Learning to Love Leftovers

I'm not sure when it happened--the shift in my appreciation of leftovers. As a child I wasn't very fond of them. As the food preparer in our house, where the fruits of my labor often get devoured in 6.3 minutes, I have made good friends with leftovers.

There are 3 main forms of leftovers at our house:

1. Exact same dish warmed over.
2. Same ingredients re-purposed--cook once, eat multiple times. For example, I might combine a little brown rice, sweet potatoes, and beans from previous meals into a pot and stuff quesadillas with the leftovers. Or I cook a whole chicken, we eat it freshly roasted, then in the form of chicken salad, then in the form of chicken soup, then in the form of chicken stock made from bones.
3. Fabulous freezer finds.

The third category has gotten to be a favorite for me. Going with the cook once, eat multiple times policy, I find that the winter months are full of soups, stews, and chili. These are great for several days, but more often than not, the quantity prepared outlasts the palates who eat them. So invariably containers end up in the freezer, not always as well marked as they should be.

I've heard of folks dumping all their leftovers into one container and pulling it out when it gets full for a hearty leftover meal. They say it's wonderful no matter what you put in it. I'm skeptical, so my leftovers get individual containers, but then get thrown into a single pot after thawing.

It sounds like the same result, I know, but there's one big difference between the two--I brown about 1/2 pound local breakfast sausage before adding my freezer finds. I figure if the combination of the freezer finds is not so great, at least it's got sausage in it. And pretty much, if it has sausage, especially this local stuff, I'll eat it.

So decide what your "sausage" is and add it to those treasures hiding in your freezer for a simple meal (or 3!). No better time than now to have one last "winter meal" and get ready for the bounty spring and summer will bring.

Sausage, Tomato, Bean Delight

It's hard to believe that one month ago it was warmer than it is today. As a result, I've been preparing more hot dinners than I normally would this time of year.

This one ended up really hearty and soothing on a cold, wet day. And it has sausage in it. What's not to love about that?

Ingredients
1/2 pound ground breakfast sausage
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained
2 (150z) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
1/2 cup veggie or chicken stock
a heaping hand full of fresh cooking greens (kale and collards work well)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Whole grain (optional)--I cooked about a cup of quinoa

Directions

1. In a large skillet brown sausage and drain fat.
2. Return sausage to skillet and add onion and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes, then add thyme. Saute another minute.
3. Add tomatoes and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to break down and become "saucy". 
4. Add stock, beans, and greens. Turn heat to medium high until beans are warm and greens are bright green (about 5-7 minutes).
5. Serve over grain (optional), add salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Layered Tomato Pie

We have 2 birthdays in the month of July in our family. We celebrated one with this, and last night I made a tomato pie I want to remember, because it might just be the summer recipe triumph.

Here's what I used:

• a little leftover ground sausage (maybe 1/2 pound?)
• an onion, large slices
• 3 garlic cloves, finely cut
• deep dish pie crust from the freezer section (couldn't manage making my own!)
• a little leftover cooked brown rice
• a handful of fresh spinach leaves, chopped
• 3-4 ripe tomatoes, sliced into circles
• goat cheese to taste
• fresh basil, cut into strips 

Here's what I did:

• browned the sausage, then turned the heat down and threw in the onions followed by the garlic and let them cook a LONG time (maybe close to 30 minutes?)
• preheated oven to 400, put fork marks all over the pie crust, and baked it for about 7-10 minutes
• took pie crust out of oven, then layered brown rice on the bottom (it absorbs all the tomato liquid!), chopped spinach, and tomatoes.
• put it back in the oven for about 15 minutes.
• add goat cheese and bake until barely browned on pie crust and cheese.
• add fresh basil strips and serve

Savor every bite, because there will be no leftovers!