Leftovers: A new cultural divide


 

Monty House

TVWBB Pro
I was raised by Depression Era parents, and we never let food go to waste. If that meant every night for a few nights (e.g., Thanksgiving), that's what happened. I always kind of liked it (but bean pots could get a little boring). We've got two grown kids, and I heard one of them say Friday night "Let's go get carne asada." Mind you, this is with the refer GROANING with food. My wife is a little bit more sympathetic, so she offloads most of the leftovers to bachelors, young families, etc. But, I'm now the main eater of leftovers, as others move on starting around Friday dinner.

I find the whole thing kind of sad and depressing.
 
I had depression era grandparents. I can't tell you how many meals my grandfather ruined adding water to things to stretch the food that didn't need to be stretched. I think he was a cook in the CCC. Thankfully my grandmother did most of the cooking and we tried to keep him out of the kitchen.

I'm with you though. I think we've had leftovers for every meal since thursday. I think it's a good idea to send everyone home with some if you won't eat them. Everyone likes SOME leftovers. At some point though, it get REALLY old.
 
I was raised by depression era parents and, well leftovers was a way of life I just got used to it. Now that it's just Barb and me we have a lot of leftovers. It's hard to cook for just two like if you're doing a thanksgiving dinner or a stew, soup, casserole etc.
Best thing I ever did was get a food saver.
I made enough dressing to freeze half of it and half a turkey breast so we can have that for Christmas along with Barbs must have ham. Legs, wings frozen for soup mid January. I have stew, soups, pizza, chili, spaghetti sauce in the freezer. Some days we get busy and before you know it it's dinner time and neither one of us wants to prepare a meal so something comes out of the freezer and 15 minutes later we eat.
Works well for us.
 
I tend to try to cook for a fairly consistent number, sometimes I’m way long so, things get shared. I grew up with leftovers too but, I find myself getting tired of things after about four days.
Now, I will start planning for Christmas!
 

 

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