Leftovers

 Many of us feel a rush of new energy with the coming of the New Year. I know I usually do. Still, resolutions seem a bit restrictive of this new energy so I also seem to use that energy to tackle leftovers.

There are, of course, food leftovers in the fridge and we had our share of those. Day by day since K's crew flew home we've put leftover mashed potatoes with some eggs for breakfast and cleared out those small containers of salad and cooked veggies. The crisper has yielded lunch and dinner salads. It's amazing what you can put into a salad in the way of leftovers! Soup is another leftover rich environment so soup has been a lunch time treat. Some things, like the ham bone and chunked ham, have gone into the freezer for future soup.

Another kind of leftovers are the places in our home where various kinds of things have sort of collected. I'm usually the culprit since Sweetie is really good at throwing things out in a reasonable amount of time. I tend to think that I'll need it later...and then don't remember I even have it.

So the day after New Years I sorted through the drawer that holds my greeting cards and now I know what usable cards I have and also that I have some return address labels with my name from when I donated to the National Parks. Bonus was I also found some pads of paper. I'm still a pen and paper, make-a-list kind of gal, so pads of paper are always welcome.

I won't go on, but you get the idea. Leftovers can be great or terrible, but new year energy has been applied.

Which brings us to last night's dinner casserole. It started out as a way to use up some leftover grilled Italian sausages, but ended up being an amazingly delicious casserole that didn't scream 'leftovers' at all.

I don't actually have a recipe since I made it up as I went along, but I can tell you what went into it and you can probably figure out how to make one of your own that is truly yours...it will have your specific leftovers!

First I checked out the fridge and pantry to see what was available and what needed using up. Besides the sausage, I found two partly used packages of pasta; one of orecchiette and one of mixed veggie twists. I found part of an onion and a handful of fresh green beans in the crisper, plus newly purchased cremini mushrooms, some mild hard cheese and some Parmesan ends in the cheese drawer, and last of all, a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. I knew that I had both butter and margarine, plus dry bread crumbs. Bonus was an unopened jar of roasted red peppers.

With these I was able to make a pasta casserole that included sliced Italian sausages, sautéed onions and mushrooms, steamed green beans, small pieces (hand torn as it turns out) roasted red pepper, all mixed into a pasta mixture that included the can of cream of mushroom soup and some pasta water to make it the right consistency. That mixture was topped with a mixture of melted butter, grated cheese, and dry bread crumbs and the whole thing was baked at a high temperature for about 15 minutes until the casserole was bubbly and the topping was golden brown. Because of the flavor developed by the slow cooked onions and mushrooms I didn't even add salt or pepper or herbs and it was still delicious.

So I wish some leftovers for you, dear reader. May your new year bring you new energy and the ability to look at old things with new eyes.