Fridge Archology : Harnessing the Power Within...My Freezer!

I surely would be seeing the back of my freezer by now except a box of frozen treats appeared courtesy of EcoGrandma and EcoKiddo. However, I did work down two of my tougher freezer challenges. I made Melissa Clark's Sheet Pan Paprika Chicken this past week and she called for duck fat on some potatoes that accompany on the sheet pan. Ms. Clark has been all over the sheet pan dinners lately. Apparently she wants to pretend that she's a harried career women trying to get dinner on the table quickly after a commute rather than a food writer who works from home. Whatever works for ya sister. The recipe turned out well but the duck fat was totally unnecessary. The chicken thighs rendered so much fat that we had to get a new grease can. Barring that it was quite tasty and also used turnips from the CSA delivery.

The mighty challenge way back in the freezer was a rectangular container of frozen gravy. Crikey, I am not that much of a gravy person so it's been staring at me for awhile. I've been working my way through Ivy Manning's Easy Soups from Scratch with Quick Breads to Match when I got a brilliant idea. The "Beef Barley Soup with Lots of Veggies" called for beef broth. What if I thinned out the gravy and used that as my broth...Result: turned out great. I would give the barley more cooking time than she suggested but perhaps cooks at sea level won't have the quite toothsome barley that I did. I can also recommend from this book the "Creamy Wild Rice and Turkey Soup" which used up my last bag of Thanksgiving turkey. Thanks Ivy Manning!