Baboon Achievers, Food, Stories

Memorial Day Leftover Pasta

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I’m a weekend cook. On weekdays, all good intentions about cooking and cleaning go out the window by the time I get home.  Heated-up leftovers are about all I’m willing to expend energy on for dinner.  On the weekends I have plenty of morning energy and time for cooking.

One my Memorial Day weekend gatherings was grilling at our house – veggie burgers with all the fixins’, potato salad, pasta salad, grilled corn, watermelon. There were leftovers, but not really anything you could reheat on a Thursday night so I still felt the need to cook something.

I decided to use the leftovers to make a dish. I started with what was left of a large yellow onion and sautéed it in olive oil. Then I cut the kernels off the 3 grilled corns and added them.  I found a can of black beans in the cabinet, rinsed and threw them in. Then I added the leftover pasta (I made WAY too much the night before.  I seasoned it and it tasted ok but didn’t look quite right so I chopped up the leftover 2½ tomatoes and stirred them in.  Then it was perfect.

Memorial Day Leftover Pasta
Olive oil
1 yellow onion (or almost one), chopped
3 ears of corn (grilled OK), kernels cut off the cob
1 can black beans, rinsed thoroughly
4 cups cooked pasta
2½ tomatoes, chopped
Salt, pepper, cumin, chili pepper to taste

Heat up the olive oil and sauté the chopped onions. Add corn and after a few minutes, add beans and pasta.  Mix thoroughly and season to taste.  Add tomatoes at the end and toss gently.  Eat warm or cold!

What leftovers will you have after this weekend?

 

 

 

59 thoughts on “Memorial Day Leftover Pasta”

  1. Husband grilled a rib roast on Saturday, and I am making a biryahni from some lamb korma I made on Saturday. We also have been eating leftover chili. It has been a gardening weekend, made miserable by veey strong and gusty winds since Friday.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I am back home from Iowa today, so the leftovers are at my sister’s house, not here. But VS, your pasta sounds great.

    I am gardening today, so the goal is to clear out the cold frame . I arrived home to a rabbit snacking on sunflower tops. GRRRR.

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        1. Oh sorry. I thought you meant just these specific leftovers. I am not capable of cooking a meal for just one or two which means there are always leftovers after the weekend which then get heated up during the week.

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  5. We’re still unsure of our plans for later today, but right now there is a leftover crock pot chicken that’s looking pretty good – made with pineapple juice-tamari-broth mixture, some onion green pepper pineapple, throw it over some rice…

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  6. Our daughter and family came over yesterday afternoon. We ordered pizza and took it to Sibley Park, a very nice park down by the river. Ate pizza and talked, then walked through the children’s zoo. Grand daughter loves animals, so any size zoo works. Park has an exercise area that was very well done, nothing like I have ever seen before. Kids say they want to go down there and do the exercises when they stay with us this summer. Every summer they stay with us for 2-4 days each month. No left over pizza.

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  7. Just back last night from a wonderfully fun time while in Kansas=#2 granddaughter’s HS graduation and party…then from KC to Salina where her softball team played in the State finals and won (a back to back championship)__and Saturday evening my 50yr HS class reunion at the Swedish Crown Restaurant in Lindsborg.

    No leftovers here….a barren frig….not much in the cupboard. Haven’t thought beyond the coffee I just made….late waking sleepy morning…it’ll mean a run to our country store Tj’s in Mahtowa when hunger strikes.

    However…I have an abundance of glorious memories.

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  8. A cooper’s hawk was trying to find leftovers in my bird feeder this morning. He was jumping branch to branch trying to sneak up, but he was found out.

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  9. Every year it’s harder to do the huge amount of property work in the spring. Every year, as I’m in the middle of it, I tell myself, “I can’t do all of this one more time!” My routine is to rake leftover fall leaves, hand pick weeds out of some berms and a hosta bed 60′ around, plant dozens of annuals, clean out gutters, sweep cobwebs off the wood siding. I always order a couple of dozen bags of mulch and a dozen of top soil to fill in all around the cottage and landscape beds. I’ve dragged the 40-pound bags around, sliced them open, then spread the contents on my hands and knees. I’ve tried to pull weed that crawl up boulders leading to the lake, but that’s become way too dangerous since losing my balance.

    I had to have four trees cut down in the last year, and to save money, I had the huge logs just piled around the property. When the kids came to clear out a decades old storage area by the lake, they trimmed so many trees that nearly half of my front lawn was covered. I knew that this meant hiring a tree chipper guy to get rid of the brush.

    Last week, I noticed cranes and bobcats clearing the property next door on which the new owners are going to build a 5 million-dollar mansion. I spotted a chipper rig and decided to walk over and ask if they could get rid of all my brush. The company owner walked over to check out how much it’d cost. He told me $150. While we stood there, we noticed that we looked familiar to each other. He asked if I’m a dancer. Then we remembered having danced together dozens of times many years ago. He’d gotten much heavier; I’d gotten much lighter since then. We hugged and caught up with each other’s lives since then.

    Steve had asked me to bid the cost of felling a huge old pine tree. This man said, “Oh, I’ll do that for free”. By now, I was on a winning streak, so I pointed to the piles of logs, many weighing 100 pounds each, saying, “I sure would like to get rid of them”. He said he’d do it for free.

    I know enough about the costs of such large projects. To get all of this done could easily have run up to $2500!! My only regret after he left was that I couldn’t remember his name. That means I can’t call him for help in the future. I’m a pretty greedy little lady when an opportunity presents itself.

    There’s a whole other story about a Home Depot guy, but I’ll save that for another day since this post is far too long already. Suffice to say he bought and delivered all of my annual order of mulch and soil. He even gave me his employee discount. Delivery alone costs $65.

    Things like these just don’t happen to me, but I somehow hit the lottery this time around!

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    1. Yum. How close are we LJB? Close enough for warm bread and butter 30 minutes after the bread exits the oven? I can bring jelly!

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  11. Today is our 24th wedding anniversary–where did those years go? I am celebrating by watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Bloodline on Netflix, after planting the garden and getting some rain. Watching Netflix after gardening is kind of like smoking a cigarette after sex–life is good.

    And we are going to Lago Taco for Grapefruit Margaritas and Walleye tacos!

    I found a nest of 7 baby bunnies in my cold frame this morning. Mama bunny had to only move 2 inches to snack on my once beautiful seedlings, then nurse the babies. It was cold frame holocaust . She ate my perfect little basil plants. The family has now been part of the Bunny Relocation Program having been given new identities. They cannot live in my cold frame.

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      1. Now I see it is a frost “advisory”, and that it may only get down to 34° this evening. It is slso predicted to be 85° on Thursday.

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  13. I bought a rice cooker at a moving sale yesterday. It was sort of a whim – in general I try not to buy too many kitchen appliances. But the woman who was running the sale seemed hopeful that I would walk away with something, so I picked out the rice cooker and a small succulent houseplant.

    Tried out the rice cooker with some brown rice, and it worked pretty well. I cooked a cup of rice, which makes about 2 cups cooked, and had about half left over. I’m thinking I might make some soup with the remainder.

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        1. As I’ve said before, lifetimes aren’t what they used to be. Our rice cooker is at least 40 years old and still going strong.

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    2. Daughter brought a rice cooker into our household. It was definitely something I wouldn’t have considered buying, but boy do I like it. I like starting doing supper prep early enough in the afternoon that when the dog, the cat, and the kids all demand to be fed or demand attention, I can handle it all without going nuts (well, sometimes, I don’t go nuts). A rice cooker is good for that, because I can start it early in the process and just leave it alone to cook and when it’s done, it keeps the rice warm. Pretty nifty.

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  14. Yesterday was The Eddies’ 19th annual Memorial Day potluck picnic on Harriet Island for those of us with “no stinkin’ cabin up north.” For the past several years the picnic has endured miserable weather, and to some extent, has been rained out. Never enough to actually drown us, but enough that we were thoroughly soaked.

    Yesterday, the announced starting time of the food line was 5 PM, and just about then strong gusts of wind blew in. It took all the manpower (including womanpower) we could muster to keep the food already on the table from flying away. Twenty minutes later, all was clear, if still a bit windy. It ended up being an absolutely delightful evening. Sitting on the banks of the Mississippi, surrounded by friendly people, eating a wonderful array of BBQ meats and homemade salads. Admittedly, this years buffet was a little long on coleslaw. There must have been at least seven kinds. Still it was a delightful feast.

    The four Eddies took the stage to regale us with their special brand of more or less known songs at about six. Lots of singing along, and other audience participation. Alas, no leftovers.

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  18. All the bedding plants survived the night. No frost. Given how we slaved in the garden this weekend, it will be a relief to get back to work. I had a colonoscopy last Friday, so going to work is a lot better than that!

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  19. My dr. put me on a drug which helps some people with pain. You take one pill for two weeks, then two pills. On two pills I was dizzy, disoriented, weak, and fuzzy. I was supposed to try to push through that phase. But after six days I gave it up. Maybe I can get up the blog that has been in my head for a week.

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        1. I have odd months and Renee has even months but we don’t expect anyone to remember that. You can send to either one of us – we’ll make sure it gets to where it needs to go. Or you can send to us both. We want it to be easy!!

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  20. Story #1: Sandy visits a woman who is in her middle 60’s. Patty has a very deformed body and has no language and supposedly weak cognitive skills. Three months ago she was in hospice, but she survived. Sandy visits her and reads to her, does her nails, puts stickers on her windows, and other entertainments. She like everyone has fallen in love with Sandy.
    Patty is the oldest of ten children. One of the sons and one of the daughters learned of her existence only a decade ago but did not tell the others. Finally last month the one daughter told the other three sisters. So all four came to visit two weeks ago and gave her a teddy bear. She has not let go of the teddy bear. She has other stuffed toys, a couple from Sandy, that she ignores. This one she will not let go of. It has been in her arms for two weeks. What connection did she make?

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  21. Story #2: my grandson, Mr. Tuxedo, is in a class of 47 sixth graders. Two of the boys have had a poor and rough life so far. A few boys watches out that they are not teased and include them in things, sometimes getting their own parents to drive the boys to events. One of the waifs, “John,” is my grandson’s big buddy and has been since kindergarten. Grandson has him stay over when they can arrange it, which is hard with John’s home life. A couple years ago each of my daughter’s friends was allowed to invite a friend to a weekend at a family lodge with fancy pool and games and such. Grandson invited John. Then later to he went along to Branson.
    My daughter’s church always adopts two families for Christmas. Grandson elects successfully John’s family as one of the church’s families every year. Another boy gets the other waif adopted in his church. This winter John was taken away from the father. His foster home is working very well. The foster parents are on top of his homework and taking him to the library. John, who is bright, has his grades way up and is reading, something the group of boys tried to get John to do.
    Grandson and third boy make a close set of three and have for years. Last week the third boy apologized to grandson that for his birthday treat he was allowed to invite one friend to Valley Fair and he was inviting John. Grandson told the third boy that he was glad he chose John, that John needed something like that right now.
    What word is the opposite of bullying?

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  23. All the things I was supposed to do today were no fun, and I didn’t do them. So tomorrow I have to somehow find my trac phone replacement (which is floating around here somewhere) and call and switch my # to it from the old, barely working trac phone. I could tell you more but it’s boring.

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