When I was planning the Zachs' graduation party with the other Zach's mom, it never occurred to me that there would be leftovers. I have fed Zach and his friends. There are never leftovers. But I never considered that by the time you get to your third or fourth graduation party of the day, you really don't want two or three sandwiches. So when the party was over, the tent taken down, and the chairs folded up, I was left with (approximately): 10 pounds of pulled pork; 7 pounds of baked beans; a huge bowl of sliced strawberries; a huge bowl of sliced watermelon; three large bags--one each--of broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots; 72 cans of assorted diet pops; 6 large bags of chips, including Fritos and Cheetos, some of which had been opened; one large pan of iced brownies; and 1/8 of a chocolate sheet cake.
We ate pulled pork sandwiches with baked beans and chips and raw veggies for two days, quickly reaching the point where we craved something different. Like pizza. That was a nice break, but every time I opened the refrigerator, I saw all the tubs of food, the baggies of fruit and vegetables.
Before the strawberries spoiled, I mixed them with rhubarb out of the garden and made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp. My husband did his best to eat large quantities of watermelon every day, but other than watermelon ice or perhaps a blended watermelon drink, there is not a lot to do with leftover watermelon. You can't grill it or make a pie out of it. (Had I not been so brain-dead from weeks of cooking and the effort of the party, I would have done an internet search and discovered that there are indeed recipes out there for watermelon pie --including a traditional Greek recipe--and grilled watermelon.) Some of the watermelon spoiled.
Based on something I had seen on the Food Network once, we made pulled pork nachos. The recipe is simple:
In a metal baking pan, carefully lay our your favorite brand of plain tortilla chips. Carefully spoon a little bit of the pulled pork onto each nacho. Then sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and your favorite barbecue sauce. Heat in a 400 degree oven until the cheese melts and bubbles. They are great with a side dish of cole slaw.
That got rid of the bag of leftover tortilla chips. With the bag of opened Fritos on their way to stale, I tried a version of Frito Pie. In this recipe, I put the pulled pork across the bottom of the baking pan first, then top it with the Fritos and grated cheddar. This got thumbs up from the whole family. And were great with a side dish of baked beans.
Finally, I made pulled pork enchiladas, using the pork i
n place of shredded chicken. I used the same enchilada sauce (package mix plus tomato paste) and corn tortillas as usual. By far this was the most warmly received pork transformation (especially since I left the baked beans out).
With the great bags of raw broccoli and cauliflower, I was pretty much on my own. My husband and daughter will eat these vegetables if they are covered in a heavy cheese sauce. Not exactly in line with my attempts to eat healthy after helping finish off the graduation brownies and sheet cake. So I grilled the veggies and topped whole wheat pita pizzas with them. They froze well and were great to heat up in the oven for quick work lunches.
We ate baked beans with everything long past the point of enjoying them. Finally, I was sure they were about to turn bad, so I asked my husband if he cared if I threw the rest out. He said, "No, please get rid of them!" In the end, we ate way more of the leftovers for 100 than we threw out, considering we had a little over a week to do this. There are still a few cans of pop left, and my husband is plowing his way through the last bag of stale chips. And the carrots are still fine--it was a very LARGE bag of baby carrots.
And I haven't told my husband yet, but there is another container each of baked beans and pulled pork in the freezer.
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