My husband and I have spent this week eating our way through the turkey and trimmings of the Thanksgiving feast that we enjoyed last Sunday. The original meal was magnificent, and at the time we were very VERY thankful. Now it’s Friday and the remaining turkey as been packaged up for future meals and stuffed into the freezer. Way in the back. I think I will lose it if I find myself making one more dish featuring the slightly re-configured elements of a Thanksgiving meal.
I’m waking myself up these mornings from dreams of barbequed salmon or pork souvlaki.
But that’s just me. My husband LOVES the Thanksgiving meal, and we have built our favourites into our annual tradition. He knows EXACTLY what to expect from Thanksgiving dinner and I swear that he starts to salivate for the meal in early September. While I am super delighted that I can throw together a meal that brings him such pleasure, and while he could totally enjoy the continuous stream of entrées featuring versions of Sunday’s big meal for another 10 days or so, I could honestly take or leave the whole thing.
To be fair, and I know this will be controversial to admit, I don’t actually like leftovers. Of anything. I mean, I appreciate having meat from a rotisserie chicken handy in the freezer to toss onto a salad or to plop into a soup (who doesn’t?), but to whip open the fridge door to face a pan of last night’s casserole or what’s left of Tuesday’s rice dish, just inspires me to close the door as quickly as possible and to check if Zachary’s Pizza has opened yet.
Breathing new life into leftovers that exhausted themselves during the first round, is not one of my superpowers. There are people who can take a dab of this, a small Tupperware container of that, add in those sad remains of cooked vegetables, and come up with something amazing to serve to their loved ones.
Personally, I just see a bunch of stuff that should have gone into the bin already.
I was raised by a very thrifty woman who could feed a family of four for several days using only the remains of a meatloaf, a handful of frozen peas, and a single egg, but her creativity and talents did not trickle down to me. I’d prefer not to be giving you the impression that I’m anything in the ballpark of wasteful, but I can see how this discussion is starting to lean.
However, as the head chef in our apartment, and with the bundle of experience that that accumulates, the meals that I cook end up being just enough for the two of us. Those of you who have participated in a Soup Night or a potluck at my house will probably have noticed that I tend to over-estimate when I have people over for a meal (and then panic-cook on top of that) ending up with at least 50% too much of everything, which I then pressure my guests into consuming. But normally, I know just how much the two of us will require, and I only make that amount. Voila. No leftovers! We aren’t going to be eating daily from Monday’s big batch of spaghetti and meatballs until the pot is finally empty, if I have any say in it.
At least, this is how I roll at my house. If you invite me to YOUR house, I will EAGERLY be the first to the table for a meal of YOUR leftovers. I’m a happy and voracious diner on someone else’s lefties. I can effortlessly bring to mind several amazing meals from leftovers that friends and family have set in front of me and that I have absolutely purred my way through! Although that sounds somehow hypocritical, all I can say in my defense is that I appreciate someone else’s cooking WAY more than I care for my own. If I’m not the person who had to cook the meal, or heat it up, or plate it in any sort of attractive way, I’m all in!
I do my best (well…not ALL the time…) to whip up nutritious, visually interesting, delicious meals that won’t break the bank and that I can get onto the table in 45 minutes or less (I only have so much patience!). After years of pulling off this focused exercise, I have developed a good sense of how to deliver our meals onto our plates at the peak of whatever level of perfection my abilities on that day allow me to attain. Leftovers strike me as always being a poor second attempt at the meal. The crusts will be a bit soggy, the vegetables too soft, the meat will seem to toughen while it waited in the fridge for another chance. I can’t make another great meal out of this dreariness! I’m only human!
But this is exactly where the Leftover Miracle Workers really shine. They have a special creativity and confidence in what is possible to produce with a little effort and a touch of finesse. To some, there is a world of possibilities in a fridge or freezer full of unfinished meals, and often that challenge will be far more interesting than the making of the original meal ever was.
If that is who you are, I salute you and I envy your considerable talents. You must LOVE Thanksgiving meals (and their doppelganger: the Christmas Feast). I hope that you have enjoyed your own week of re-imagining leftovers and indulging in your artistry. Please know that you can come over to my place any time you want (I’ll leave the key under the mat!), hunt through the black hole that is my freezer, and take away whatever frozen leftovers catch your eye.
And for that, I would be very Thankful indeed.
