Just toss it in already

My mom was here for a week, cooking up a storm. She made mountains of chopped liver, matzoh balls, steak, chicken, and goodness knows what else. I'll miss her, but my arteries are relieved.

There are a few items left in the fridge that we don't normally use, and they're perishable, so I thought I'd use them up. Among them, most of a quart of chicken broth and four smallish pieces of cheese (four different kinds -- dill havarti, muenster, jack, and some wine-soaked bleu, which I just realized I forgot to throw in the dish.)

I decided to make my "tamale pie", because it's easy and it would use up both the broth and the cheese. I boiled three cups of chicken broth, then added a cup of cornmeal and simmered, stirring, until it got all nice and thick. Stirred in all the cheese (wish I'd remembered the bleu, just for kicks), some butter, and a few slices of jalapeno.

For the filling, I used a couple cups of chili (this batch had chicken, beans, corn, and chipotles in it) and nearly two large cans of olives, sliced (James is CRAZY for black olives, and when I told him I was making tamale pie, he got all bright-eyed and said "With lots of olives?"). Poured the filling in a baking dish, topped with the cornmeal mixture, and put it in a 425F oven. It has about twenty minutes left (I cook it for about a half hour, 'til the top gets nicely golden brown).

I know this isn't a proper tamale pie, but it's a really easy way to use up leftovers. Now to figure out what to do with all this leftover chopped liver. I'll probably take it to work tomorrow. On Friday, they helped me finish off the previous batch.

So what do you cook that's just a "toss it all in a dish" dish? Where you don't measure, but you just mix or layer stuff and leave it in the oven for a while?

serene --