Fun with Leftovers -- Chili Eggs Benny and More! (Duh, Did You SEE all That Tuna Casserole I Made?)

 

{Note for those of you signed up for email notifications:  I do not know why Blogger sends out the email sometimes as long as 24 hours after I (or other blogger, too, I've noticed) actually publish the new post, but it happens way too frequently.  Sorry and I am trying to figure out how to add feed and other buttons so you can follow that way.  I'm publishing five days a week now so please check back. And, again, my apologies.  I'm hoping, someday to find a human to speak with at Blogger. Current research show no live humans work there.  Wherever there is. Out in the Blogocyberspherical Interwebs?} 

Enough with the disclaimer, on to important matters. 

Food.  Duh.  

{What did you think I was going to say? My usual melancholy over the same old abysmal turnout in Tuesday's Elections?  The ripple effect of the financial meltdown in the Mediterranean (which has been going on way longer than the last few weeks it has finally made above the fold p.1), how cute and ridiculously entertaining my cats are? Nah, you know all that already.}

BEHOLD (above), friends, the magic of leftovers! Remember last week's easiest chili ever?  Here it is again, on an English muffin topped with perfect poached eggs (I am seriously proud of my egg poaching prowess, it should be on my resume) and I will do one post soon on the secrets of the perfect poach.  I make good Hollandaise, too, but, well, I do not really like the stuff.  So, at home I do cheese, usually Parm.  But chili benny calls for dipping into hubby's taco blend.

{above} Everything I need (except chili and cheese, still in fridge).  Toasted muffin, gorgeous Amish eggs from the Del Ray farmers' market, vinegar (the giant jug I keep under the sink to clean everything), beloved mini long handled strainer (no idea where I got these but I use them all the time), wooden spoon to stir up a vortex int he water and to be nice to my pans, and a tablespoon for the vinegar. On my favorite blue and white dish that hand I hand carried back from Japan. (I think it was $12, in the restaurant district in Tokyo, and made IN Japan, unlike many other dishes there which were made in China.  Seriously.)

Large pan, shallow water. And yes, my kitchen is the size of a postage stamp.  Best use of nine feet of space. Ever.

Too Much Tuna -- What to do (Let's not call it a tuna casserole, let's just call it a tuna bake)

Tuna is good for me.  Love me a great tuna steak.  But canned tuna, eh.  Though I keep trying (see first sentence:  Tuna is good for me. And you.).  Also, I keep buying it.  Evidently I keep forgetting that I haven't eaten canned tuna in a while because I don't love it.  So I buy more, and it joins my collection of forgotten tuna.

Witness, friends:  My tuna problem.  My oppor-TUNA-ty (ooo, yeah, that was bad, but I couldn't resist ... )

[And yes, I did rearrange re-pose my tuna so the labels were facing forward and the "bags" or pouches or whatever they are were standing instead of floundering - ha! - on top of the cans.]

My Tuna Solution:

New recipe -- Every Day Food Magazine's Tuna Casserole (with a few tiny tweaks -- who am I to heavily edit Martha Stewart? Nobody, I tell you, nobody.)

My version:

I used Barilla's extra fiber small shells, rather than elbow macaroni, and extra Parmesan. Duh.
Oh, and it was (still is) delish!

It was actually challenging to find the recipe online. But my researcher skills kicked in and I got it for you.  In the October issue is a feature called "better-for-you-bakes" and I fell for the closeup of a giant spoonful of this recipe.  The photo was about five inches large on ipad which is how I get the subscription.  There are pluses and minuses to magazine e-versions versus the paper versions.  But, for me, despite the fact that I prefer the tactile pleasure of actual paper, the e-versions now come down heavy on the plus side.  E-mags are vital to my husband's mental health which is not good when he  sees magazines everywhere he turns in the house ... but that's another blog post.