Elicoidali al ragu.
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That’s a classic! Where’s the veg, though? No side dish at all!
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One nearly empty sour cream container where the bulk of the remaining is the hard to scrape stuff off the sides, a bit of milk, a bit of flour, cornstarch, panko, cornflake crumbs, paprika and ginger, some milk and a chicken quarter = Oven-fried chicken.
Pour the milk into the sour cream container, mix well. Put the lid on and shake it to help clean off the sides. Let it sit for a bit so the sour cream can help sour the milk.
Add the milk mix to the chicken and marinate a couple of hours. Mix the dry ingredients and coat the marinated chicken. Toss leftover marinade (and any leftover coating mix when you’re done).
Spray with oil and cook in a cast-iron frying pan in the oven at around 410 for 35 to 40 minutes until the internal temperature meets health guidelines.
The skin and the marinade help prevent it from drying out. It’s simple, uses common ingredients (use your own choice of spices) and most importantly, uses up leftovers so there’s less waste.
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Leftover chicken stock - not enough for risotto but enough for a small pot of chicken soup big enough for a home-schooling lunch for the Teen and I.
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When I’ve been in shape to stand up long enough, I’ve been making yeast leavened waffles. The basic proportions to the batter are—
2 cups flour
One-half stick butter melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
One-fourth teaspoon salt
Enough milk to give a thick, batter consistency
Mix together the dry ingredients then add eggs, slightly beaten. Mix in cooled melted butter until eggs and butter are well-distributed. Add milk. The rising process moves more quickly if the milk is warmed before adding. Set bowl in warm spot and check frequently. When the batter reaches near the top of the bowl use a spoon to punch down and remix. Batter may be used after the second rise.
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Pandemic cooking. Leftover spätzle—my little sparrows. Had used up the last of the store-bought spaghetti noodles a couple weeks ago, but currently have flour and eggs on hand, so.
And my extra-fancy spätzle-maker 
(Chromebook POV, lol)
The colander is a relic from the ‘70s, bought at a thrift store for pennies sometime in the ‘80s I think. I’ve since gotten small and large stainless-steel footed colanders that are much nicer and work better for most uses, but I hang on to the orange plastic one because it fits right on that pot and works great for spätzle.
@FGD135 do you make spätzle from scratch? (or anyone here?) I have a hard time telling when they’re done cooking. Supposedly they’re done in one-to-two minutes, when they float to the surface—but these floated immediately, and still tasted raw. So I let them cook for a couple more minutes, and then by the time I got them all skimmed off the surface it was even longer. I liked the texture when they were underdone—light, airy, almost cakey, like a drop dumpling—but as I said they tasted raw. In the end they got pretty firm. Is there a point at which spätzle are considered overcooked?
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I just realized how strange the perspective is in that photo of the pot and colander, taken with my chromebook. That pot is actually a 12-quart soup pot, and the colander is 10 inches across, but in that photo they look diminutive, like child’s toys. The spoon is actually a big serving spoon.
Thinking about that reminds me of the times I spent working seasonal temp in a toy warehouse. My job was opening cases of toys and putting price stickers on the individual toys. So I got to handle the separate units that would go on the shelves, and see all the toys. Most of the toys didn’t grab me, but the one toy I craved to own was this child-size set of stainless-steel pots and pans.
https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Stainless-Pretend-Kitchen/dp/B00CPHX6YI
They’re just like real pots and pans, only smaller. They are just so cute and appealing (to me anyway) I could hardly stand it. I nearly bought them for myself, not because I have any need of toy pots and pans, but just because I wanted to have them.
(Not trying to push that manufacturer, or amazon—just talking about how much I wanted to have that toy cookware—still do 
)
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I still use the “child’s” size pots I got when I was 4 or 5. Seriously well made, just right for small jobs.
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I think I made the Best Dinner EverTM last night (at least per my husband).
- Crispy bone-in chicken thighs with burst tomatoes and chard in a buttery garlic sauce (the chard is from my garden )
- Pan-fried risotto cake
- Side salad (pilfered from work and gussied up with toppings and dressing from home)
Yes, that’s a glass of chocolate milk. My other half can’t survive without the stuff… his plate turned out prettier than mine so that’s the pic I snapped.
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Many years ago, a friend invited me to go with her to her mother’s house for the weekend. They requested that I would bake a cheesecake while I was there.
I needed to melt butter for the graham-cracker crust… There was a rack on the wall near the stove holding a set of small, graduated-sized copper-bottomed stainless-steel pans, and the largest one was a good size for melting the butter, so I took it down and put the butter in it and put it on the stove. Just as I turned on the gas under it, her mother came rushing over saying No No No those were decorations, and that putting it on the heat would ruin the looks of it.
To this day I wonder if that set of small pans was originally sold to be a decoration, or to be a toy, or if they were just some small-sized pans that she chose to keep on the wall for display.
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Shaking my head at the notion that you can’t use PANS because that might ruin them.
Has she never heard of copper cleaner?
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Bar Keepers Friend is my go to for that.
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Stale Triscuits and pizza pepperoni. Breakfast of Champions.
(TBH, probably more nutritious than Frosted Mini Wheats).
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Did they look anything like this:
Revere Ware. It’s sort of an earlier answer to affordable tri-ply stainless cookware. The thick copper cladding distributes heat very well, but you’re cooking on non-reactive stainless. They’re very good pots and pans, though the handles are a weak point.
They were popular enough through the 70’s and 80’s that they were made in all sorts of formats and sizes. Including children’s toy pans that were entirely functional and identical to similar sized “real” pans. We have some tiny sauce pans, one was originally sold as a measuring cup, another was apparently specifically for melting butter, both from the set my mother got for her wedding. But we have an older one that was purportedly from a neighbor’s kid’s set. They’re all the same pot, save for age and the measuring cup having some measurements embossed on the side. And we’ve got a skillet that’s exactly the size for one egg, and a matching one for two eggs.
Either way if it was Revere Ware it was perfectly functional and from what I understand this stuff wasn’t particularly fancy cookware, but it was good cookware. It had some cache and it’s very collectible now, but I don’t get the it’s not for using element there.
I was meant to inherit my Great Grandmothers set. My aunt offered to store them for me while I was at college, while apparently throwing a fit behind my back. And promptly “lost” the pans. Every once and a while she asks me where they ended up as if she doesn’t know.
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I wish I had a full set like that! And so well maintained.
Years ago, I went into the Corelle/Corning/Revere outlet store to try to find replacement plastic lids for the mixing bowls, and the most knowledgeable person there didn’t even know that a set of bowls used to come with the pans if you bought one of the collections.
Over the years, I’ve dallied with fancier pans, and at this point about half of what I use is other, ritzier stuff, but I will NEVER get rid of my Revere ware. Those pans will last as long as cast iron, and are a heck of a lot easier to take care of! Also, a lot lighter. The only down side is that they don’t work on induction burners.
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Well that picture is from Wikipedia.
Revere, Corning cookware and pyrex cookware all went through a tough spot in the 80’s. Ended up all bought out by Corelle, who ended up bought up by a shitty financial group and assembled into a company called World Kitchen.
Since the 90’s they’ve been pushing what are effectively low grade knock offs of the classic products. I’ve gone into a corelle/revere outlet and the staff wasn’t even aware they made cook ware. And I would not trust any of the recently produced material.
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More products ruined by late stage capitalism. Today’s so-called “Pyrex” cookware is just garden-variety tempered soda-lime glass instead of borosilicate like it should be. [ETA: Naturally, it’s the same clowns who ruined Corelle and RevereWare.]
I kept that in mind when I needed to shop for a baking dish, and bought an Oxo that actually was borosilicate.
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I think you’ve summed it up well. Unfortunately, it’s the story of so many previously-well-constructed products (ah, I see I’m following @GoatCheezInfrno in making that observation).
You’ll get my now-vintage Revere ware when you pry them from my cold, dead hands!
(Note: how can something be vintage if I bought it as an adult? What does that make me?)
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