Leftovers

Today, y'all, it's all about leftovers

My good friend Mitch and I are taking leftovers to a whole new level, y'all

We're turning last night's dinner into two fabulous creations. It's a chicken Caesar pita pizza and a divine poppy seed chicken casserole

Look at this. Yum. Then Mitch makes us his all-time favorite leftover, y'all

It's pretzel mashed potato bites with a mustard dipping sauce. It is outrageous, and don't forget to leave room for dessert

because we've got grilled French bread dessert sandwiches. God, I love coming to your house

I am in here in the kitchen today with a very much loved personal friend of mine and Michael's

Mitch Pennell, and Mitch is a genius with leftovers, y'all. First, we're going to start off with our poppy seed chicken casserole

I had some leftover poached chicken, and Mitch is slicing that up for us

I've got two nice fat portabellas that I'm going to just slice off

Tell everybody what you do. I have a non-for-profit organization in Chicago

We basically scour the alleys and the dumpsters and the trash. My kind of shopping, baby

Any place we can find discard and things that have sort of lost value and are no longer wanted

we repurpose those into beautiful accessories and home furnishings. And like the pieces I brought today, beautiful serving pieces

Those look delicious. Don't they look delicious? I love portobello mushrooms, though

And you are slicing that chicken just beautifully, Mitch. Thank you. All right, now I'm going to add an 8-ounce carton of sour cream

Yum. Mitch is crushing us up, y'all. One sleeve of butter crackers

and I'm adding a can of cream of chicken soup. All right, so those mushrooms are working their way

into that sour cream, Mitch, and that cream of chicken soup. I've got probably about a half a cup of slivered almonds

and I like those so much better than I do the sliced. Now I'm going to add a tablespoon of poppy seeds

Our little individual casseroles are going to have just a little buttery crunch topping

Yum. That we're going to put on them. So just that simple

We have taken this leftover poached chicken and turned it into almost like a chicken divan

Yum. Only it's got mushrooms instead of broccoli. May I taste it

Please stick your finger in. Mmm. Mmm. So American, isn't it? That's yummy

All right, so I'm going to add the butter, about two tablespoons of melted butter

over the buttery crackers, and that's going to make our top crust. All right, now we've got some little individual casserole dishes down here

so we're going to personalize them. I love that idea because it makes someone feel special

that they get their little individual casserole at the table, you know? All right

I'm going to put the chicken in. And I'm going to finish this crust up

And just that quickly, we're ready. Ready to roll? Yeah. I'm just going to coat that chicken with that sauce

Oh, that looks so good. Doesn't it look good? Just like that. And you did a magnificent job of slicing that chicken

Well, thank you, thank you, thank you. What can I say? We ready to go? So come on down here, yes

All right, let's load these things up. Let's move this over here. and I'm just gonna load this up with our casserole ingredients

I've got some cute little casserole dishes, so it makes it kind of special, doesn't it

Yeah, it does. I love it served that way, Paula. Do you want these fully covered with the crust, Paula

Yeah, don't you think? Yeah. I'm just gonna use my hands here. Yes

You know, the best tools that you can have in your kitchen

are the tools that God gave you. And that's those pans. All right

So we're going to cover these, y'all, with tinfoil. And we're going to bake them for about 15 minutes covered

And then we're going to take the foil off and cook them for like another 10 minutes

And that'll brown them off, right? Yeah. So that'll crisp up our crackers and kind of brown them off

How's that look? Mm-mm-mm-mm. All right, let me slap some foil on here

Just like that. Matt. I think we are ready to pop this in the oven

We are in Venice. All right, what's this oven set at, Paula? It's set at 350

Great. Remember, 15 minutes covered, 10 minutes naked. And in we go Coming up next wait till you see what we do with some leftover mashed potatoes I love the way they frying up

And then Mitch and I prepare individual chicken Caesar pita pizzas. The hot pita with the fine tuna cheese is the bomb

And later, we're carrying our leftovers through dessert, y'all, with these wonderful grilled French bread sandwiches

All right, Paula, I have a really special recipe to share with you

You do? These are called pretzel potato bites. You're going to start here with four cups of leftover mashed potatoes

Okay. And these are just a homemade... Just homemade mashed potatoes. Peeled mashed potato

And you're going to add about a half a cup of flour. Okay. To that, you're going to add an egg

You want that consistency to be just a little bit pasty, just like you're making a potato pancake. Right

Okay. And then you want to add about a tablespoon of mustard

Okay, and I'm just going to eyeball this, Mitch. Absolutely. And again, that's to taste

I think I know what a tablespoon looks like after 100 years in the kitchen

Absolutely. Now, in the meantime, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start dipping sauce of these

We're going to do about a half a cup of mayonnaise. Okay. That's where we're going to start. I like it already

Then we're going to add, oh, about a tablespoon of the spicy brown mustard

Okay, I've got this mixed up, Mitch. So would you like for me to do something with these pretzels

That's the secret ingredient here. So you're going to crush those pretzels up. And how fine do you want them, baby

They need to be pretty fine because you want to use them basically just as a breading

We're going to take the potato batter. We're going to roll that in the pretzel crumbs

And then we're going to dunk them in that baby right there. Okay. Well, I'm going to let the air out of this pretzel bag

All right. And I'm going to finish up our dipping sauce here. Okay. I put about a half a teaspoon of horseradish. Okay

We'll finish that off with about a half a cup of sour cream

Sorry to put you to so much work. Well, you may have to help me with these pretzels

All right. I'm getting a workout over here. You want me to get over there and roll it a little bit

I haven't worked this hard since back before the war. Yes. All right

Let me give it some muscle action here. What little I've got. Okay. You want to put your pretzels now in our dish

All right. I would like for you to do the first one. All right. I don't know how big you want

Well, my bites might be a little bigger than your bites. What we're going to do is you're going to just bread that a little bit

So I will just dollop those. And I'll get going with this first one in the fryer here

In random spots on our pretzels. Are you ready? Yeah. There we go

All right, you got your oil on 350, but how long are we going to

Well, what you want to do is you want to fry those until it starts to float, and it is just a nice golden brown

Okay. I would say probably in the neighborhood of two to three minutes

Okay. See how they're starting to float there? They're coming to the top. And I'm kind of laying them on the edge of the deep fryer, honey, and letting them kind of just roll in

You can also do these just in a plain old black iron skillet. Yeah. And they're great that way because they get a little more of a sort of a black crust on them

Uh-huh. Like you do when you make potato pancakes. These are doing fabulous in deep grease

Yeah, look how beautiful those are. Oh, look at this. You'll want to jump back and kiss yourself when you get this in your mouth

That looks like our hush puppies, Mitch. Look at it. I think those chicken casseroles are about finished

You have been worried about those chicken casseroles, haven't you? I can't wait to taste those. Let's check that out

Well, take them out of the oven, honey, and I'll wash up my hands, and we'll taste those little casseroles and these potato bites at the same time

Yum. Look at that. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm. Love, love, love the idea of the pretzels, Mitch

Let me grab this dipping sauce. We've got that all ready to go. Okay

Well, we got three more that's just kind of laggers here. Here we go

You get a plate and put a couple of potato bites on it and some sauce on the side for dipping

Oh, gosh. Yes. You ready to eat up? Yes, sir. Mm-mm-mm. Mm-mm-mm

Mitch, look at this. Nom. Look at that portobello mushroom, y'all, and that piece of chicken

I'll go if you go. Oh. Wow. It's hot. Mmm, but it's so good. Mmm

Oh, I love those butter crackers. I do, too. Don't you? Well, I'm gonna try them

This is, this is, this is what I wanna try. Don't you love that pretzel

I adore this. Y'all don't go anywhere. Coming up next we prepare some mouth chicken Caesar pita pizzas Yum And later we need a dessert don we So we making some top grilled dessert sandwiches

Y'all, I've got one more chicken breast left, so I thought let's make some chicken Caesar pita pizzas

I've got some Fontina cheese, y'all, that I'm gonna grate. Mitch has got our pitas

And I'm painting these up with a little bit of olive oil. And then we're going to sprinkle a little bit of your cheese on top of them and stick them in the oven for a little bit

There you go. And then we're going to make a nice Caesar salad

And we're going to put on top. And then we're going to put a little bit of our poached chicken

I love working with anything left over. I don't know what that is about me

And that's one reason I love what I do so much with Chicago Lost and Found

because where most people see junk and trash, I see beauty, which is bizarre

But that's exactly what I see. Well, what is that saying? Another man's trash is another man's treasure

That's exactly right. Well, for instance, you know, I can't wait that beautiful serving tray that I brought for you today

Oh, my gosh. And by the way, that's a gift to you. That's going to go in your lovely dining room when we're finished with it

Let's get this in the oven. And we're going to melt that cheese

in our 350-degree oven, and that should only take just a few minutes

If you would mix up the Caesar dressing, I'm going to start making up the salad

And this lettuce looks good. All right, so I'm going to start here

with about, oh, about a half a cup of olive oil. You know, Caesar dressing is interesting, too

You can sort of make this to your own taste. Absolutely. Then I'm going to add about a tablespoon

maybe up to two tablespoons of the Dijon mustard. You know, some people don't like anchovies

Oh, I love anchovies. I know that some people do not like them, so you have some places that serve Caesar with no anchovies

Always put some hot sauce in, because I like it a little spicier. And again, this is to taste

And then we'll add a teaspoon of the Worcestershire sauce. Okay, easy for you to say

Right. And we'll whisk that good. And my salad is going to be very, very simple

like a Caesar salad should be. we're not putting croutons in it

because we've got our pitas, which is our bread ingredient. You know, they call that simple salad honeymoon salad

Did you know that? No, I didn't know that. Lettuce alone? Lettuce alone

I get it! Have you ever heard that? No! I think that's an old restaurant

Lettuce alone. Well, I can't believe that. I can't believe being in the restaurant business

that I hadn't heard that one. I'm going to mince a couple of cloves of garlic. Oh, yay

I'm going to just sprinkle this with a little salt and a little pepper

And I'm going to take our, and I promise y'all, this is the last of the chicken

No more chicken? No more leftover chicken, no. So I'm going to take our chicken, and I'm going to just slice it, and we'll use this to top off our pizzas

Now I'm going to check on our potatoes. All right. Let me help you out with those

Okey-doke. Look at this. Oh, my gosh. Those... I could eat that by itself, Paula

This is some pretty good leftovers. I could, too. All right. Can I sit those right there

You may. You may. I'll squeeze out of your way. All right. Now I'm going to slice up this other tomato

Okie dokie. I've diced a couple of anchovies. And we're going to squeeze a little bit of lemon over that

Anchovies are very, very, very, very salty. All right, you ready for me to dress this thing

I'm going to get us a pita. All right. And this is going to be a fabulous pizza

Let me help you out here. Yes, yes, yes. and if you want to dress our salad

How does that look, Paula? Perfect dressing? That looks delicious. All right. And I'm just going to take my tongs and toss that

Oh, that looks delicious. Looks wonderful. And now I'm just going to put this on our pizza

I could eat it just like that, but I can't wait to get the chicken on it. I know

The last thing that's going to go is her chicken. Look how beautiful that looks

Oh, look how pretty that is. Isn't that beautiful? It's gorgeous, just like you

No, just like you. In the shadow of your beauty, Paula, everybody's pretty

Don't you know that? Now how are we going to eat this sucker

I don't know. Very, very carefully. I'll tell you what, you could almost eat this Greek-style, like a pita, and fold that sucker in half

You know what? Let's just try it just like this. Here we go. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Yum

It's so delicious. Right? Right. I can't wait to get home and make this, Paula

This is delicious. It is so good The hot pita with the fine tuna cheese is the bomb Don go anywhere because it leftovers galore today

and I'll show you what I'm talking about when we come back. Coming up next, leftovers like you hadn't seen before

Grilled French bread sandwiches. Y'all, for this leftover show, we need a dessert, don't we

So, now we're going to make some grilled French bread dessert sandwiches, y'all

Got a handful of strawberries. I am going to just sweeten those with a little sugar, a little warm water

Now, I've got your bread going. Is this how you want it, Paula? That's exactly how I think it will work wonderfully

I want to please you. That's for sure. Well, honey, you pleased me by being here

All right, I'm going to let this water run and get hot

Now I'm using just a little hot water, y'all. I want that sugar to dissolve

And I want to make strawberry syrup. That looks so good. I just want to tell y'all about the tray that he made, y'all

That is so incredibly beautiful. If you look at it closely, it's got chips and chunks out of it

And, of course, it's got that beautiful patina where the silvering has deteriorated in places

We try to take the usual and turn it into the unusual. Your favorite thing was about that tray was the old wooden spools we used

Every time I look at it, I will think of you, Mitch. All right

So let me catch you all up on what I'm doing down here. I have buttered one side of our slices of bread

and that buttered side is going to go down on our grill

On one side, I have put a marshmallow cream. On the other side, I have put a chocolate hazelnut spread

that I had in the refrigerator. And I'm putting two slices of bananas

I love that already. Onto this bread. And then we're going to sandwich them together

You can see I've got chocolate on one side. marshmallow cream on the other

Mm-hmm, that's so good. And these go together like this. The outside is buttered

I'm going to start to put those on our grill. You know what, Mitch

I believe I've got leftover ice cream. Let me check. Well... I made some the other day for a show

Run, don't walk, Paula. Get over there and see. Just cross your fingers and hope there's some left in here

You need some help? Yes. Look in there. Pray it's vanilla and pray there's some in there

Yes! I knew you could. Are you ready? Yes. Is it vanilla

It is vanilla, y'all. And there's enough. Perfect. Now, I don't want to burn our sandwiches

I don't want you to burn your fingers. Look at this. Fingers of steel

Look at that. Oh, doesn't that look great? Who in their right mind would say, I don't want leftovers

All right, baby, I'm just going to. I fixed us two apiece

Oh, wow. Yeah, because I'm hungry. All right. Ready for the ice cream

Yes. Let's go. There you go. Yes. Perfect. Oh, that's so good

There we go. All right, here you go, Mitch. And I gave you some syrup

Just some of that little simple syrup. I love that. Over that

Did I give you a spoon? I've always been accustomed to them being mashed slightly with sugar

Isn't that beautiful? I can't wait to dig into this. I can't either. I can't either

You know, and if you didn't want to put the strawberries, you could serve them just like this, you know, as a finger food

But since we've got the ice cream and the berries, that would be a little hard, but let's try it this way first

I'm going to do it this way. Mmm. Oh, that is so good

God, I love coming to your house. Can I come back? Mm-hmm

Anytime. Tomorrow. So, what do y'all think about leftovers now? I love leftovers

Leftovers are not half bad, are they? Thank you, Mitch. You're welcome to come here anytime

Thank you, darling. Because I know your leftovers are always going to be very, very special

And I hope that you found my leftovers special today, too. They were the best

Mitch and I send y'all loving best dishes. for all of your leftovers

whether it be furniture or food. That's right. Bye-bye, y'all. Bye