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 Posted By: chubbyalaskagriz 
Jan 14  # 1 of 6
You haven't gotten groceries yet and your fridge and pantry are low on goodies- yet you need to make a meal. So, you piece together a haphazard dish or menu from a bit of this and that. You don't have all the exact proper ingredients- so you improvise. And sometimes you're lucky enough to come up with something SO OUTSTANDING that you don't think you could ever duplicate it again in a million years!

I did just this tonight! My sister was an hour away at my niece's practice, so I had to pick-up my nephew and a pair of his buds from their practice and get them fed.

Sister's kitchen was low on ingredients, but she did have some chili and some wagon wheel pasta and smidgens of sour cream, cool cucumber-ranch chip dip, some ham/olive cheese-ball, cream cheese, and dry nubs of about 5 kinds of cheeses ranging from bleu and smoked cheddar to munster.

So I re-heated the chili to ladle over bowls of piping-hot crusty improvised mac 'n cheese. The boys said it was the very BEST mac & cheese they'd ever had! Truth be told- it was yummy! Now- my only hope is that none of the boys' moms call and ask for the recipe, 'cause if they do, I'll almost be embarrassed to tell'em!

What about YOU? What delicious versions of a dish have you thrown together in a panic w/ just small amounts of this 'n that, only to result in just about the best version you'd ever tasted?
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 Posted By: jpshaw 
Jan 14  # 2 of 6
One of my veggie soups came about just that way Kevin. I came home to an empty house and was really in the mood for soup. One carrot, two small onions and the remainder of a celery bunch that was so limp you could tie it into a knot. While the celery was way too gone for a salad, limp is not too much of a problem if cooked. Soooo, everything was chopped and put into a saucepan with about 2 or 3 cups of chicken broth (made from a low sodium mix) along with a salt sub, pepper and some thyme. It just looked sick so I dumped a can of NSA (No Salt Added) tomato sauce in there and it was pretty good. It has evolved over time to a very good veggie soup where the onion, some celery and the sauce has changed to NSA diced tomatoes, which are run through a blender before adding the "Show Veggies" of the rest of the celery and chopped carrots then simmered for another 30 minutes. BTW the base onion, celery mix is sauted first then the diced tomatoes before being blended.
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 Posted By: chubbyalaskagriz 
Jan 14  # 3 of 6
Sounds quite yummy, JP! :) Sometimes the finest things result from "accidents"!
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 Posted By: Cook Chatty Cathy 
Jan 14  # 4 of 6
I love your amazing and imaginative kitchen skills guys!!! Wow both those sound so good! I do that alot with stuff I take to work.

Oh..not to change the subject, but just gotta share this>>> last night me and my grandchildren made a batch of p-nut butter cookies, my little 5 yr. old grandson said "Mommy never lets us help in the kitchen like you do!" They were all so cute rolling out the cookie dough balls, and then smashing the tops with the fork tines. I told my hubby "The Keebler Elves are in there whipping out a great batch of cookies!":) They had a large cookie sheet covered in nothin' flat! My goodness they were the best I ever had!
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 Posted By: chubbyalaskagriz 
Jan 15  # 5 of 6
Isn't spending time w/ kids (especially in the kitchen!) fun, Cathy? :)