Waste Not, Want Not

What to do with bread dough that just can't get its rise on, due to too-cold kitchen temperatures? Make flatbread, and put the rest of the dough in the laundry room to enliven. While I lovingly cooked the pita in the iron pan, using a wipe of butter for each new pillowy disc, I pressure-cooked chick peas, onion, carrot, kale, a Toulouse sausage, and herbs in some leftover soup I had made from the lamb chop bones and kale/pesto mashed potatoes from new year's eve. After cooking, I added a little tomato paste, some pimentón and piment d'Espelette, and cut the sausage into rounds. Wicked winter grub.

As good as it was, though, the breads, toasted lightly, brushed with butter, and dusted with salt and piment d'Espelette were sublime just by themselves. And it's worth noting that even though NYE dinner was lackluster, those bones and mashed spuds made for a superlative soup- without which these chick peas would have lacked their amazing depth of flavor. The next day I cut up the two leftover chops and added them into this chick pea stew with minced kale, cubed potatoes, and water to make an even better remix. I love the evolving winter soups; that version 3.0 is still in the fridge- about a pint of it- and will serve as the substrate for something tasty in the next couple of days. It's been the happy last resting place of most of our random leftovers for almost a week now.