Festovers

Last year I was busy with other projects and I let this blog slide.  Some of you were a little judgemental.  I have resolved to do better this year.  However I need you to do your bit.  A little encouragement will spur me on.  Sign on as a follower and participate.  Comment, positive or otherwise, ask questions and share your culinary ideas.
This time of year in our house is all about leftovers.  I like the challenge of slowly clearing the bulging fridge shelves after the excesses of the Christmas festivities.  This year we were a table of only four for the main meal and you might have thought it would be easy.  Not so much.  However as usual we rose to the challenge.  Peter made bread pudding from the left over stuffing bread.  This is not bread and butter pudding which is another dish altogether, but a cake to eat with a cup of tea.  This was a really good idea and saved the bread from the bin but then we had to eat the cake along with the left over summer pudding, Phoebe's festive baking and other sweet treats we were given.  Peter made the pudding with cold tea - I might have used ale myself.
We had our usual boxing day meal of turkey with an asian style slaw. A small cabbage goes a very long way and so there is the challenge of how to finish the cabbage while not ignornig the turkey or ham or nut roast.  We prepared various styles of coleslaw and ate these at lunch with ham or turkey or on one occasion a pork pie from the freezer.
As well as keeping up with the left overs we have had to contend with the garden's produce.  I have been slowly turning flower beds into vegetable beds and we have a beautiful crop of beetroot.  The warm rain seems to have acted on the radishes as a performance enhancing drug and they are growing to alarming proportions.  I made a batch of beetroot relish.  In a largish pan soften 1/2 a finely sliced red onion with 2-3 finely grated raw beetroot - use gloves or the food processor.  Keep the heat very low and if it looks like catching add a few drops of water.  After 40 minutes or so it will be a lovely saucy consistency. Add the zest and juice of a lemon and season well.  You could add 1/4 preserved lenon finely sliced.  Cook down a little more.  This will keep in a jar in the fridge for a couple of weeks, if it lasts that long.  The radishes have been a little more challenging.  I did happen upon a great recipe to make a type of dip with cream cheese (I found a small quantity in the fridge), spring onions, lemon juice and zest, and mint. That was great not only on radishes but just spread on toast or sourdough fresh from the oven.
There was a quantity of pizza dough left from the traditional turkey, cranberry and camembert pizza and that became flat bread served with hummus and beetroot relish. I made a Greek salad which it transpires will benefit from the addition of radishes very thinly sliced.
There was such a tiny bit of cabbage left, I finely sliced it and sauteed with 1/2 finely sliced red onion with a splash of cider vinegar and red wine until soft and added a spoon of cranberry sauce at the end. The result was a mountain of cooked cabbage. I served this with venison sausages from the freezer with beetroot relish and cranberry sauce. We had used all the raw cabbage and now we had a surpus of cooked cabbage.  It was surprisingly delicious mixed through some basmati rice the next night.
But we have done it.  The fridge is clear and we can shop again.  I still need help with those radishes.  Any suggestions?