Leftovers

I've been a dirt poor preacher for a while. Following your passion doesn't always pay as well as you might hope. You should follow your passion, though. It's really the only choice. Anyway, a few years ago, I began to develop an interest in la cucina povera, an Italian phrase meaning, "the cooking of the poor". Probably because I was one of the "povera" throughout time immemorial. One who found that necessity was indeed the mother of invention. Ever since I first ate at Po Folks in Jackson, TN, as a kid, I knew that the real food of this world wasn't found in palaces, but in cabins and shacks.

A paesano approach to cooking is one that considers multiple end results before you even shop for the food you will cook. A recipe beginning with the understanding that this meal will ultimately become more: two or even three meals.

I don't mean reheated lasagna. Although my wife's lasagna is delicious reheated (and you can't make lasagna into anything else...wait a minute, you could...). I mean recycling leftovers into completely new meals. Really good meals. No...delicious, inventive, exciting meals.

This blog is about leftovers. Sometimes cooking a little bit too much for supper and planning on making something else out of the surplus. Nothing new, really. Just what mammas, mommies, nonnas, yayas, nannies, and grandmas have been doing for thousands of years.

A surefire way to save a ton of money. A way to unlock that hidden spendthrift within and let him or her loose in the kitchen. A way to turn a $300.00 grocery bill into a $150.00 grocery bill and laugh about it all the way to the pantry.