chop up an onion, set it to sautéing in a pot. Cut up a celery stalk or 2 and a couple carrots and add them, too. If you’re out of celery just add a tsp of celery seed. Mirepoix is set.

Cut up the potato, broccoli and any other leftovers you want to throw in. Add some wine and cover with water. Let it come to a simmer while you continue prep.

Add the apple sausage or whatever bratwurst-y thing you might have.

Add the smoked sausage. OK, these are the little hot-dog things, but they’re better than hot dogs and are smoky and we often have them around instead of hot dogs, so in they go.

The rest of the rotisserie chicken that wasn’t enough for anything else but you took it off the carcass and made broth but now need to do something with the chicken and aspic…chop it and toss it in. Don’t have chicken? Duck, turkey, pork, beef, ostrich (yes, there’s an ostrich farm in Arizona), will do. Just cut up any bits of roast or chops that weren’t big enough for anything else.

Add pepper, garlic, nutmeg, basil, Worcestershire and whatever else you think will be nice.

Rifle the fridge for any other bits and bobs that might need using. Find mushrooms, wait til the rest is almost done then break up the big ones and toss in.

If you can’t imagine a cassoulet without beans, toss some leftovers in. Don’t have leftovers? Grab a can from the pantry.

Remember at the last minute that barley adds substance, so add some quick pearl barley.

If you thought ahead now would be a good time to finish the bread and put it in the oven. If you didn’t think ahead you can still throw together some biscuits, scones or soda bread. Not even that, eh? Back to searching the fridge. Pull out the biscuit roll or (better yet) the roll of French Bread. A bit of olive oil, sesame seeds you almost couldn’t find but knew you had SOMEWHERE, a sprinkle of poppy seeds and some cracked sea salt and the quick last-minute bread is now special. When the bread’s ready, dinner’s ready.

Serve with a nice red wine, hearty Yorkshire tea or a good ale. While the bread is lovely enough to eat alone, yes I did a quick nosh from the 1st buttered hunk I ripped off, the half-full teacup was a give-away, save some for sopping, it’ll be worth it. If you have room for dessert, those oatmeal cookies you made the other day will be nice with a cold glass of milk in front of the fire, the sunset, watching rain out the window or just your favourite evening TV viewing.