July 31st, 2023

 Okay, I know this is a polarizing topic.  Generally people feel strongly one way or the other. Very little "middle of the road" on this one.  They either love it or hate it.   The topic is:  Leftovers.
You know, you make a meal and when you are done eating, some of the food remains uneaten.  Some people throw that uneaten portion away. Other people carefully pack it up and tuck it into the fridge and eat it another day.  Leftovers.  Literally the food that is left  over.

Now that I think about it, there is a third category.  There are folks who carefully package up the remaining food, put it in the refrigerator and then never eat it.  At some future, unspecified date, when the food has turned from an appetizing treat into a science experiment gone wrong, they throw it away.  But I think that is just another version of the 1st sort of person. So I've changed my mind again, there really are only two sorts of attitudes.  

I am strongly in the pro leftover camp.   If you are anti-leftover, quite frankly, you will go hungry in my house.  I enjoying cooking and baking (as most of you know) but there is an efficiency to leftovers that appeals to my frugal little heart.  When you really break it down, for the same cost, we can eat better quality for less money by buying one large, more expensive thing that can be multiple meals than having something different every day but of less quality. 

For example:  If I roast a chicken one night and serve it with mashed potatoes, biscuits and a vegetable, the second night there is definitely enough remaining chicken for, perhaps, a chicken pot pie!  And then chicken salad sandwiches!  The leftover mashed potato becomes lovely potato pancakes . The leftover veg can be used in the chicken pot pie. The bones and bits of meat left make a lovely chicken soup and of course leftover biscuits are great with everything. Look at all the meals I made from one chicken!

There is a creativity required, a challenge presented that goes along with leftovers, which I love, too.  I stare at the food in the fridge and wonder to myself, "What else can this be?"    Recently I made some stuffed shells florentine.  It's a dish I adore but rarely make and I was in the mood, what can I tell you.    But I was very disappointed because the box of pasta had only 12 unbroken shells. Dang.  I had a great big bowl of the riccota/mozz/spinach stuffing and not nearly enough stuff to be stuffed with it!   The next day I turned it into a pasta bake that was glorious! 

I guess that's part of liking leftovers.  You have to either not mind a repetitive meal OR you have to find a way to turn it into a different meal.  Some meals are perfect for this idea.  I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating.  Chili is one of the best.  You doubt me?  A big pot of chili is of course a great  meal already with side of corn bread.  Yummy.  And if you make a big enough pot you have, potentially, leftovers for days.  Naturally, you can just continue to eat it, as a bowl of chili. Nothing wrong with that.  But if you crave a little variety, leftover chili is also great on a hot dog, and  it's delicious on a baked potato.   A popular twist is to add elbow macaroni and now you have chili mac!  Yummy.  Or, my personal favourite  to put it on a salad with tortilla chips and it's sort of a taco salad.  So Good.

When the boys were young, I almost never served leftovers.  There was, very rarely, food leftover. I had three boys!  And the older they got, the hungrier they got and the fewer leftovers there were to be had!  It's only been, really, since the boys grew up and left home and it was just Tim and I around the dinner table. And suddenly there were always leftovers and I had to find a way to use them.  Turned out, I have a knack.  

Now anything can be taken too far.  My Nana, bless her heart, would save everything.  Every single scrap. One pea left? Save it.  And put it in the little container in the fridge with those two green beans and 3 kernels of corn and 4 bites of carrot.  One day of the next weekend that sad lonely leftover container of vegetables would be added to a green Jello ring mold, chilled then turned out unsidedown onto a bed of lettuce and the empty center would be filled with mayo.  Welcome to vegetable Jello!  Disgusting!   I would rather go hungry than eat that and often did. Yuck.

And quite honestly, if a dish is not good the first night, being served again, in another fashion another night will not make it any better.  Some meals are just destined for the garbage can or the disposer and Good Riddance to them.  I'm not quite That Hard Core.

I have respect for the people who are anti-leftovers.  You feel the way you feel.  And I don't have to understand it, to believe it is true.

So, which camp do you fall in?  Leftovers: yay or nay?