In our corner of the globe, it is barbecue season! The minute the sun sticks around long enough to melt the snow and make snowsuits optional, you will find my husband outside, scraping ice off the grill. Since it is now officially warm (I can hear my middle-eastern friends choking in the background) outside, I traded snow boots with crocks, ignoring my toes turning blue one day out of two.

Needless to say, we had our share of burgers, steaks and sausages lately. On the bright side, it gives me a break from the kitchen. On the not so bright side, it gives me a break from the kitchen. I wonder if I still remember how to cook. What doesn’t help is the fact that every time we barbecue, the hubs insists on using the entire pack of whatever it is we are grilling, which means that even on the odd day we are not barbecuing something, we still eat barbecued food. I have more grilled burgers (home made, I promise) in my fridge then I care to contemplate. Last week it was steaks. The male of the species would probably shake their heads but there is a limit to how much charred meat a girl can eat.

Faced with all that jazz (meat), I turned to my creative side and begged for help. Leftover steak? you will be thinly sliced and reinvented as stir-fry, complete with red peppers, zucchinis and orange-soy sauce glaze (containing orange juice, soy sauce, sweet chilly sauce and sesame oil). I can now feed my family supper that actually contains vegetables (and no, that tomato slice on the burger doesn’t count).

As for my burger colony, several have been mashed and reinvented as Pâté Chinois, the traditional Quebecois version of Shepperd’s pie, a layered dish of meat, corn and mashed potatoes. Thank you honey for the great idea.