It doesn’t happen to me often, but every once in awhile I ‘ruin’ dinner. I should clarify that if you’ve completely burnt dinner to a crisp, or baked the roast with the plastic still on it, then just go ahead and start dialing the pizza place now. But sometimes, I ruin dinner enough that while it won’t make a whole dinner. . .it might survive some type of make over that will spare us from forking over the cash for pizza.
Case in point: last night I tried to cook a roast that wasn’t fully thawed. Yes, I know–that’s not really a great way to cook a roast. But it needed to be cooked, and well, I reasoned that if I cooked it longer it would get done.
I’m sure you’re guessing what happened–the top was overly done and the center wasn’t done enough. Which brings me to my first salvage technique. . .
The Carving Knife
One of the trickier things about preparing a large piece of meat is to get the inside done enough without over cooking the outside. But if you happen to have a nice piece of crust or skin burnt to a crisp that gives way to a juicy piece of meat. . .cut the burnt parts out.
If it’s pork roast or beef roast, you can use them for sandwiches (assuming that you had to move to plan B for dinner) the next day. Chicken can be turned into chicken salad or used in another dish that requires chunks of chicken.
Breakfast on Hand
Let’s say you’ve completely bombed on the dinner front. . .keeping something for breakfast as a dinner time meal is an excellent way to avoid ordering out. Besides, it’s fun to eat breakfast for dinner.
Over Rice and Sauce
Can your ruined meal be remade with some sauce and then poured over rice or noodles? Cream of mushroom, with onions and sour cream can make stroganoff; tomato sauce with Italian seasonings, parmesan and mozzarella cheese over noodles can become an Italian pasta dish. Teriaki sauce with pineapples over rice can be sweet and sour. Really, your options for creativity are limitless.
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