What's For Dinner?

Most people wake up thinking about what to have for breakfast. I wake up wondering what to have for dinner. Does this make me odd?

Bill and I have been working our way through the mountain of leftovers from the hordes of houseguests in April. We finally made it through the refrigerator leavings last night, and now we can get started on the leftovers I stashed in the freezer. We still have most of a pork roast lurking in there, along with a packet of home-grown asparagus from Elaine's mom, lovingly transported from Vermont in an ice chest. And the four steamed new potatoes I saw way back on the fourth shelf last night. That will make a nice dinner tonight. Okay, now I can get out of bed, dinner plans are taken care of.

Cooking for two is hard sometimes. I'm used to preparing groaning quantities of food for family and the friends they dragged home, and I'm still having a difficult time scaling down my cooking to something Bill and I won't have to be eating night after night. Cooking for one when he's gone is somewhat of a sacramental exercise for me. I like taking the time and trouble to cook something wonderful for myself; I like the meditation of it, and the respect for myself it signifies. But the eating of it, alone, is dissatisfying.

Cooking for Bill is easy though, because he will eat whatever I put in front of him, as long as it's on time. Years of eating at set hours on a ship has given him a stomach with a timer, if not a discerning palate. And some nights, when we're both feeling lazy or busy, we'll just have snacks instead of a meat-and-three-sides plate. One of the things I really like about this guy is that he thinks that anything I cook is wonderful.

But what I really crave, what I really want, is Reuben Hush Puppies. These high-calorie bombs of fried goodness is what I've been hankering for, despite my disciplined healthy dinner plans.
I may just have to make them and get it over with, and then pay for it on the elliptical exercise machine for the next month.

The list of ingredients is long, but they are easy to prepare. They make great leftovers too. They must have about 100 calories each, and no one can eat just one. They are my downfall.

Reuben Hush Puppies

Mix in a bowl:

1 cup leftover cooked Corned Beef, diced (or 4 oz. deli wt. diced)
3 slices Rye Bread with seeds, pulverized in food processor or blender to crumbs
1/2 cup sauerkraut, squeezed dry and minced
1/2 cup dill pickle, diced
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced
1 egg
2 Tbls. dill pickle juice
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix together--batter will be very wet and sloppy. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

While it's chilling, cut a chunk of Swiss cheese into 24 pieces --1/2" squares -- and heat 2" peanut oil in a 2 quart deep saucepan --you're shooting for 350 degrees.

Use a Tablespoon or medium scoop, press a cube of Swiss cheese into the middle and enclose completely in the wet batter, and drop into hot oil using a soup spoon (you can do about 6 at a time in a 6" wide saucepan).

Cook for about 3 minutes, turning occasionally until crisp and very brown, drain on paper towels. Check temp of oil and adjust heat, make another 6 wet balls and cook those. Etc. Serve hot with 1000 Island Dressing as a dipping sauce.

Postscript: After a dinner of these, plan on spending 60 minutes a day on the elliptical or treadmill until you lose those extra 5 pounds you gained from eating these until swooning and overstuffed. Meditate on the sin of gluttonous overindulgence.