The Christmas crazies have officially started! This coming week is gonna be a weird one, in that I’m cooking almost zero dinners at home. Tonight I feasted on samples from Tom’s Tabooley the Better Bites of Austin holiday gift fair. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I’m eating at social events for every meal except one. Monday morning, my husband and I head out to California for a week to spend time with family for the holidays! If you lost count, that means I only need to cook two dinners. So. What to do with the rest of the local box?
I’m going to try to make and freeze a few big casseroles with some of the food. That way I’ll have some dinners stored up for when we get home from California. The rest of the food will either stay in the pantry or get served up at a baby shower I’m hosting on Saturday. Here are the ingredients for Greenling Iron Chef, casserole edition:
- Assorted Peppers – Lundgren
- Persimmons – Oasis
- Butternut Squash – Gunderman
- Yellow Onion – Naegelin
- French Breakfast Radish – Acadian
- Oriental Turnips – Acadian
- Lettuce Mix – My Father’s Farm
- Collard Greens – My Father’s Farm
- Meyer Lemon- Acadian
Here’s what I’m going to do with each thing. I borrowed Stephanie’s meal plan format for this one, organizing by ingredient rather than day of the week:
Lettuce Mix & Radishes: this is a biga** bag of lettuce. We’ll eat it for both dinners along with a few radishes and some classic vinaigrette from Joan Nathan’s new French cookbook.
Peppers, Onions, Collard Greens: The peppers and onions will make a great enchilada sauce. I’ll fill the enchiladas with jack cheese, steamed collard greens and leftover shredded turkey that’s been in the freezer since Thanksgiving, spiced up with cumin and chile powder, of course. These will freeze great until we get home from vacation.
Turnips: These puppies are going into a sweet, custard-like casserole that we can eat for breakfast and snacks.
Sweet Potatoes & Butternut Squash, Lemons & Persimmons: these are all going in the fridge or pantry until we get home from California. Fingers crossed that the persimmon will chill in the fridge and keep ripening once we get home.