I hope to develop a more structured approach eventually, but as we're starting out, i'm probably going to spend a substantial amount of verbage on my background and overall philosophies that influence my cooking.
One such point that comes from my asian heritage - waste nothing. so i will often recycle something that started life as part of another recipe, and use it to make something else.
Some of the thing i made last week included potstickers, and braised oxtail over smashed potatoes.(these recipes will also get a blog post of its own eventually) . I also sampled the wares of two popular "gourmet" trucks in the past two weeks - a dumpling truck and a grilled cheese sandwich truck. These events all factor into some of this week's meals.
I should also mention that I hail from northeast Ohio - settled primarily by central and eastern europeans, including the Polish. Among the mighty wonderful conributions the poles have made to civilization, i personally rank the pierogi way near the top (just below Copernicus). The pierogi is the polish version of a potsticker/ravioli/stuffed dumpling. Back in ohio, i used to schlep over to a polish restaurant for lunch and enjoy a plate of potato pierogi with sour cream and grilled onions on the side (for only $1.25), then go back to work and wait for the food coma to hit me.
Tying all this together: I had a unopened package of leftover store bought potsticker wrappers ($.99 for 38) (yes, i cheat and use store bought wrappers, it saves me a lot of time, and i've never been that good working with flour, asides from my chocolate chip cookies.), and leftover smashed potatoes (the unpeeled potatoes were cut into 1" chunks, then steamed over the braising ox tails, so they absorbed some of those flavors, - and because they weren't immersed in liquid, a lot fluffier - i imagine that the same technique would work for rice, i need to try that). So I made pierogis.
Traditional stuffings include potato/ potato & cheese/ sauerkraut/ prunes. I went with a simple potato/cheese filling. I cut some sharp cheddar cheese into 1/2" chunks, and inserted one chunk of cheese into the potato filling as I wrapped each pierogi. Traditionally, pierogi are first boiled then sauteed, but i saved myself some time and effort by using the potsticker cooking method, browning them over medium heat, then adding a little water and covering them so that they fiinish cooking using steam. There were a little on the crispy side this way, made them more remiscent of jiao-tse. but with sour cream, grilled onion and kielbasi.... yeah.
Here's why I mentioned the grilled cheese sandwich truck: their specialty is a sandwich made with macaroni and cheese filling (you can use their menu for inspiration on how to liven up your current grilled cheese recipe. http://www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com/Pages/menus.aspx). I still had some leftover potato, about enough to cover a slice of bread. Yes, i made a a grilled mashed potato and cheese sandwich (bread brushed with the olive oil used to pack my oven dried tomatoes, layers of sharp cheddar cheese on top and bottom of the layer of mashed potato which had faint essences of red wine and oxtail) and ate it with one of my homemade garlic pickles (another blog post for those) on the side. I thought it was pretty good. I think it works because you are essentially exchanging one comfort food (mac & cheese) for another (mashed potatoes), but with a crispy texture on the outside.
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