This is great - having a place to park my daily rants. My loyal readers are sending me some good stuff to balance out the rants - so that I can sneak in some non-rants.
Clover sent the link to the gift section at the USPS - a good option for people who are still planning on participating in the gifty portion of 2020:
The BigHelpfulBrother sent me a very exciting link to origami gift wrapping. I am not participating in the gifty portion of the year, but I might allow myself some origami time - just for fun.
Origami gift wrapping. the tree package is currently the 4th one on the top row.
FOOD TOPIC (gets ranty at the end)
If anyone tried the Greek pizza, you (we) found ourselves with leftovers of Greek olives, roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese. Remember how peeved I was about always having left over pizza sauce? Well, you could make another pizza - but there is another option if you are not in the mood for pizza. After surviving the years with teenagers, I rarely feel like even looking at pizza.
The leftovers from the pizza are all the things you need to make Greek chili. There are a gazillion recipes for Greek chili, white chili, turkey chili - they are all variations that include those items and usually some ground turkey or leftover turkey - plus garbanzo beans. Depending on how you like your soup/chili - you just dump the leftovers (olives, artichokes, roasted peppers) in a pot. And add a few things.
Add a can of tomatoes (diced or cut them up if they are whole) if you want a reddish meal. You can make it work without tomatoes - but it will be more of a soup. Add a can of tomato sauce if you want to make it more like chili and make a larger quantity.
Add some (chicken/veg) broth (or chicken base, if you keep that in the fridge) - more if you like it thinner, less if you like it thicker. Thicker means you added tomatoes.
Add one or both: a can of garbanzo beans and/or turkey or chicken or maybe anything else that sounds good. Chicken or turkey may be leftover or new. You don't actually have to brown new meat. You can just put it in the pot. You can make it work without the garbanzo beans - and maybe without both of these items -- but I think it would be a little boring.
Add herbs if you feel like it. Oregano, thyme, Italian mix, or basil.
Heat it up (allow extra time for cooking meat if it is new/raw) - top with feta cheese when serving - and it will be yummy. If you like spicy stuff - add those pepper flakes or anything hot. Lemon juice is also REQUIRED - see below.
Gourmet option: If you want to get all cheffy - sauté some onions and garlic before you start dumping. Those people who think they deserve to be fed will be tricked by the lovely aroma of onion and garlic. I once read a tip that sautéing onion an garlic was the easiest way to make *those people* think that you were spending time making something delicious - when in fact, you might be just dumping leftovers and cans of stuff in a pot.
Another secret: Salt things right before serving (if you actually dish things up for those people). If you tell them to serve themselves, put the salt shaker where they can see it with a note, telling them to add salt.
LEMON JUICE - you really have to drizzle some lemon juice into this dish - before serving. It takes time, but those people can be trained to squeeze some lemon. It's interesting how the lemon juice is magical. Maybe all y'all already knew that. If you don't have lemons on hand - use vinegar.
Feta is good - but if you don't have any, sour cream works - or any kind of cheese - within reason. I wouldn't take cooking lessons from me - but, I do have some tips to make some things that are easy and better than *straight out of a can.*
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