Save like Nana did. A little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Nana had a gift for turning a little bit of this and a little bit of that into something beautiful. This applied to meals but also to decor, sewing, gardening and more. I have been thinking this over for a few days. Maybe it is about seeing the potential in something. I will add maybe it is also about making PLANS for something. Well, I love a woman with a plan!
I am going to share some of my little bits of this and that and hope between us we can come up with lots and lots of ideas.
When I cook rice I try and set aside half a cup. That is enough to make baked rice custard which is so delicious. I would never especially cook half a cup of rice so this is something I make when there is just a little bit left. If there is a cup or more over then I might make fried rice. If even more... I will freeze it in one cup portions for "instant rice" sometime later.
If I have some cheeses, tomatoes, bacon or salami... capsicum, mushrooms or any antipasto type ingredients it only takes a little bit of this and that to make a really good pizza! If you save some pizza it is a really good thing for lunch boxes the next day. These same kind of left overs all make very good fillings for a Quiche.
Fruit that has lost its sparkle can be turned into a pie or a cake. Oranges made into a cake are delicious! Apples that are fading fast will make a beautiful pie, crumble... maybe some muffins? Baked or stewed or Apple fritters.
The last of the last ham on the bone (or roast meat on the bone) will make a very good soup. Leaning to make Pea and Ham soup, stock, really any roast dinner that results in a bone at the end will give you the base of another meal.
From the garden I find that a few fresh herbs really have the power to elevate even a simple meal. Some fresh chopped parsley over your omelette is beautiful. It looks gorgeous and it packs in a heap of extra goodness. GOODNESS is what Nana was thinking of. How to add GOODNESS.
Some powered or fresh milk into your dough... or some freshly ground grain, some seeds... a little bit of this and that added to your bread adds goodness! Not only that... yeast loves a bunch of things and you want your yeast/sour dough to thrive. So think of what yeast loves... it LOVES warmth, humidity, sugar... protein... all of which if added to your dough will give you great results. This is why a loaf with honey in it will do well.
When I was little Mum let me make any bits of left over pastry into Jam Tarts. They were delicious! I still use every bit of pastry this way. Another is to make little fruit pockets and when cool dust them with icing sugar. You then have your very own cheats "danish" pasties.
Cath (The Cheapskates Club) always says ingredients give you options. If your pantry has basic ingredients then a bit of this or that has endless possibilities!! Whatever comes your way you can truly whip into something special.
We stole a lot of ideas from the new "in things" ie I heard about breakfast McMuffins many years ago. Bacon and egg toasted sandwiches, wrapped and ready to be eaten on the road somewhere became a favourite. My Mum especially made a good few hundred of those! I only just heard of Lunchables. Well seriously... a bit of this and that make a very interesting and nutritious lunch you can put together yourself! My very favourite is if there is left over roast meat of any kind I will make a pile of meat and cheese sandwiches or rolls. These will be frozen for emergencies. Mum makes herself a heap of them and when she is having soup she will take one out and put in the frypan for a few minutes. So handy! Lunch or dinner does not have to be fancy to be good!
Years ago a young man helped me in my garden. I asked how could I pay him and he replied what he would really like is a packed lunch like I made for Chloe and Lucy every day. And so the next day the girls took to school an extra (beautiful packed) lunch for him. He was so thrilled. So you see things we take for granted are very special to some. Another time I baked a cake for a friends birthday. I gave the cake as the gift... and a card. I HOPED this would be seen as nice.... When I gave it to her she burst into tears. I held of on judgment about what this meant... and it was that in her entire life she had never once had a birthday cake. Again... I would never have guessed that my humble gift would mean so much. It was truly easy and decorated with flowers from the garden... an absolute bit of this and that success.
A few times in the city we had Indian take out. When we first tried this I was absolutely amazed how small the serves were. But... when you added the rice, the Naan, the Raita and so on it added up to absolutely plenty. Eventually I got myself some serving dishes to make the most of this and began to make a basic Butter Chicken or Tikka Masala. This is such a good way to use a very small amount of meat and make it go a long way!
Nana always made us feel special. Mum sometimes served out meals in a little ramekin with a handle. She had a set that were black on the outside and each one was a different shade of pastel on the inside. I always wanted the pink one. Well, I loved this and I don't remember what the meals were just how I loved my individual special dish with a handle. I do remember I absolutely loved tuna mornay and fried rice. I also loved Mum's pancakes and toasted ham, cheese and pineapple grilled sandwiches.
This brings me to what is enough? What is a "good enough" meal or "good enough" gift? Have we lost our minds? Can we scale back to a heartfelt note in a card? Is a nice toasted sandwich or omelet a good enough dinner on a busy night? Let's have a night every week where we just use up things that need using!
Leftover bread, roll/baguette... can be sliced and dried in the oven. These will store just ages to add something to a soup down the track. I have already written a lot on never wasting a slice of bread!
Nana saw possibilities in her fridge and garden and shopping topped these up. The next leftovers held new possibilities!
Nan's garden was a little bit of this and that too, but maybe that is another subject! Both my Nans had lovely gardens. There were made of cuttings and gifts and time.
I am going to settle in for the night. The fire is going which is lovely. I am crocheting flowers to use up left over yarns and it truly is amazing at what you can do with a little bit of this and that! Please add your ideas and if your Mum or Nan had a way of turning a little into a lot or nothing into something we would love to hear! xxx
I love the photo of the split pea soup, made me hungry;). So many good ideas here, thank you. A blogger (apologies for I cannot remember her blog) had an acronym for her weekly meals that were aimed at using everything up. EMG. Everything must go! Just like the sales ads on tv, she would write that in her meal plan and her family knew what it meant. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteLovely post! It reminds me of a high compliment my dad gave me, that I could “make something from nothing”! I had made a simple but tasty lunch with bits and pieces. It makes me think of quilting as it used to be…bits of this and that, worn-out clothing made into warm blankets. Today we go a little crazy with fine fabrics and fancy patterns, but my love is using scraps (from my mom) and making them into something beautiful. Thanks for encouraging us to see possibilities!!
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely post and I loved the birthday cake and packed lunch stories. Greeting cards are special now since so few send them. I received a birthday card a few days ago from a friend who had a million things to get done to go over seas for three months to do medical missions work. I was touched that she took time to write a nice note inside and I knew she meant every word.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents who lived down the street from us when we were growing up always had more than enough money so they had things at their house like store bought cookies that we never had at home. When we visited we were allowed to take home a little bag of those cookies from the big cookie jar on the kitchen counter.
I have that cookie jar now in my own kitchen. That same grandmother never shopped for a gift but looked around her own home and gifted things that she had and those things are some of my dearest treasures. She gave me a large dollhouse that she and my grandfather had rescued from a trash pile and redid and my grandfather made all the beautiful furniture. When I got married she cleaned out her kitchen and gave me all sorts of useful items and I still use many of them today. Her bread knives slice bread here daily. When they heard we were expecting our first child they went to yard sales and bought us so many nice things. My grandfather painted a basinet so beautifully for us. My grandmother would buy the house dresses with the gathered shirts that women used to wear at yard sales and make pillow cases out of the skirts. I still have many of those sets of pillow cases in my linen closet.
My great aunt bought wool coats for usually $1 each at thrift shops and made the most wonderful thick wool braided rugs out of them. I have several of those that she gifted me. One is a wonderful thick cushion for tired feet in front of our kitchen sink. These rugs last for a decade or more of daily use and they remind me of my aunt who passed away many years ago. I was with her at a thrift shop one time in the middle of a hot Florida summer when she took a huge armload of coats to the register to check out. The cashier said, 'Oh, these will keep you nice and warm!" My Aunt just looked at me with a twinkle in her eye because we knew she would make rugs out of them and no one needs a big wool coat in Florida.
My favorite leftover dish is a spoonful of cold mashed potatoes, two slices of stale bread, torn up and 2 eggs with salt and pepper fried together in a skillet. It makes a great hot lunch. I have found that making croutons in the air fryer are the best crunchy croutons I have ever made and no turning on the oven. Any slice of stale bread that cannot be used right away is put into a bag in the freezer for French toast or to be cubed for stuffing. Bread ends go in a separate bag for croutons. I never throw out gravy of any kid but put it in a container in the freezer to use later for pot pies or noodle dishes. Two thirds gravy heated with one third half and half makes a delicious sauce for a pot pie. After I make a roast if I have bits of meat and gravy, I thin the gravy and cook the meat and gravy with some egg noodles. Thus us my husband's favorite dish.
I rarely cook a whole ham but rather break it down into slices and cubed meat and package it for the freezer. Then I put the ham bone into a covered Dutch oven with potatoes, carrots and green beans and bake covered for a few hours. This makes a delicious dinner and there is plenty of meat on the bone for a meal.
One final tip is that we have found that the air fryer revives so many leftover foods that are not that great heated other ways. We are enjoying leftovers so much more now that we heat them that way.
My mom would grind up leftover pot roast,carrots, onions and potatoes to make hash, which she would fry till crispy. Yum! With ketchup on top :)
ReplyDeleteIf no veggies were left, she would grind up leftover roast with some sweet pickles, onion, chunk cheddar, and add mayo to bind. This would
be spread on leftover buns or stale bread and placed under the broiler till bubbly. If no roast was left, she would get chunk bologna and call it "ham salad". Also put under the broiler.
Leftover mashed potatoes were made into fried potato pancakes.
A turkey carcass was always turned into turkey/barley soup---till we came to dread the meal---it made TONS! She used a canning kettle as the pot.
Lots of canning in the summer/fall---not from our own garden,but she had a source where she would buy tomatoes, pickling cucumbers,
peaches, and so on by the bushel basket full.
Thank you for this post dear Annabel. It made me think about what if we would produce some leftovers on purpose, like you do with rice. I like to watch Jacques Pepin cooking. He will always find a few mushrooms, or pieces of cheese in his refrigerator. So I thought, it would be a good idea, next time when we open a can of something, we only use lets say 9/10 of the content and keep the 1/10 for another meal. Do it the next day as well, maybe put it in the freezer. A few mushrooms here and a bit cheese there can add up to a soup or sauce. I think I will make some leftovers on purpose in the future.
ReplyDeleteHugs to all Heike from Germany
I love watching Jacques Pepin just for that very reason. He's always showing how not to waste, how to stretch the foods, etc.
DeleteSince electricity charges are increasing so much I've started baking and cooking a bit different.I've been baking more squares instead of cookies for lunch treats because they take less time to bake than several trays of cookies and most cookie recipes can be spread out on a cookie sheet anyway and then cut into squares while warm,also doubling and tripling the recipes to fill up the oven and freeze the extra.I also make skillet casseroles instead of baking in the oven unless I'm baking or cooking something else anyway.If I'm making a meatloaf or roast I'll make scalloped potatoes or baked rice at the same time and fill any extra space in the oven with potatoes to bake.I'll use the potatoes for home fries or potato salad or potato soup etcLettuce costs an arm and a leg here in Canada in the winter so we planted some lettuce seeds in old ice cream pails and placed in a south facing window and have benn growing fresh lettuce for salads and sandwiches.Dandelions are starting to grow so I've been picking them to add to our lettuce also.Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom with us and your life and lovely family.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reminder that a little can go a long way, Annabel.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a hot climate (southern California). My mom always froze her cakes with frosting already on. She would make them ahead of the event. When the cakes thawed, they were so moist! There was a large Hispanic population in my hometown. Many ladies sold tamales between Thanksgiving and Christmas. No matter where you worked, you could always get in touch with someone selling tamales. I asked a friend why tamales were made at this time. "Lots of leftover meat and plenty of hands to help". I honestly believe that many of these ladies were trying to earn money for Christmas gifts for their large families! It was not unusual for one household to make hundreds of tamales to sell.
Blessings to all,
Leslie
I LOVE this post! You've brought back so many memories, and made me think; we all do so much on auto pilot that having to stop and think about it is a good thing. In our home we use the pastry scraps for jam tarts or cheese strips - cut the pastry into strips, brush with a little melted butter (about 1 tsp) with some paprika stirred in, and sprinkle with grated cheese (so it goes further) and bake. They are so good and people pay money for these at gourmet grocers! I always keep 1 slice of roast beef or lamb to make French Shepherd's pie - who would think 1 slice of roast meat could feed six people! No one knows there is only one slice of meat in the pie, and I have never had a complaint. I use Gardenpat's sausage patty recipe to make sausage and egg muffins for the freezer and my boys heat them for breakfast during the week. Same with the egg muffins. I make and freeze them and then when we are travelling we put them in the pie warmer when we leave home and they are ready for breakfast when we stop for a break - saves queuing up and paying for rather ordinary fast food. I can make 12 for the price of buying two! Last week I made pancakes from the sour dough discard and they were delicious! My family loved them, so they will be a regular and pancakes freeze well. There is always a lot of meat left on a chicken carcass or lamb bones, so I never need to add meat to soup, there is plenty that comes from the stock. When we cut a pumpkin I save the seeds and roast them for snacks. If the pumpkin is for roasting, I scrub the skin really well and roast it with the skin on - it is delicious roasted. This morning I have a croissant and butter pudding in the slow cooker - there were two croissants left from last week that didn't get used while I was away so dessert they become. Any cheese ends that get hard I freeze and then use to make cheese sauces or toss into a pasta bake or lasagne.
ReplyDeleteThe world needs more Annabelles! You are a breath of fresh air in a tired and weary world.
ReplyDeleteI love that your blog is not just about saving money but about creating a loving and uplifting home environment, while embracing the work we need to do to prepare for what lies ahead.
I look for ways to make something nice with bits of this and that. I am freezing leftover brewed coffee into ice cube trays. When they are frozen these will go into a plastic container in the freezer. Over the summer, i will throw these in the blender from time to time with vanilla and a bit of cream for a free made at home frappuccino.
Or, you can just add several coffee cubes to a mug and heat in the microwave for a quick cup of coffee.
You can also freeze leftover juices or lemonade this way, and use these cubes to liven up plain water.
Another tip i can share is to serve tacos on Friday night. All the little bits of leftover toppings, the shredded cheese, the diced tomatoes, the chopped onions and sliced black olives can all find their way into omelettes on Saturday morning...with no chopping needed.
Blessings to all the beautiful bluebirds.
The story about the young man who just wanted a beautiful packed lunch made my heart ache 😢❤️ He must never have had anything like that in his life. How special, firstly that he valued that simple thing and second that he had the courage to ask for it without feeling embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch MasterChef when it first aired on TV and I loved the fancy dishes and at times would try my hand at one, but I quickly learned that the fancy ingredients and buying an expensive bottle of this and that only to use a splash of it was just silly!
From Cheryl
A lovely post Annabel. I wish I could add to this with some ideas from my family but I cant. We grew up eating grey meat and grey veg. We didnt starve but food was not exciting and there was just enough.
ReplyDeleteBluey's Mum was great at taking ingredients and making them into something special. Her blow away sponge was absolutely delicious. She always presented the sponge simply with cream and whatever jam she had opened. It was put on her special plate and it just looked like something out of a magazine. If there were unexpected extra mouths to feed she added more potatoes to the pot. Her meals were always tasty and served up to a set table.
Bluey is our meals cook and my goodness he can take ordinary and make it into something special. Tonight we are having muffoles. These are large rissoles, made with mince and leftover veg, baked up in muffin trays. We have the muffoles with gravy and vegies.
Each week we make up a pot of Fridge soup. This is whatever veg is starting to look a bit sad in the crisper. We generally have a vegie slice each week. This is the same as zucchini slice only using whatever other veg we have to use up. This week was pumpkin slice. Bluey added some pine nuts that were past their used by date. My goodness this was delicious.
Food doesnt have to be made with expensive ingredients for it to be something special. Life is tasty good.
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post. I love that story about the packed lunch, and the one about the birthday cake. Also, like you say, "have we lost our minds" about gifts and meals? What happened to spending time with each other at birthday parties and playing games in the backyard or having a sleepover vs. a big destination party with massive amounts of money spent? And yes, some nights, a few eggs and toast with a veggie is a perfectly acceptable supper! Who can afford to eat like a t.v. cooking show every night of the week?
My mother used to use her pastry scraps to roll out, spread with butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. We loved these treats! Also, she took leftover frosting from a cake she'd made and spread the frosting between graham crackers...we loved these, too, especially after they'd sat for a day and were softened up from the frosting! (Nowadays I freeze leftover pastry bits and put them together once I have enough to make a quiche crust. And I freeze leftover frosting to use on cupcakes...Mom just didn't use the freezer for those kinds of things.) Usually on Saturdays we had a "leftovers lunch" to use up various bits and bobs, or Mom would make a big batch of vegetable beef soup to use up all the various leftover veggies or sorry-looking ones from the fridge. She never wasted food! (And she was a great cook!)
You have so many wonderful suggestions/tips in this post. Definitely a favorite! I hope you got lots of crocheting time in!
xx Jen in NS
I love your posts and the way you share the humble pleasures of simplicity. It reminds me to be grateful for so many things. Tonight we had one of those use-it-up nights and everyone is going to bed with a full tummy, even though none of the food was fancy.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, it was on my heart to gift a coworker with a Christmas stocking. She was going through a divorce and trying to take care of three young children at the time. We were not close friends, she was just someone I knew at work, but I felt led to do it. I felt like she would be trying so hard to have Christmas for her kids and might not receive anything for herself. I filled a stocking with small trinkets and beauty samples that I had saved back throughout the year, didn't spend much money at all on it. I wrapped it up and left it in the school office as a surprise for her. A few years later, we ended up becoming very dear friends, and at some point she mentioned receiving the stocking but was weirded out by not knowing who it was from. I confessed to her that I had given it to her. She was so touched and told me that it was the only stocking she had ever received. We are still very close! Ever since then, I try to always listen to that little nudge! Small gifts from the heart are so special.
Do you have a recipe posted for the baked rice custard? I never heard of that before!
This post is lovely Annabel, I’ve read it three times! You are so right about gifts and meals, simple is good! I grew up with only one grandparent and she lived on the other side of the world so I didn’t learn any tips from her. My mum also made jam tarts with leftover pastry, I loved them. I often make jam drops when the jar is nearly finished. I remember what a treat we thought it was to have pikelets for afternoon tea. I now realise this would have been on days when there wasn’t much else left in the cupboards.
ReplyDeleteWe had my daughters birthday party in the weekend. I don’t give out goody bags at the end of the party but I made some candy kebabs (you showed some in your gift guide) and the kids loved them. They only had 6 different lollies on them but they were popular.
I really enjoy this series Annabel, thank you for writing it.
Jen (NZ)
Love this post. Growing up I never met a real leftover anywhere except at my Grandmother's. She didn't do anything with them, just kept putting that same tablespoon of beans on the table until someone finally ate them just so they'd not see them anymore. She did take mashed potatoes and mix with her minced for burgers or meatloaf. My mom never had leftovers that I know of and neither did my Granny. So when we found money tight in our household, I learned to add things in extra. A few olives left in a jar got tossed into tuna salad. One day I had a half apple and I chopped it up very finely and put that in the tuna salad and now my husband won't eat tuna salad unless I have apple to go into it! I love watching ThreeRiversHomestead to see how she is always using this and that to make up a meal. But I like to see pretty food on the table. I'm somewhere between ThreeRivers and you when it comes to making food. My things aren't quite as pretty as yours but they do appeal to the eye first and then the taste comes in.
DeleteFor years, I watched as my family grew crooked neck yellow squash and they chopped off the whole neck and tossed it! What's the point of that?! I learned to take just a bit off the blossom and stem ends and then use all the rest of the squash for the dish I was making. Two squash go so much further than 1/2 of four!
I toss any leftover carrots bits, celery root ends and onion root ends and tops as well as that first tough outer layer of flesh on an onion into a bag in the freezer and then I make up vegetable broth or toss into a pot with chicken frames or beef bones to make stock. I've been doing it for years and years. It seems silly to add a whole onion, whole stalks of celery and whole carrots into the stock pot when we're not even going to eat them.
When I have leftover veg in my pot roast, I'll dice up the vegetables right along with the meat to make soup or pot pie or hash.
I never make spaghetti sauce or meatloaf without adding in all the goodness of grated zucchini if I've got it on hand, leftover bits of raw tomato, grated carrots, even grated broccoli stems.
And nothing is better than a big pot of Kitchen Sink soup where in all the leftovers, wrinkly veg and whatever odd bits and pieces go into a soup pot, simmer all day long and make a lovely savory soup!
Interestingly, just this evening we had salads with leftover taco meat. One cup of ground beef, taco seasoned and 1/2 c black beans over lettuce made a nice summer evening meal. There is another 3/4 c of meat left for another night. I am on a mission to not waste any food. I have 2 summer squashes that MUST be used this week. Muffins or on pizza.
ReplyDeleteYour evening fire sounds lovely, despite it being summer here.