Yesterday I was reading an article on the NY Times about Hanukkah recipes, and decided to whip up some latkes for dinner, since even picky eater girl loves a good latke.  I grated a couple of sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and cinnamon (Vietnamese cassia) and mixed with 3 eggs and maybe 1/2 cup of cottage cheese.  They fried up beautifully on the cast iron griddle, and were a big hit as usual.  I like the sweet potato better than standard for these, as they are easier to cook and the sweetness works well with the cottage cheese.  

Anyway, I had hit upon this plan relatively early in the day, and was wondering what to make to go with them, when I remembered the forlorn can of pickled beets in my pantry at home.  Borscht!  Vikki favors a good cold borscht, so I made it so.  I tossed two small diced yellow Finn potatoes and about 5 cloves of garlic into 3 or so cups of chicken broth, and cooked until the potato was soft, then cooled it down with ice.  When it was cool I added the juice from the pickled beets, as well as the beets themselves (chopped), salt, pepper and the juice of one lemon, as well as about 4 more cloves chopped raw garlic, and some fresh dill.  To serve, I added some sour cream (low fat) and some homemade sauerkraut which was very chunky and crunchy.  I'll definitely be doing this one again.  It was fantastic.  Sweet, sour, crunchy, beety goodness with just enough bite from the garlic.  When we were first married, we lived up stairs from a nice Russian lady who really liked Vikki and was always bringing her food.  This was a lot like I remember her cold borscht, only hers was clear.  I used Pacific Foods organic chicken broth which was not clear, and I'm not much for the skimming.  But the flavor was pretty close, I think.  If only I could find some good dark rye...

I love leftovers.  There are an infinite range of possibilities for reusing stuff.  I surveyed the fridge last night, and decided to kill two leftover birds with one stone.  I took the last of the kahlua pork and some leftover greens cooked in coconut milk and used them to stuff enchiladas.  I drained the greens, and filled each enchilada with some pork and greens, rolled them up, and topped them with some Tex-Mex style red chile gravy.  Basically instead of the New Mexico style red chile and water enchilada sauce, this is more like standard gravy (begun with a roux and everything) with lots of red chile, cumin and garlic.  To top it off I (or rather the 9 year old) grated a bit of Tillamook extra-vintage white cheddar, which proved just the thing.  30 minutes at 350° and all was good.  They were a bit hit, and I'll definitely be playing with the chile gravy some more.  It would be just the thing for a good CFS.

I had some leftover kahlua pork, so decided to try some kahlua pig and cabbage, which is basically just that.  Leftover pork with cabbage and onions in a little chicken broth.  Very easy, a great way to stretch leftovers, and just the thing to go with kimchi.  I had some from the store that was getting a little old, and yesterday I made up two big batches of napa kimchi with some nice locally grown napa cabbages I scored at Uwajimaya.  Since I was in the mood I hacked up the cabbage I didn't throw in with the pork and made a batch of sauerkraut too.  It's always nice to have a few crocks of something bubbling on the counter top. 

I also had my first taste of full-on poi this weekend.  I've cooked and mashed taro a bunch of times, but never had official poi until I found some at the store this weekend.  It's certainly bland, but it went really well with the pork and cabbage, and is very filling.  And supposedly it's really good for you.  Plus, there's something just plain cool about purple food.