You Can Take Your Hamburger Philanthropist Hand and Shove It: Day 3 of Leftover Makeovers

I know, I skipped a day. In my defense, I came home from work, ate and passed out. I was so cranky and mean yesterday too. I forgot what getting over 5 hours of sleep was like. I feel great today.On the bright side this means that I will be posting until Saturday instead of until Friday. Lucky you.

Last night we took the Unwed Husband's very small amount of leftover amazing three cheese homemade mac and cheese and whipped up some non-preservative and sodium monitored gourmet Chili Mac. This isn't your average Hamburger Helper lazy day Chili Mac. This featured delicious homemade chili and fresh cheese that you just can't get from that bleeding heart son of a bitch smiling glove. 

This Mac and Cheese is literally food for the gods. It's rich and creamy and honestly even good lumped up and cold like this.

Pictures can not begin to describe how amazing this remake was.

Refurbished Chili Mac

2 lbs of ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

4 TBS chili powder

2 TBS cumin

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup of water

1- 8 oz can of tomato 

1 cup of cheddar cheese

1 lb of cooked macaroni and cheese (Add in extra macaroni if needed)

1/2 C real mayo made with olive oil

Saute all veggies and set aside.

Brown ground beef and drain.

Place cooked veggies in a large pot with cooked beef.

Stir in all ingredients except for cheese and macaroni.

Allow to simmer for about an hour or two.

Add in mac and extra cheese and stir.

Stir in mayo until creamy.

At this point you can also add in extra add ins. My recommendations would be olives, a variety of beans, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, jalapenos and/or fresh tomatoes. 

Papas Can You Hear Me? Day 2 of Leftover Makeovers: Mashed Potato Latkes

Let me just start this off by saying I really hope this doesn't offend anyone of the Jewish faith. If anything, you should be flattered. The reason I'm saying this is because I have a confession. Although I was raised a Hispanic Catholic girl from the south, I have this unnatural obsession with being a Jewish New Yorker. I'm not sure where this obsession came from other than my upbringing where "Funny Girl" was shown alongside "Sesame Street" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" was just another lullaby. Once I grew up it became marathons of "The Nanny" and I was obsessed with the glamorous stereotype.In second grade one of the teachers was a lovely woman named Mrs. Weizmann  During the holidays she taught us all about Hanukkah  the traditions and the food. Three things happened that day. One, I begged my mother to become Jewish so I could have 8 Christmases (yeah, I know that's not quite right now). Two, I went home with my own dreidel and learned the dreidel song. Three, I tasted Potato Latkes for the first time and was hooked.

It's day two of Leftover Makeovers and dinner was one of my family's absolute favorites; breakfast for dinner buffet. The menu consisted of their choice of leftover ham, bacon, eggs, pancakes and Potato Latkes made of leftover mashed potatoes. It was heavenly. So heavenly in fact that I forgot to take a picture and by the time I remembered, they were all eaten up.

This is not my picture but it looks like it could be. That's all that matter's, right? Screw copyrights! I'm a Google rebel.

Mashed Potato Latkes

2 cups mashed potatoes 
1 large egg, beaten lightly 
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
3 TBS onion powder  
Salt and pepper 
Vegetable oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. 

In a bowl combine well the potatoes and the egg, stir in the flour thoroughly, and stir in the onion powder salt and pepper, to taste. 

In a large heavy skillet, heat 1/8-inch of the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Fry heaping tablespoons of the potato mixture, flattening them slightly with the back of the spoon, for 1 minute on each side, or until they are golden brown. Transfer the pancakes as they are cooked to paper towels to drain and if desired, keep them warm on a rack set on a baking sheet in a preheated 250 degree oven. 

Cornbread Dressing Gets a Hot New Look on This Episode of Leftover Makeover

Thanksgiving is over, the family is getting ready to vacate your house, you've sent off plates of leftovers to everyone but you still have leftovers to feed a small third world country? I can relate. My family is very much into cooking. This year, with me and the UH here, there was a lot of fresh takes on old favorites including Bacon Weaved Turkey, Praline Ham, Cornbread Dressing, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Candied Yams from scratch, gravy and the inclusion of the UH's amazing homemade Mac and Cheese. After everything, it doesn't even look like we've made a dent in the side dishes.

I know that most sites feature leftover recipes for leftover turkey. Let's get real though, is leftover turkey really a problem? I have no problem sneaking to the kitchen for a small handful of cold turkey. A small handful of mashed potatoes? Not so much. The problem lies in the side dishes. After awhile the  potatoes start getting that gross water, the dressing gets a gross color and the gravy looks like a science project. I'm here to help that. There is no need to make eating leftovers a monotonous chore. Your leftover dinners can be completely different every night. It's like thrift store eating. You shop at a thrift store, buy something someone else wore to death, bring it home and jazz it up into something new. Well, there's no reason you can't do that with leftovers.

Today's revamp? Leftover stuffing turns into beautiful Hush Puppies for a weekend fish fry. You can definitely make these healthy and bake them, but my theory is that you're taking little balls of sugary carbs and rolling them in more carbs. If you're really wanting to be healthy, why are you eating this in the first place? Bring on the oil, baby. Bring on the oil. 

Cornbread dressing was in a slump. Sure, the first few days of her existence was grand and nobody could keep their hands off of her. After awhile though, she got tired of being in the same old routine. She needed help and we here at The Unwed Housewife were more than happy to come to her rescue.

A few minutes later, a new coat and a hot oil dip and look at her now. Gorgeous! Also, she multiplied. It's weird, yes, but who are we to judge? You go, girl!

Leftover Dressing into Hush Puppies

2 C leftover cornbread dressing

1 C plain bread crumbs

enough oil to deep fry in

Heat oil in medium sized pot or deep fryer.

Take about 1 TBS of dressing and roll into a ball. 

Roll dressing ball into bread crumbs and coat completely.

Repeat until all dressing is formed into balls.

Drop into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

Take out and drain on paper towels, newspaper or paper bags. 

Serve along with fish and chips.

When Apologizing, It's Always Best to Use Bacon

I know, it seems like most of these blog posts have an apology for why I haven't been able to post lately. This time I'm not even going to explain it because it honestly just has to do with me being lazy.That's right. I'm lazy. How lazy? Well, I had this whole blog post written about a month ago and I just now got around to editing it. Yeah. That's pretty lazy. That's why I have a surprise. Not only am I posting my amazingly delicious Bacon Maple Cupcake recipe, but I'm also linking you to the most amazing Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese frosting. They are the perfect addition to a Thanksgiving dessert buffet. I took these to work on Monday for our Thanksgiving potluck and they were a huge hit.

I'm just going to keep this short and sweet because I know why you're reading this, you probably want bacon and honestly I'd like to fit a nap in before "New Girl" because today was exhausting.
And now for my apology recipe; Maple Bacon Cupcakes. Trust me, it sounds odd, but it's not. Think outside of the Duncan Hines box. Relax, lay back, pour yourself some coffee and enjoy the breakfast explosion in your mouth (that's what he said). It's like bacon and pancakes with syrup (Also what he said. He lied.).

Maple Bacon Cupcakes with Candied Bacon

Butter Cake:

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose soft-wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Paper baking cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Place paper baking cups in 2 (12-cup) muffin pans, and coat with cooking spray; spoon batter into cups, filling two-thirds full. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. While cupcakes are cooling make Candied Bacon.

Candied Bacon:

12 strips of raw bacon cut into quarters

1/2 C brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bacon and brown sugar in zipper sealed bag and shake until bacon is coated. Lay each piece on a baking sheet and bake for about seven minutes, flip bacon and then bake for five minutes more. Bacon should be crispy and sticky like toffee.

*Tip* The bacon grease and brown sugar forms an amazing sweet and salty toffee candy. It's an added bonus.

Maple Frosting:

1 cup butter

1 (16-oz.) package dark brown sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

4 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons maple flavoring

To prepare frosting, melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in evaporated milk, baking soda, and light corn syrup; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and let cool. Transfer caramel mixture to a large bowl. Gradually add powdered sugar to caramel mixture; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Stir in maple flavoring. Beat at high speed 2 minutes or until creamy. Frost using a cupcake tip, or just dip the cupcakes into the frosting for a nice even coat. Top with the candied bacon and enjoy.