Leftovers

[VeraBlue]

If any of you have graced my writing enough to recall what I have to say, you know I am a professional chef...and rarely cook at home, save for the weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday my house is full, between my boyfriend staying for the three days, my son and daughter in from school, and my (ex) husband and his girlfriend popping over to raid my fridge...I have a reason to cook. (It's different cooking for people you love, yes?)

As I've mentioned from time to time, I have portion control issues. I feed people like they've recently returned from Bataan. I always make more than I need, knowing there will be leftovers. (We tend to live off leftovers around here all week long).

My problem stems from having leftover 'cake' and other cake like products. Right now, there is half a cheesecake in my fridge, a CocoDolly birthday cake chunk, 4 entenman's donuts, and about 2 pounds of butter bakery cookies. Great if Marie Antoinette was coming to visit..

Cake has a syren's effect on me. It calls me, even if I'm 40 miles away at work. No sooner do I get into the house than I am drawn to the kitchen. It takes every ounce of willpower to drag myself in the opposite direction.

I send huge pieces of dessert (and just about anything else I prepared during the weekend) home with Lou so he can prevent starvation during his week. I send plates of food back with my daughter to her dorm. I give to my (ex)husband's girlfriend, and he pops in a couple of times a week to stave off his own starvation. My son, who is commuting this year has such a goofy schedule that he eats out more than in. That leaves me and the cake. Or pie. Or struedel.

Strangely, I'm never left with a plate of broccoli, or corn, or tomatoes. It's always some fattening potato thing, or pasta thing, or cake.

What do you do???

And...if anyone is interested, I'm real close to Teterboro airport. I'll even brew a fresh pot of coffee to help you wash down the cakes... Who's hungry?

 

[Corinne]

Send the goodies back to the dorm with your daughter. I'm sure her dorm-mates will appreciate them. Get them out of the house!
Corinne

 

[VeraBlue]

The only thing that prevents me from doing that completely is that my son may just decide he wants something. If I keep two or three pieces here for him, he never gets around to eating them. If I send everything away, he's licking the chocolate off decade old easter eggs foil.

 

[Andy M.]

Put on a pot of coffee and save me a piece of cheesecake.

I sometimes ache to bake but resist the temptation to feed my addiction. (I don't want to be my own enabler).

When the holidays roll around, I give in to temptation and go all out. Then I beg folks to take stuff home with them so I won't be saddled with the responsibility of preventing all the leftover desserts form "going to waste"

 

[licia]

I suppose that may be a big part of the reason I don't make sweets so much. I usually have to give away more than we eat. I like to have dessert, but don't want the same thing, so we usually have fruit, or sherbet, or frozen yogurt. I can't send the sweets home with my kids and grandkids - they are trying to stay away from them also. I would suggest putting what you can in the freezer. If they stay awhile, you can defrost and make the coffee...or perhaps not make as much.

 

[VeraBlue]

Put on a pot of coffee and save me a piece of cheesecake.

I sometimes ache to bake but resist the temptation to feed my addiction. (I don't want to be my own enabler).

When the holidays roll around, I give in to temptation and go all out. Then I beg folks to take stuff home with them so I won't be saddled with the responsibility of preventing all the leftover desserts form "going to waste"

oh no, we cannot let it go to waste. Lou wants to know what is the difference between his eating a pie in one sitting or dragging it out over a few days .

 

[VeraBlue]

I suppose that may be a big part of the reason I don't make sweets so much. I usually have to give away more than we eat. I like to have dessert, but don't want the same thing, so we usually have fruit, or sherbet, or frozen yogurt. I can't send the sweets home with my kids and grandkids - they are trying to stay away from them also. I would suggest putting what you can in the freezer. If they stay awhile, you can defrost and make the coffee...or perhaps not make as much.

Licia, I like you, but you may be too healthy for me. I grew up having a piece of fruit at the end of each dinner, but that just doesn't do it for me when I need something sweet. I usually have my fruit, now, earlier in the day, like breakfast or an afternoon snack. Imagine if I put all the leftover cakes into the freezer..haha, that's all there would be in there. And that would leave no room for the vodka!

 

[Half Baked]

I used to put my cakes and cookies in the freezer like there is a Green Beret guarding it...hogwash. I've learned to love frozen cake (and it only takes seconds to thaw, anyway).

Speaking of cake, it sounds good for breakfast this morning.

 

[thumpershere2]

I cook for two and I always have leftovers but then I don't have to cook everyday. I freeze alot of leftovers so usually have food on hand if we get to busy here to cook. We don't eat alot of sweets but I do make cookies and on occasion a cake but it has to be a very moist kind. I use up very ripe bananas for my banana bread that I can freeze and usually give some away to some older friends that love it.

 

[cjs]

My only suggestion is what we have to do - spread it around to the neighbors - if it's in the house, we'll eat it!!

 

[Gretchen]

Leftover cheesecake. Make popsicles for another meal. Insert stick in a cut piece, put on a ganache or such and freeze.

 

[buckytom]

vb, i've noticed your weakness for entenmann's. i to am afflicted. i suffer from severe chocolate frosted doughnut anemia.

it's not my fault tho. being the youngest in my family, i was fed cakes every morning with mom's coffee break, after she'd gotten all of my older siblings off to school. (mom is a norsk, famous for their sweet tooths.)

have you ever had their brownie crumb ring? here is a picture, http://entenmanns.gwbakeries.com/product.cfm/upc/7203001018

but the description is wrong. it's not layered brownies. it's more of an angel food-like ring, topped with mocha-maple icing, then crumbed brownies and powdered sugar!
it's hard to find in stores around us, but if you see one, grab it. you won't be dissapointed. they never last 2 days in my house.

as far as leftovers go, i always over cook just for that purpose; to have leftovers ready for a future meal when there's not time or the ability to cook.
i eat leftovers at work for lunch, sometimes breakfast, often driving my co-workers crazy as they nibble on their measly soggy sandwiches.

there's no such thing as a leftover dessert in my house, for more than a night. big cakes may last 3 nights, but that depends on the amount if ice cold milk in the fridge.

 

[Andy M.]

oh no, we cannot let it go to waste. Lou wants to know what is the difference between his eating a pie in one sitting or dragging it out over a few days .

Tell Lou I understand. Alas, sometime the mind is willing but the flesh is weak... or full.

 

[lulu]

I love to bake too. It might interest you to know my mother's housekeeper had the last piece of apple cake today....that was a HUGE cake!

In London we have two elderly neighbours who are both single and lonely and rather isolated. I always take a slice or two down to each them after the weekend. And then single male friends are always available for cake. On days I drive to work I detour past the nearest appropriate recipient to deliver half a cake, and they are always very grateful. One of DH's friends pointed out that none of his uni crowd have to get married as they have me to bake for them and only DH has to put in the hard work, lol. My office used to benefit occasionally (I always cut the cake into slices before taking it in, otherwise people seem unwilling to cut in, or take too much, and it helps make the leftovers seem more palatable...like it was meant to be sliced and not a complete round, lol)

In the countryside its even easier. People tend to drop in daily, and my mother made me feel that if there was not a biscuit or peice of cake to offer people who dropped in then it was a failing. Even our postman has been known to take a piece of cake with him. The guy who cuts the grass, the landscapers, the housekeeper, who lives with her brother and boyfriend, so thats one slice eaten here and three taken home in clingfilm if I am really having to offload). We are really remote, but their are childrenn on the farm in the valkley below us who cycle past and whose mother is happy about me feeding her kids with cake.

In my old village we used to have a Saturday village shop on saturday mornings. Sometimes I used to make meals to freeze and heat up to get a little pocket money for myself. Slices of cake cut and individually clingfilmed went down well. It was an army village and many of the single officers who lived in the village would buy a meal for each day and a piece of cake/udding for their desserts ather than go shopping.

Not that I am immune to the temptation, if only I was. Its rare that we don't wolf through a cake. If the worst comes to the worst and staleness creeps in then who knew the proverbial hen's tooth woulf turn out to be sweet - cake cheers them up greatly.

 

[VeraBlue]

I used to put my cakes and cookies in the freezer like there is a Green Beret guarding it...hogwash. I've learned to love frozen cake (and it only takes seconds to thaw, anyway).

Speaking of cake, it sounds good for breakfast this morning.

You're right...cake never really freezes....it just gets really cold!

 

[VeraBlue]

Leftover cheesecake. Make popsicles for another meal. Insert stick in a cut piece, put on a ganache or such and freeze.

Hey Gretchen, you should have marketed that idea about three years ago! I was at a food show recently and they had that very product you speak of. Someone, somewhere is making millions off your idea.

 

[VeraBlue]

vb, i've noticed your weakness for entenmann's. i to am afflicted. i suffer from severe chocolate frosted doughnut anemia.

it's not my fault tho. being the youngest in my family, i was fed cakes every morning with mom's coffee break, after she'd gotten all of my older siblings off to school. (mom is a norsk, famous for their sweet tooths.)

have you ever had their brownie crumb ring? here is a picture, http://entenmanns.gwbakeries.com/product.cfm/upc/7203001018

but the description is wrong. it's not layered brownies. it's more of an angel food-like ring, topped with mocha-maple icing, then crumbed brownies and powdered sugar!
it's hard to find in stores around us, but if you see one, grab it. you won't be dissapointed. they never last 2 days in my house.

as far as leftovers go, i always over cook just for that purpose; to have leftovers ready for a future meal when there's not time or the ability to cook.
i eat leftovers at work for lunch, sometimes breakfast, often driving my co-workers crazy as they nibble on their measly soggy sandwiches.

there's no such thing as a leftover dessert in my house, for more than a night. big cakes may last 3 nights, but that depends on the amount if ice cold milk in the fridge.

Yeah, I know all about that brownie crumb ring. My particular favourite is the Louisianna Crunch Cake. People have killed for less..... Lou often brings leftovers for lunch as well..something we had here during the weekend. He gets nasty looks, he says!

 

[bullseye]

Speaking of cake, it sounds good for breakfast this morning.

Cake is good, but pie is better. At Thanksgiving, we always prep and bake pies the night before. One or two apple pies are always earmarked for breakfast.

 

[VeraBlue]

. My office used to benefit occasionally (I always cut the cake into slices before taking it in, otherwise people seem unwilling to cut in, or take too much, and it helps make the leftovers seem more palatable...like it was meant to be sliced and not a complete round, lol)

Back quite a few years, I had an office job and always brought cakes and other goodies in on Monday. Always a huge hit, and always helpful here. I don't do it now because I work in a kitchen, and we're baking and cooking all day!! Although, I could see the preference to homemade to workmade.

Your Mom thinks like I do...feed 'em all.

 

[cjs]

I love dessert in the a.m. with my coffee and since I can't drink coffee at night anymore, this is when I normally eat it!! In fact, when I bring something home from a restaurant, it goes in the frig...till morning.