When Life Hands You Lemons

I know you know that irritatingly chipper little maxim: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!" Yeah, yeah, yeah...see the good in your present situation, make do with what you've got, blah, blah, blah.

While it's cloying life-advice, it's actually excellent kitchen-advice.

Most folks who have had anything to do with a restaurant can tell you a funny-now-but-not-so-funny-then story about an irreversible food order gone wrong, where the staff is suddenly the proud owners of a mountain of green beans, or calamari tentacles, or even lettuce. I remember unloading one produce order and scratching my head wondering where the kitchen manager thought all of these ravenous salad eaters were suddenly going to come from.

When you are suddenly stuck with something, you can either pitch it (SO horribly wasteful and wrong) or get creative and find something to make with it. This is a wonderful way to be less wasteful, more sustainable, and make your food budget go a lot farther.

-Don't throw away the bones from the roast chicken. Boil them and you have soup. You just got another free meal out of the same chicken.
-Is your bread getting a little dried out? Don't trash the end of the loaf. Cut it into little squares and bake them in a low oven. Now you don't have to buy croutons for your next salad.
-You ordered a ham that was too big? Well, be grateful because you've just hit the jackpot: Quiche Lorraine, ham and eggs, split pea soup, collard greens, navy bean soup, or minced up with cheese or mayo for ham salad sandwiches.
-Fruit is looking a little bruised? Throw it in the blender for a smoothie base.
-Leaf lettuce on its last breath? It's really good poached in soup (The Italians put escarole in their Wedding Soup, don't they?)

If you don't have a thrifty grandmother on call to tell you what to do with everything, scour the internet and you'll get lots of ideas about how to be a more responsible member of the top of the food chain.

I got all fired up to write this after I started to proof some yeast to make a pizza crust and found I already had one made up. Throwing away my yeasty primordial soup would not have been a big deal and would have wasted all of about a cup and a half of water and .25 cents worth of yeast.

But it would take me very little effort to throw some flour in the bowl, mix it up, let it rise while I ate dinner, then throw it in the still-hot oven as I washed the dishes. So I did. And I am so glad I did, as I sit here inhaling the heavenly aroma of fresh-baked bread. The aroma reminds me that I will have an excellent reason to leap out of bed tomorrow morning (SO good toasted with my first cup of coffee!) as well as an excellent reason to sleep soundly tonight...knowing I did not waste my day today.