In taking stock of things in our pantry, I found some items that I was not very excited about, but knew we needed to use, among them 3 jars of pickles, and 4 boxes of cake mix. I personally prefer the refrigerated pickles, so these have been in there for a while. My sister suggested maybe I could use the cake mix to batter and fry the pickles. Great idea! Except after tasting the cake mix, I realized the cake mix was way too sweet to work. Also, we’re short on eggs, so I figured the cake mix would have to sit out this round.
However, I did have some cheap beer in the fridge (that I bought for some slug traps in the garden), and thought — beer-batter! Although it was not my most creative meal, one of the things that made it more fun and enjoyable was having a cooking party with friends (through online video chat)! We each got a glass of wine or cocktail, said a toast to good health and good friends, and then cooked. I highly recommend online meetings with friends (it works for cooking, exercise, family “gathering”) and certainly makes you feel connected…
All of us had great success with our dinners and we were also able to engage our families (and teenage cooks) in the process. Everyone agreed that their dinners turned out better than they expected and they would make them again.
My beer batter was light and airy, and the fried pickles were almost as good as I’ve had at our favorite beer garden (again, I think refrigerated pickles would be an upgrade). I ended up with more batter than I needed, so we found some frozen cod in the freezer and defrosted and fried it up too. Not the healthiest dinner I’ve ever made, although honestly I can’t actually remember the last time I fried anything. I would give it 4 stars (the family said 5)…
Here are the photos:
My mother’s fried pickles are one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. I also really like them with ranch dressing!
– Comment from my 8-year old
Here are some additional submissions from yesterday. Keep them coming people! So inspiring!
Robin T: Spinach pie. We had phyllo dough, breadcrumbs, nuts and spinach in the freezer. Did add the feta to the cart when we grocery shopped last weekend…
Kim V: Breakfast spring rolls – had rice paper wrappers, 1/2 a jalapeno pepper, a small amount of cilantro, leftover rice, bacon and a couple eggs. Yum!
Jasmine E: We are not suffering… Szechuan noodles with leftover beef and oldest veggies from the fridge. No store visit though…
Pantry of Creativity 