Leftover Monday

Happy November 15^th everybody! Now, you're probably asking why today is of such particular importance to merit my very enthusiastic greeting. Well, today is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. It's a day devoted to rifling through the far recesses of your fridge and rooting out all those molding jars of mustard, all those half-eaten Chinese take-out containers, and all those empty jars of pickle brine. Today is a day to make as much free refrigerator space as possible in anticipation of all those Thanksgiving Day leftovers. Today is a day for leftovers!

And so to celebrate today's special significance, I've listed a few dinner ideas below. They are just some simple ways to use up all those refrigerated odds and ends to create a special and certainly inventive dinner that everyone is sure to love.

• When it comes to leftovers my rule of thumb is – if it can be made into a sandwich, do so. Let's be honest here, you put enough cheese and bacon to top, and nobody is going to care what else is in the sandwich.
  
  
• Any leftover desserts you might have (as though that ever happens in my house) can be chopped up and thrown into a serving dish with some pastry cream, whipped cream, and fresh berries for an impromptu leftover trifle.
  
  
• I believe chili powder was made for leftovers. You'd be surprised how many odds and ends you can stir into a pot of chili and have nobody be the wiser.
  
  
• Eggs are perhaps the most tolerant of foods. No matter what you throw on top of them (be it mystery cheeses, graying guacamole, or somewhat soggy salad), a plate of scrambled eggs lends itself well to even the strangest of leftover flavors.
  
  
• And if your fridge is at all like mine – you probably have at least a dozen half-eaten bottles of mustard hidden in the back. So why not have a little Oktoberfest? Sure it's a month late, but better late than never, I should say. So fry up some sausages, break out a loaf of brown bread, and smear everything with a generous dollop of mustard. Of course don't forget to wash it all down with some great beer. Because it's just not Oktoberfest without beer.

So now that you know the basics of National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, feel free to dig deep into that refrigerator. And feel confident in knowing that whatever matter of food you may find, it can be transformed into a delicious pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Just be certain to toss out that old box of refrigerator Arm & Hammer. Unless of course you want your pancakes to taste like old fish and stinky cheese...