LIKING THE WAY SHE THINKS!

My family has never been too good about eating leftovers. In fact, whenever my dad's mother came over to dinner, Mom would instruct us "Don't let Modie see you tossing those leftovers, or she'll have a cow!" If she couldn't keep Modie away from the kitchen while we were cleaning up, she'd come make a show of pulling out the tupperware and stashing everything in the fridge... where it would sit... until it was all wearing fuzzy green coats. Then she would make us toss it. I really, really hate mucking with stuff that's wearing fuzzy green coats.

Once I was grown, and responsible for my own food budget, I became much more appreciative of leftovers. In fact, I was usually more than happy to take them in my lunch the next day, but I always ate them pretty much "as is." And, any leftover ingredients that had been bought for a particular recipe, were still getting tossed.

Just now I was sitting here, taking a mental inventory of what's in the fridge, wondering "Must I go to the grocery store today, or can it wait until tomorrow?" I was thinking, "OK, there's that leftover pork chop with blackberry sauce and roasted potatoes. It's probably enough for one person to make a meal of, but not two..." Then out of the blue, know what flashed into my head? An image of my mother-in-law, talking about how she always used her leftover roast, gravy and veggies to make the famous "Red Stew" that John loved so much. That got me to thinkin', "Hmmm, with all those chili spices I rubbed on the pork chops, I bet I could cut the meat up, extend the sauce with some broth or something, throw in some corn or hominy and maybe some green chilies, and come up with a darn good soup or stew!" Wow. Did that come out of my head? But wait - there's more!

Next, I began running through the list of ingredients that needed to be used up before they went bad: the leftover cherry tomatoes; half of the beautiful romaine lettuce and a few green garlic sprigs from last Wednesday's Bountiful Sprout pick-up; a small hunk of feta cheese; a piece of charcoal grilled steak that I stashed in the freezer... Suddenly, it happened again. Just like that guy "Chuck" on TV, I had another flash! Only this time, it was of a beautiful main course salad I made for John last summer, with a homemade Dijon vinaigrette dressing, and thin shavings of grilled beef and Parmigiano cheese. Wouldn't crumbled feta be just as good in something like that, with a few cherry tomatoes and slices of green garlic? Wow! I did it again. I don't know what's come over me, but I like it!

Of course, then I made the mistake of flashing over to that great article that was posted recently at the Simple, Green, Frugal co-op. That's when I heard the voice...a very calm, soothing, familiar voice...saying, "Calm down little Grasshopper. You have much yet to learn."