A recent blog event, Leftover Tuesdays (see here for the most recent challenge), has presentations of dishes created from leftovers.  Great idea! Especially if you have meat such as a large roast and don't want the same thing for several nights, but it doesn't really apply to me.  I generally make dishes that have all of the ingredients mixed together like casseroles, stir fries, noodle or pasta dishes, and so forth.  These dishes tend to be four  servings and we have them for two nights.  Sure, we sometimes have a meat dish and eat the same thing several nights but I'm not much of a meat eater so this doesn't happen often.  

This doesn't mean I don't have a leftover problem - I just define leftovers differently.  To me leftovers are the remaining odd ingredients that I needed for a dish but did not finish.  Examples are a bit of cream, some chicken broth, a bit of cheese - or worse yet a funky spice or sauce that I like but only have a couple of dishes to use it in.  These types of leftovers are a challenge because either you only have a little bit left that you can't do much with or you have a lot left, such as a spice, but you wouldn't want to use much in a single recipe.  Some of the items can be frozen like the broth, some have long shelf lives like some sauces, and some are so easy to use I don't consider them something I'm using up but something I simply enjoy to eat like cheese. Yet, what to do with a 1/4 of a container of sour cream or a bit of cream?  Are these leftovers?  Well according to one on-line definition:

Leftover

• a small part or portion that remains after the main part no longer exists
• not used up; "leftover meatloaf".

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