Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Waste

I feel bad because I didn't freeze the leftover leftover leftover leftover turkey. I took it out of the 'fridge for lunch again today and it was spoiled.

I feel bad that I didn't find something intelligent to do with the rice & cranberry pilaf that was leftover (the half I didn't take to Aunt ItalianBeauty's).

I feel bad that I made huge bunches of roasted veggies, and even after giving most of it away and eating it for 6 days myself, there was still enough to get spoiled.

I feel bad that no one else in my house likes olives (and I don't like 'em in abundance) and that I neglected to pack them off to relatives.

All these things went to waste.

On the other hand, we finished the gravy, the blueberry pie, and the stuffing, and we sent off tons of food with relatives. So I'm somewhat redeemed.

What did you folks do with your leftovers?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

clean em out of the fridge in January...

wha?

Phantom Scribbler said...

Laughing at sheryl's answer.

Compost, baby. Lots and lots of compost.

jo(e) said...

Leftovers?

No such thing in my family.

We keep up round of eating until it's all gone.

jo(e) said...

We actually had a fight over the last piece of pie ....

purple_kangaroo said...

I'm trying to decide if the pumpkin I baked last week is still good by now. It's just plain pumpkin, with nothing added, but I'm not sure.

I tend to leave leftovers in the fridge until I'm SURE they're not good any more, and then I don't feel quite so guilty at throwing them away.

DH says, "If you're not going to eat it anyway then just throw it away NOW. We need the space in the refrigerator!"

Suzanne said...

Leftovers just become moldy, then we throw them away. It's all so terribly guilt-inducing.

susan said...

we leave them until one of us says, "do you think this is still good?" Our family rule is that if someone raises a question about the still-goodness of old food, it's time to pitch it.

At least you didn't leave the leftover leftover turkey and its bones sitting in a pot on the stove in the communal house's basement kitchen, where it turned bad and let a horrid smell waft through the house, turning your housemates' gratitude for a dinner well-cooked into irritation about a dinner not-well-cleaned up.

susan said...

Oh, another thing we did with leftovers this year was give them away in advance. We had a friend over for Thanksgiving lunch (who hadn't been able to stay for dinner) so I packed a box for her to take home. So we had a lot less leftover than I expected.

Still, if anyone wants some quinoa pilaf, today's probably your last chance.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing about travelling for Thanksgiving is that we don't have any leftovers.

We did, however, have three separate Thanksgiving dinners, so I am not complanining!

halloweenlover said...

We unfortunately have leftovers all the time because we're terrible about remembering what food we have. I've given up on even feeling guilty about it, because it happens way too often. It sounds like you did a really good job, though!

Jody said...

The turkey? Almost always the end of the turkey gets thrown away, because we can't eat the left-overs faster than they spoil. It's depressing, but I tried making various turkey dinners with left-overs last year, and no one ate those, either.

This year, we went to someone else's house for Thanksgiving, so we didn't have to worry about it.

There's always excess gravy about a week after Thanksgiving that goes into the trash, but the rest doesn't last that long.

Mmmmmm, olives.

Phantom, you're not supposed to compost cooked food! (She ducks to avoid the tossed pasta, and cackles madly.)

Yankee, Transferred said...

Ate every bite. 25 pound turkey. Lots of company, always. Not a morsel left, except one cup of turkey soup. Went to the dogs.

elswhere said...

e have some leftover stuffing in the fridge even as I type this. it might still be good, though.

This year, for the first time ever, I made creamed turkey with the leftover turkey. And it was goooood, in (as RW said) a kind of bland Midwestern way.

Usually I do what you and P_K do, though.