Multiplies, Cubed and Squared - using flavors in new ways

The first time I lived in Chile, I paid for a pension.  Basically, it is a rented room in someone's home.  The lady looks after you is referred to as your "mamita" or little mother.  My pension not only included the room, water, electricity, and water but food as well.  While it gave me the chance to sample a lot of different homemade traditional food, it meant that I didn't get a chance to practice or try new things unless I could get someone to take a day and cook with me, which over 15 months happened a grand total of two times.

Even so, I was impressed by how they took staples to use them in so many different ways.  Beyond that was the ability to take a base and multiply its use by using it in so many different meals.  In Chile this base was "pino".  Pino is cooked ground meat with onion, salt, and cumin. Once cooked this pino can be used in empanadas (turnovers), pastel de papas (shepherd pie), pastel de Choclo (a cross between shepherd pie and corn pudding), fried stuffed potatoes, budin de zapallo italiano (stuffed zucchini casserole), and last but not least stuffed tomatoes or mushrooms.  Pretty amazing, but coming home I found I was able to apply it to food here at home, once I began to think of how to do so.

One of my favorites is to take a sauce and re-purpose it for another recipe.  For example, I bought an adobo  flavor packet at the local Asian market to cook meat for dinner.  I took the left over sauce and juice from the meat and used it to make gravy the next day to use on our potatoes.  When I realized that I had made too much gravy, I put away the extra and used the the following day by adding sour cream as a layer for a layered casserole.

Sometimes it isn't about reusing the same thing over several times in different dishes, but rather using things in a new way when I don't have what I regularly would use because I want to try something new or when I don't have what I would usually need.  The layered casserole I used the gravy with, I usually make with mushroom soup, but I didn't have any.  This meant that I had to come up with a replacement or try to think of something else to make.  I wasn't about to come up with another meal, so desperation became the mother of invention and a great twist on a standby meal.  :)

Please feel free to think about the flavors you like and how you can reuse different bases in new ways and comment with your ideas, experiences and comments.