Here's a PDF you can download of this week's recipes - a traditional, no-frills Irish soda bread, and my chive-studded soda bread biscuits. There are so many great things about soda bread: it's so easy to make, it comes together quickly from inexpensive household ingredients, and it's incredibly adaptable. Probably like many of you, I don't generally keep buttermilk on hand. I've read that an easy 'buttermilk hack' is to add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or distilled white vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk, but I've never tried it. Have any of you? Let us know how it worked!

Here are a couple of entries from our NotEatingOutinNY "The Art of Eating In" leftovers contest. Thanks to everyone who entered, your recipes were all fantastic! If you've got a spectacular way to use up leftovers, let us know, we'd love to see it.

celtwolf:
Main: I made a simple roast chicken. Butter, salt, and pepper rubbed on the outside. A quartered onion, some carrots, and a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary on the inside. Then roasted in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes. I threw in a couple of bulbs of garlic with the tops cut off, and roasted some new potatoes with the chicken. After that was done, I made a simple jus with some wine and butter from the pan drippings. I just microwaved some carrots as an additional side. The chicken was moist, the potatoes were delicious with a little bit of the schmaltz on them, and the roasted garlic was spread on pieces of french bread toast. leftovers: I took the last bits of chicken off of the carcass and put the carcass, with all the roasting vegetables inside it, in a stew pot with about 8 cups of water and simmered for about 3 hours to make stock. Then I strained the stock and put it in the fridge overnight to let the fat solidify. That afternoon, I scooped out the fat, added the reserved chicken back to the pot, tossed in a handful of baby carrots, and about a half of a cup of rice, and let it simmer until the rice and carrots were tender. In the meantime, I took the leftover roast garlic (about 8 cloves) and about 2 tablespoons of softened butter and a couple teaspoons of dijon mustard and made some garlic butter. I spread some on some simple cheese sandwiches and grilled them, then served them with the chicken soup. the first meal was delicious, of course, but i have to say the leftovers were even better!

lunal0veg00d3
I take leftover steak and fry it in a pan with garlic and onions and then stir in beaten eggs for a really good ranchero style (but not really) breakfast! Serve it on tortilla chips like nachos and top with spicy peppers and cheese or even mushrooms when I have some.