Celebrating the season…at a daily table

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Most of us find ourselves caught between wanting to just sit and enjoy the season…and racing around at top speed to make it so we (and others) can sit and enjoy the season. It’s a paradox. I try hard to carve out moments…no matter how busy the season gets…to just sit and take it in.

For me…and I think for anyone reading this newsletter…those moments are frequently at a table. I was reminded of this over the weekend when my friend and baker extraordinaire Nancy posted an image on Instagram of one of our work lunches from this past week. (For those of you who don’t know, I usually work a day or two every week for Nancy in her bakeshop, Chef Shop.) No matter how busy we are, we always stop for a proper lunch. They are simple: typically leftovers from one of our home tables…or a combination of our leftovers…or grilled cheese/quesdilla… And always a little salad (or a little plate of seasonal fruit). But because we make the effort to plan (just a simple stream of texts back and forth: “what do you have?”…) they are usually quite tasty. I am so grateful I get to work with someone who values a daily ritual of the table.

Pasta with leftovers

Whether your household is small or large, being creative with leftovers is such an important skill when life gets extra busy. Frankly, it was the thing I thought I would focus on the most when I started this newsletter. But not everyone has the same set of leftovers I (or you) have…and often the delicious things I make from them fall into a never-to-be-duplicated category. Writing about these creations would often necessitate that I also share recipes for the various things that created the leftovers in the first place. This would make for a cumbersome newsletter.

Another friend reminded me recently that not all of my recipes created from leftovers are one time only affairs. She sent me a note that she had made my Bow Ties with Brussels Sprouts, Carrots & Italian Sausage for dinner the previous evening…and her husband was still talking about how delicious it had been. This particular pasta came about because of a slightly different kind of leftover—the odds and ends of uncooked vegetables that were too few in quantity to make a dish on their own. The funny thing about leftovers like this is that you will probably have the exact same leftovers pretty regularly (because people tend to buy what they love). In this case, it is not unusual for me to have a stray Brussels sprout or two hanging out in my produce bin during the late fall and winter months. And I always have carrots (and 2 oz. portions of Italian sausage in my freezer). This pasta of “leftovers” has become a regular favorite.

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