leftover issues
I am the worst at planning parties! There were 3 people who could come, so they came over, we all ate way too much food, talked, and watched Treasure Planet on Netflix. I think a good time was had by all.
Here's the problem: I bought and made way way way too much food! Since I was just going to lay everything out on the table rather than plate and serve portions of everything, I didn't even think of the calories (or the money); I just made whatever. As is I bought between 2 and 3 times as much food as I needed. Here's just what I have left over:
-About 2 cups of tomato sauce, made from cherry tomatoes and rosemary that a friend grew in her garden and gave to me. My eggplant parmigiana, made from the Serious Eats recipe, really didn't take as much as I thought it would. (Btw, I made half with fresh mozzarella, like the Serious Eats post said, and half with Pecorino Romano, since most of the other recipes for Italian-style eggplant parmigiana called for either Parmesan, Romano, or Grana Padano. I think I liked the Pecorino Romano part better, but they were both so good! I also grated far more of the Pecorino Romano than I needed, and that's in a bowl in the fridge too.)
-A whole lot of cherry tomatoes! I thought the amount my friend gave me wouldn't be enough, but it was more than enough!
-2 roasted red peppers and one raw one.
-Over a cup of hummus.
-Almost a whole box of chickpeas. One of the guests is of Jordanian descent, and she came over to show me how she makes hummus yesterday. The mixture was too thick yesterday, so she said to open up another can/box of chickpeas and thin it down with its liquid. We also decorated the top with some of them. So now I've got about 380 g of chickpeas that I want to eat soon.
-A stuffed zucchini.
-A lot of rice prepared the Jordanian way, with lots and lots of allspice and cinnamon and fried pine nuts.
-A bunch of almost-Scottish shortbread made with buckwheat flour. (One of the guests had celiac disease, buckwheat is a local delicacy, and I thought shortbread would go with all of the other desserts I was making.
-A lot of this fruit salad made with local Wasser peaches and nectarines-- I made far more than I needed.
-Several Wasser peaches and nectarines that didn't make it into the salad.
-A couple of cups of Earl Grey pudding.
-I wasn't sure what dessert I'd make when I hit my last supermarket yesterday, so I bought about a pint of heavy cream more than I used so that I could try this butterscotch budino.
-Guests brought several large bottles of tea and a bag of chips. Only some of the tea got drunk-- we might have drunk more if the Jordanian guest hadn't shown us how to make mint tea-- and the chips never even got opened.
As you can see, I definitely have enough food to have another 4 people over, maybe another 8 or 12 people over, without doing any shopping. I am happy that I probably won't need to buy food tomorrow. (Unless, for instance, I want to make pizza with the leftover tomato sauce and leftover fresh mozzarella-- I'd buy bread flour and yeast. Should I do this?). But I'm a bit worried about being able to eat all of this before it rots! I throw away so much food anyway!
I've texted a few other people asking if they want to come over to my place for lunch tomorrow. Is that a thing? Is there a word for the sort of follow-up party you have the day after a party to get rid of the leftovers? People who have people over a lot-- how can you calculate how much food you'll need?
Here's the problem: I bought and made way way way too much food! Since I was just going to lay everything out on the table rather than plate and serve portions of everything, I didn't even think of the calories (or the money); I just made whatever. As is I bought between 2 and 3 times as much food as I needed. Here's just what I have left over:
-About 2 cups of tomato sauce, made from cherry tomatoes and rosemary that a friend grew in her garden and gave to me. My eggplant parmigiana, made from the Serious Eats recipe, really didn't take as much as I thought it would. (Btw, I made half with fresh mozzarella, like the Serious Eats post said, and half with Pecorino Romano, since most of the other recipes for Italian-style eggplant parmigiana called for either Parmesan, Romano, or Grana Padano. I think I liked the Pecorino Romano part better, but they were both so good! I also grated far more of the Pecorino Romano than I needed, and that's in a bowl in the fridge too.)
-A whole lot of cherry tomatoes! I thought the amount my friend gave me wouldn't be enough, but it was more than enough!
-2 roasted red peppers and one raw one.
-Over a cup of hummus.
-Almost a whole box of chickpeas. One of the guests is of Jordanian descent, and she came over to show me how she makes hummus yesterday. The mixture was too thick yesterday, so she said to open up another can/box of chickpeas and thin it down with its liquid. We also decorated the top with some of them. So now I've got about 380 g of chickpeas that I want to eat soon.
-A stuffed zucchini.
-A lot of rice prepared the Jordanian way, with lots and lots of allspice and cinnamon and fried pine nuts.
-A bunch of almost-Scottish shortbread made with buckwheat flour. (One of the guests had celiac disease, buckwheat is a local delicacy, and I thought shortbread would go with all of the other desserts I was making.
-A lot of this fruit salad made with local Wasser peaches and nectarines-- I made far more than I needed.
-Several Wasser peaches and nectarines that didn't make it into the salad.
-A couple of cups of Earl Grey pudding.
-I wasn't sure what dessert I'd make when I hit my last supermarket yesterday, so I bought about a pint of heavy cream more than I used so that I could try this butterscotch budino.
-Guests brought several large bottles of tea and a bag of chips. Only some of the tea got drunk-- we might have drunk more if the Jordanian guest hadn't shown us how to make mint tea-- and the chips never even got opened.
As you can see, I definitely have enough food to have another 4 people over, maybe another 8 or 12 people over, without doing any shopping. I am happy that I probably won't need to buy food tomorrow. (Unless, for instance, I want to make pizza with the leftover tomato sauce and leftover fresh mozzarella-- I'd buy bread flour and yeast. Should I do this?). But I'm a bit worried about being able to eat all of this before it rots! I throw away so much food anyway!
I've texted a few other people asking if they want to come over to my place for lunch tomorrow. Is that a thing? Is there a word for the sort of follow-up party you have the day after a party to get rid of the leftovers? People who have people over a lot-- how can you calculate how much food you'll need?