Magic Freezer Week

First, a quick mention that I forgot yesterday. I took a bit of a departure this week at Well-Fed and tried my hand at writing for a different platform- The Cook's Kitchen. The article I submitted was a product review, that you just have to check out to believe.

This week has been all about eating out of the freezer. I honestly did not do that on purpose. I guess not feeling too much like cooking for a few days makes one get a little more creative to not do work-yet feed the family well. (Does that make sense?)

It started Monday with the found pan of enchiladas. Then on Tuesday I had planned to attempt egg curry, but was missing some ingredients when DH declared his intention to grill. A quick rifle through the freezer uncovered a pork tenderloin that was thawed and marinated to accompany some cheezy rice and vegetables. Wednesday was ballet class, and a snowstorm to boot, so I made some homemade bread and pulled a frozen container of chili out of the freezer to warm in the crockpot while we were gone. Wednesday to Thursday I also managed to but something INTO the freezer as I gently simmered up some ham stock from Sunday's ham bone, and now I have a pot of navy bean soup waiting for further instruction.

This brings me to last night. Zander wanted spaghetti. I wanted something different. Peering into my little freezer I found the container of leftover smoked salmon from a few weeks ago. This needed to be used and was going to be my inspiration. A month or so ago in an issue of Everyday Food magazine, they had featured a pasta made with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers. I remember eyeing it up because it looked really good. I decided to play off of that. I did have to run and pick up some cream cheese- as I wanted the chive and onion flavors and my chives were buried under snow. I also picked up some bowtie pasta- I wanted those little curvy shapes to pick up the luxurious sauce I would be making.

It began with a few tablespoons of chopped yellow onion. They gently cooked in butter until translucent before meeting up with a little bit of milk. Next came 8 ounces of chive and onion cream cheese, and plenty of black pepper. This was stirred and stirred until combined and creamy, and then the salmon was pulled into pieces and dropped in. After this had simmered together for awhile, I added a handful of leftover green peas for color, and a bit of the pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce up and it was done. A quick toss with some bow tie pasta and some thinly sliced raw red onions proved to be delicious. Smoked Salmon Pasta is in the recipe trove, but please adjust the ingredients as you see fit. I think you could use the commercially smoked salmon with no problems, and I also think this would make a good cold salad if done properly. Anyway you do it, the flavors really sang together, and we enjoyed this one.