Our Mother’s 1946 Better
Homes and Gardens Cook Book that I treasure. It
is notable because although it is a “red plaid” cookbook, it is surprisingly
thin, with only 200 or so pages. My own first copy of the cookbook is
from 1968, and probably weighs twice as much.
But what really interested me is
that this 1940’s version is the only cookbook I’ve seen with an entire chapter
devoted to “Leftovers”.
The other cookbook that has
greatly influence my attitudes towards cooking and planning meals is The More-with-less Cookbook. I like the book as much for the recipes, of
which there are plenty, but also for the suggestions, and the thoughts and
philosophy about using and enjoying food without waste. After 25 years, when I read this book again,
I find it has greatly influenced my own attitudes about cooking and choosing
what to cook. Many of the recipes were
contributed by church members and missionaries in many countries, so there is a
multicultural feel to the recipes as well.
One of my favorite features of this book are the suggestions for using
any leftovers or excess food, at the end of each chapter.
This
is pretty relevant during the holidays, when we probably cook too much and have
food left that we don’t know what to do with. I also buy some of those holiday specials and can or freeze them to use later.
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| Bottom left, clockwise: Roasted turkey, freezer mashed potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, canned turkey, canned turkey stock |
Some ways to keep holiday sale items for
later use...
Take an
hour or so and go through your holiday leftovers. Package them in useful
sizes for the freezer or can them to use later, or put them on your menu to use
quickly. Make a list of what you put in the freezer to use that quickly
too; I also keep them in a separate plastic box so I don't have to search for
the leftovers I want to use.
We make our dressing at Thanksgiving. Then split it before baking. We put half of it up for XMAS. I've bought a very small 1/2 ham shank. We are cutting it up and freezing part of it for XMAS and New Years. I also bought a frozen Turkey. We are going to divide it up too. As far as veggies and stuff, we are cooking only a couple of sides and I plan to make a lot smaller portions for just the 2 of us.
ReplyDeleteWhen I do have food that we simply are not going to eat...........because we've had it a couple of times already or there is just a bit left, I take it out beside our hay field where I have 2 large feed tub lids. I leave it for the wildings. We have a game cam there and see so many critters that come to eat.
Sounds like you have that covered very well. I am going with a rotisserie chicken from the store, scalloped potatoes, and of course there has to be pumpkin pie. My daughter and grandchildren will divide the leftovers which should be few.
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