My dad was a Depression-era kid, which no doubt contributed to his reluctance to ever throw anything out. His mother was, to put it charitably, not the best cook. And she was never willing to throw anything away either. If my dad didn't drink his orange juice with raw egg in it for breakfast, it would be waiting for him after school (I'm amazed that he never got salmonella!). To this day, I can make him shudder just by murmuring "oatmeal." And then there were the mystery meals. To save money during the Depression, my grandmother, who could never resist a bargain, but that's another story, would buy unlabeled cans from the grocery store. My dad and his brother never knew what they were having for dinner on any given night: Soup? Canned peas or beans? Legend has it she once opened a can to find it contained dog food--and served it up.
Now, there's nothing that scary in my freezer (though my daughter might beg to differ). I know that everything I've tucked away in there is something that I was happy to eat, at least at one point. So I wasn't too worried when I pulled out a few tupperware containers to thaw and waited to see what dinner would consist of. Ah, Indian food, plus a little bit of homemade beef stir fry. Not too shabby, though this wasn't leftover takeout from our usual place, so I had a bit of a hard time identifying the dishes. There were some sort of vegetable fritters in a sauce, all well and good, and a blazingly hot chicken dish that I think my son had ordered and not eaten. That called for some raita and I had some thawing on the counter. But, as I'm guessing you all know, raita is something that does not freeze well. No problem: I had some plain Greek yogurt that would do in a pinch. I just had to pick up some fresh rice and tamarind sauce and I was good to go.
I got two dinners out of that batch of leftovers and am still working on the leftover spaghetti and meat sauce--man that stuff seems to be lasting forever! But after a week of non-stop leftovers, I am going to make something fresh tonight! My only concession to Mother Hubbard will be a side dish of black beans that I've pulled out of the pantry.
And tomorrow I am going out for dinner!! I have a coupon for the Irish Inn at Glen Echo: live Irish music and Guiness-battered onion rings, here I come!
This is indeed inspiring! What a great reason to do the "waste not, want not" thing. Spices I bought thinking I'd use and then don't are on my list. I was thrilled to see that cardamom was on the ingredients list (as well, of course, as molasses) for a molasses cooky recipe in this month's Bon Appetit. Maybe those cookies will taste like the ones Grandma Loomis and my mother used to make--tried to follow the recipe Grandma actually had, but the resultant cookies were a disappointment. --Mace, I read, is good with cooked carrots and it doesn't seem to make a difference that my mace is probably 5 years old or more.
ReplyDelete