Is this weird or does everyone do it?
We swap leftovers.
Mum had a large piece of corned beef that she couldn't use. She had someone coming for dinner, I don't know, an aged aunt or someone, and bought a piece of corned beef the size of two footballs.
So they have their corned beef dinner and mum hardly eats any meat anyway and the aged aunt or whoever it was has a bird-like appetite and eats probably two slices of corned beef sliced so thinly you can see the roses on the plate pattern (Grindley, England, 1927) and so there's a corned beef left over in the fridge and when we visit mum says, 'There's a corned beef in the fridge for you.' Just like that.
*
I boiled up some peeled, quartered potatoes with a carrot and dropped a few cloves and some peppercorns into the pot along with a bay leaf (because there was a sprig of them there, drying on the wall). After the vegetables had boiled for a while I added some chopped cabbage. Savoy.
Then I sliced some the corned beef - thickly - and lay the slices in the steamer which I placed over the boiling potatoes.
Now for the best part - the mustard.
I make it the way my father used to make it. A little Keen's mustard powder in an eggcup, add some water, mix it, add some more powder because there was too much water, add some water because it dried out again, continue trying to balance the water and the mustard powder until you've got WAY too much mustard for one meal and after you have your dinner the eggcup will go into the fridge and two weeks later you will take it out again and the mustard will be rock hard and impossible to remove. That's exactly how dad did it, bless his heart in heaven. Every time.
*
All right, the corned beef's ready and the vegetables are done. Drain the vegetables and arrange them around the beef on plates. And watch that mustard. It's powerful stuff.
*
Later: ring, ring.
- Hello?
- I've made too much lasagne. Can you use it?
We swap leftovers.
Mum had a large piece of corned beef that she couldn't use. She had someone coming for dinner, I don't know, an aged aunt or someone, and bought a piece of corned beef the size of two footballs.
So they have their corned beef dinner and mum hardly eats any meat anyway and the aged aunt or whoever it was has a bird-like appetite and eats probably two slices of corned beef sliced so thinly you can see the roses on the plate pattern (Grindley, England, 1927) and so there's a corned beef left over in the fridge and when we visit mum says, 'There's a corned beef in the fridge for you.' Just like that.
*
I boiled up some peeled, quartered potatoes with a carrot and dropped a few cloves and some peppercorns into the pot along with a bay leaf (because there was a sprig of them there, drying on the wall). After the vegetables had boiled for a while I added some chopped cabbage. Savoy.
Then I sliced some the corned beef - thickly - and lay the slices in the steamer which I placed over the boiling potatoes.
Now for the best part - the mustard.
I make it the way my father used to make it. A little Keen's mustard powder in an eggcup, add some water, mix it, add some more powder because there was too much water, add some water because it dried out again, continue trying to balance the water and the mustard powder until you've got WAY too much mustard for one meal and after you have your dinner the eggcup will go into the fridge and two weeks later you will take it out again and the mustard will be rock hard and impossible to remove. That's exactly how dad did it, bless his heart in heaven. Every time.
*
All right, the corned beef's ready and the vegetables are done. Drain the vegetables and arrange them around the beef on plates. And watch that mustard. It's powerful stuff.
*
Later: ring, ring.
- Hello?
- I've made too much lasagne. Can you use it?
I just love the part about the mustard and the egg cup. That is so exactly what happens, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteLet's see, how did it go one night?
ReplyDeleteLyman's mother brought leftovers here, we took a dish to a friend, and she passed something she had on to another friend.
That all works very well when everyone cooks something good.
Janis
I can almost smell that mustard.
ReplyDeleteMy mother makes leftovers on purpose.
And there's no leftovers that taste quite as good.
Absolutely. My mum even goes so far as to allow us to raid her kitchen of raw ingredients!
ReplyDeleteI like getting meatballs for leftovers. Endless uses.
I would happily share leftovers if someone I knew well enough that cooked lived nearby! I do often share soup because it's hard to make a small pot and friends and neighbors have let me know how much they appreciate getting some homemade soup.
ReplyDelete