Frugality

Leftovers are funny things; my family sometimes goes to restaurants for holiday dinners, in which case there are no leftovers. Which I miss. Other times, someone cooks and there may or may not be leftovers, depending on the type of meal.

One of my friends throws everything out the next day because she's afraid of food poisoning. Very afraid. Me? I'm not so worried about it, while thinking that leftovers do create curious rituals. One that I remember from childhood is turkey bits on bread with gravy. You know, the small bits of turkey that have been rescued from the carcass. With leftover gravy over bread. Not toast. Bread. Mashed potatoes and stuffing are optional if they're still available.

I do try to use leftovers so I don't waste money and frequently cook more than necessary to generate leftovers; I package them in lunch-sized portions for later use.

Culinary Recycling

While I've never made a dessert out of leftover jelly donuts, I do believe in using leftovers, though I tend to clean out my refrigerator weekly. Then again, I was raised on food made from scratch, not food made from boxes. The only box my mom really used was the traditional Kraft Macaroni & Cheese box. And not very often.

My leftovers don't go into anything fancy, especially since I don't start out with such high-priced items and am not a fancy cook to begin with. I've never tried making croutons or crackers, but have a recipe for crackers that I need to try. Crackers are expensive and are one item I make a point of buying at Big Lots or the Dollar Store. It makes sense to try making them.