1. Leftovers
2. Reruns
3. Bulk Batches
I. Leftovers
I made a point of not making too much this Thanksgiving, which means I only made too much by a little bit. That chicken for me and Ms. S.’s father? Not consumed at all Thursday, but carved that evening, with a serving Friday and another Saturday. And a few scraps for the cats. It’s an economical source of meat/protein, though given the choice I’d always buy local and organic birds … but that would no longer be very affordable.
The pies?
Alas, they are gone. But we also sent a quarter of each home with Ms. S.’s parents, more than a quarter of each was consumed at Thanksgiving dinner, which means we didn’t have a lot left over in the first place. But slices of pie are high calorie affairs, densely packed units of flavor, and today it was worth splitting that last slice of apple in half … half for breakfast, half for dinner.
And we even had leftover black beans, which I cooked days before Thanksgiving and had in individual servings. Only one left.
II. Reruns
Ms. S. and I are nearly done with season 6 of ‘Oz,’ and she has seen it several times … has the whole series on DVD. Which should bought used. Already recycled. Reduce, reuse, recycle, they say. One of my favorites got paroled today; another got shot to death by Joel Grey in the last seconds of the episode.
C’est la mort.
I tried to get Ms. S. hooked on ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ but the mini-series did not capture her interest. A day or so later I reread an A.V. Club article –www.avclub.com/articles/a-very-special-episode-battlestar-galactica-33,69374/– on the first episode of season 1, “33,” in which user PaulKinsey had the following to say: “I plan on making my girlfriend watching this show at some point and I’m pretty sure I’m going to start her with ’33’ instead of the mini-series. How could she not get hooked?” Indeed … I should have jumped in with “33” … Ms. S. is unwilling to continue with the series.
Out of nowhere she expressed interest in watching “The X-Files.” She saw some episodes on TV back in the day but never followed the show, and primarily identifies it with it being parodied on “The SImpsons.” It does, however, have a few traits in a show that she likes: it’s long-running (9 seasons) and roughly in genres she enjoys. There’s a stability in that … that when she suggests we watch a little TV together, something during which she can knit, etc., we do not have to spend a few minutes contemplating what to watch. We jump in with “the rotation.” And “The X-Files” may be the new anchor. If it is, we will not finish with it until next summer.
This afternoon we watched the pilot, entitled “Pilot,” which introduces us to Billy Miles in northwestern Oregon. I’ll have to write more about it later and perhaps elsewhere. It’s a great hour of TV but of course in no real ways revolutionary. However, seen from 2012 and after having spent so much time recently with shows from the past decade, it not only shows its age, it shows us a different way of telling a story. We’ve become so used to formula that even if “The X-Files” follows a formula, perhaps its own, it seems rather alien in an age of non-stop reality TV, procedurals, and attempts at The Next Big Thing in Serial Storytelling.
I last watched it in 2007 and 2008, I believe. I remember where I was living and the room in which I normally watched television on my laptop. But it’s mostly new to Ms. S. And then during our late dinner (more leftovers!) we took in a second episode for the day, the show’s second (“Deep Throat”) … one that always amuses me if only because it is set in Idaho and so clearly not filmed anywhere near there.
III. Bulk Batches
The black beans have one serving left in the fridge.
This week it looks as if we’ll have red beans. They’re simmering now. Black beans and lentisl are currently my two favorite legumes … both high in protein, low in fat, and flavorful, and the former are also high in antioxidants. Kidney beans, though? I know they are nutritious, but I’ve never been a huge fan, unless they’re in chili … and even then I prefer mine beanless.
I still have a pie crust to use. Given the chicken I have left, the cheese I didn’t use in the mac & cheese, and the extra spinach in the fridge, along with the dairy I bought for desserts but haven’t yet used, I think quiche — combining some bulk cooking with reruns, so to speak — is in order.
But that’s for Sunday. The beans should be done by midnight.
