Thank god for 2017. What a universally shit year for us all (with the exception of the Chicago Cubs because really now, how amazing was that?!), and while there’s a lot to deal with on the horizon I feel better knowing that the dumpster fire of 2016 is done. But now you’re probably looking at the contents of your refrigerator and wondering what the hell happened. The holidays, that’s what. That intersection of Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years and a little leftover Thanksgiving that creates chaos for us all. Chances are also good that, like many of us, you’ve probably decided to try to go on a health kick of some sort to right the eating wrongs of the past 6 weeks. We all do it. The constant influx of butter, cheese, cream, meat, alcohol and chocolate come to a head on January 1 where the guilt kicks into overdrive. I’ve circled it a few years but I think this is the year I try the Bon Appetit Food Lover’s Cleanse (from last year, or the year prior or the year before that or there’s a book too). Not a diet per se, god forbid, but recipes mostly devoid of the things I’ve overindulged in the last few weeks. And they sound really good too. So why not? My system could use a little cleansing.
But first we’ve got to clean out the larder of the leftover bits … the cheese, the meat scraps, the endless ½ filled bags of nuts and dried fruits from various baking projects. They pile up despite our good intentions. These leftovers tend to fall in a few basic categories: leftover baking bits (nuts, dried fruit, chocolate), cheese and cured meats (salami, sausage), cooked meats (hams, roasts), cooked vegetables (roasted/steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes). I’ve got some ideas for you to speed this along.
What to do with the extra bits and pieces of cheese and salami from your New Year’s Eve snacks:
- make a delicious and simple snack bread: Savory Salami and Cheese Bread
- make a quiche – a flaky pastry crust filled with a silky egg custard and bits of meat and cheese. This recipe is for caramelize onions, ham and swiss but any bits of leftovers would be quite nice: Quiche Lorraine
What to do with all the odd bits of leftover cheese:
- my last post for a cheese ball still stands. Start with cream cheese and blend anything you have into it for a delicious snack: My Party Cheeseball
What to do with the last bits of nuts and dried fruit from your holiday baking projects:
- Cookies are a simple go-to – a basic oatmeal or chocolate chip recipe can take any type of nuts or dried fruit quite nicely.
- Homemade granola is a great one – and can use up ALL those little ziplocs of stuff in one go: Post Holiday Granola
- How about those making a batch of those fancy nut & fruit crackers for a helluva lot less than the $7 Whole Foods sells them for? Use any nut/fruit/herb/grain combination you like: Cranberry Pecan Harvest Crisps
- For a healthy breakfast, whip up some steel cut oats and top with those leftover bits of nuts and dried fruit: Steel Cut Oats on the Go
What to do with leftover cooked meat and vegetables:
- Soup is the easiest option – simmer some stock (homemade or purchased) with a few herbs then slide in leftover chunks of meat and vegetables. A good minestrone is something to look forward to.
- Got some holiday ham taking up too much fridge space? A split pea soup is traditional but I prefer a Ham & Navy Bean soup. Any meat/bean/vegetable combination would be lovely: Navy Bean Soup
- A pot pie is the very best use of leftovers in my opinion – any leftover meat or vegetable would work beautifully folded into a silky sauce and topped with a pastry lid. If you have a glut of mashed potatoes, use those instead of the pastry dough for the top: Chicken Pot Pie
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: ARE YOU KIDDING? YUUUGE! Dealing with an overload of leftovers and no plan before they go bad stresses me out. Luckily I spent both Christmas and New Years at other peoples houses but I still have large amounts of cheese and an ungodly pile of various nuts and dried fruits. The cheese has gone into quite a few cheese balls this season (yeah!) and there will be some Post Holiday granola in my future. Probably a few batches. And while I opted not to take home some ham from our Christmas Day celebrations, I’m sort of regretting it. A pot of navy bean soup would be quite nice this week.
Eight years ago: Sunchoke Soup
Seven years ago: Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
Six years ago: Ginger Simple Syrup
Five years ago: Steel Cut Oats on the Go
Four years ago: Hoppin’ John
Three years ago: Scratch Rum Cake
Two years ago: Rumaki (chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon)
Last year: Savory Salami and Cheese Bread
STRESSCAKE 
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