See You Later Alligator....

A few months ago Bill & I sort of changed our eating habits.  While we haven't eaten "red" meat for over a decade (I should clarify this... we haven't BOUGHT red meat, but if we're at someone's place that served it, we quietly ate it), we have gradually reduced our meat-eating habits even further...  to the point of being about 80% vegan ....  maybe 90% vegetarian...  we still eat the occasional egg, milk or even sometimes meat product.

But...  (and remember, my surname IS Wallace) ... my Scots heritage just will not allow me to throw out perfectly good food that happens to be in our freezer from those days gone by.

We don't have a very big freezer compartment and today I rummaged around in it just wondering what the heck it really did have lurking there.

Well, I found some creton...  heck... that's that pork spread that's French-Canadian that we bought back in Maine.  Hmmmm... when will we use that?

Found a package of bison liver...  someone gave me that to use as bear bait.  Why is IT still there?  I haven't seen a bear in months!

I did find a package of lamb to use as kabobs....  and a package of bison burger.

But....  there... lurking at the bottom of that freezer were 2 packages that were frost encrusted.  One was a package of crawfish tails, the other a package of alligator meat.

Okay...  This is it...  time to use it or throw it out!  Throw it out!!!!  No way could I face my Dad who's up in Heaven (I hope) and tell him I'd thrown out perfectly good food.

I bought some leeks at H.E.B.....  and (oh no, I'll have to admit this) I still had about a half dozen of potatoes that were born and raised in Maine...  and they really needed used.... soon...

So I sauteed the leeks, added the potatoes, added some pepper, some thyme and threw in some file for good measure....
(I don't know how to add accent marks, but trust me, I didn't put in a file...  think of that as... fee-lee.  You know, sassafras stuff)

Let this all blend together for a couple of hours....

Then added the packages of crawfish and alligator....

I'll admit...  at first I thought the "aroma" coming off that pot of stew was a bit more than I could handle (let alone eat)...  but...

believe it or not, an hour or so later, it wasn't only tolerable, it was actually quite good.

I'd bought a small carton of non-fat (hey... something here has to redeem my good intentions) "half and half", slowly added that,  and by 5pm, supper time, we had a very good meal...

Here's the final results....

I still have a few items in that freezer that need used...  soon.  I'll see what else I can come up with to enhance our evening dining experience.

So...  See you later alligator... and crawfish...  and Maine potatoes... 

That's All For Today!