The following post is based on an excerpt from “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition.” I’m offering holiday discounts on this book and the first one; see the end of the post for details.
Many years ago I dropped into a different department at my workplace, to ask a question. That section’s holiday potluck was winding down, and the ebullient partygoers invited me to help myself.
My eyes lit upon the nearly empty ham platter. “Has anyone claimed the bone?” I asked.
Apparently no one had. “Go ahead and take it,” I was told. “Do you have a dog?”
“No, but I’ve got a pound of pinto beans and an onion.”
Puzzled silence followed, but I didn’t care. I knew that the mostly denuded bone would make a wonderful pot of beans.
I call this “grocery-shopping at the office potluck.” Why not, if the leftovers are going to be tossed? The result could be a nice boost to your food budget, especially if there’s a ham or a turkey. Or both.
How to glean a potluck
Offer to help clean up after the party – and announce matter-of-factly that food waste makes you sad, so you’re planning to take some of it home. Doing this frees up others to do the same; if no one does, then it’s all yours.
Or, rather, it’s all yours after the people who cooked or bought the stuff have had a shot at the leftovers. If someone went to the trouble of simmering homemade cranberry sauce or spent a ton of money on fancy charcuterie, step back and let them have dibs.
The basic rules for potluck shopping:
Bring containers, foil or plastic bags (or all three) in order to get the food home.
If you know there’s going to be a turkey or ham, bring at least one giant container or kitchen-trashcan-sized bag.
And if both turkey and ham are available? Take one or the other and let someone else have a chance. In a perfect world, you’ll get both. But don’t be a pig. (At least, not right away.)
Use your finds wisely. Meat left on the turkey makes a good dinner, and odd bits are fine for turkey salad, turkey a la king, turkey tetrazzini or any other recipe that stretches small pieces of meat.
Finally, boil the carcass for stock. When DF does this, he usually picks off enough small bits to make at least one pot pie, and freezes it in a container marked “turkey junk.”
As noted, a ham bone with some meat on it makes a great batch of soup. I like pintos, but you may prefer Great Northern or navy beans, or some inky frijoles negros.
If no one else wants the fruit and veggie trays, grab them all. You can freeze the fruit for smoothies and turn the veggies into soup (or stick them into the boiling bag).
Again: Wasting food is a sin. My mom told me so. If this food is just going to sit overnight and be thrown away by the daytime janitor…Well, glean away.
Discounts on my books
Hannukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas are fast approaching. For those interested in a gift that will keep on giving, I’ve created coupon codes for the e-versions of my two books.
Both the original “Your Playbook For Tough Times” and the “Needs And Wants Edition” focus on getting the most of every dollar without losing your dignity or your hope for the future.
These aren’t simplistic tips like “Just cut one latte a day,” but rather solid, actionable advice, resources and encouragement. Readers will take away specific tactics to slash the cost of housing, health care, shopping, utilities, clothing and entertainment.
To get one or both, visit the payment platform and use the code POTLUCK for the original book and POTLUCK2 for the second one. Doing so will get you the e-books (PDFs) for $5 apiece.
The discount is good through Jan. 31, 2018, on the theory that if you might want to make “saving money” your New Year’s resolution, or that you (or someone you know) might feel weak upon seeing the January credit card bills. Spending on celebrations can be insidious.
The original “Playbook” is available in Kindle and paperback versions; Vol. 2 is also available in paperback and Kindle.
As always, I’d appreciate your leaving a review of one or both books on their Amazon landing pages. Many thanks to those who have already done so.
Donna – The best stock I ever made was from a couple smoked turkeys I got from our organization Christmas party. One of our employees smoked them and our office was in charge of serving and clean up. They went into a nice big trash bag and home to my freezer. Remembering that was a lean year in our house. Was putting a husband through school, mortgage, car payment, day care on a secretary salary. Think it’s good to remember when times are good. Though I have Volume 1 already, it’s PDF on my computer and I like reading at night with my Kindle. So I ordered both books and can carry around with me. Thanks again for your inspiration.
Smoked turkeys! One year I entered a radio contest whose prize was two smoked turkeys from Alaska Sausage and Seafood: one for me and one for my boss. To enter, listeners were supposed to explain why they and their supervisors should be the winners. Because I’m me, I made my entry into a series of puns about turkey dinners (e.g., “If I don’t keep my boss happy I might one day be kicked off the gravy train” and “I’m just winging it here, but…”).
I was out doing interviews and on my way back to the newspaper I heard them read that day’s winner — and it was me. The puns sounded just as egregious read aloud as they had in my head, but the DJ was laughing. And as luck would have it, our office potluck was the next day. I picked up the birds fresh out of the smoker, and the smell filled my car as I drove them to work.
To make a short story long — a tactic that came in really handy when I went back to college in midlife — I got a lot of leftover turkey meat and some stock that was as delicious as yours probably was. Now and then DF will smoke a turkey on the Weber, and the aroma and flavor remind me of those really bad puns.
And thanks for buying my books! Hope you’ll have an opportunity to leave reviews on Amazon. It helps other potential readers decide whether or not to take the plunge.
I asked a friend when I got to her party if she were going to use the ham bone. She said she was not and asked if I wanted it. Toward the end of the party, I saw a man leaving with the bone in a bit of glad wrap. I called him up short and asked if that was the ham bone I had claimed. The husband said he did not know it was mine when he gave it away. The guy looked so sad and offered to give it to me. I could not take it away after seeing how happy and then sad he looked.
I do claim fruit people don’t want. Mostly, I don’t freeze it. I have been known to snack on it during the hour long, sometimes longer, drive home. If the fruit was handled, I cook it. If the dog or cat was sniffing it, touching it, I leave it.
I think this sounds somewhat pathetic. All of this over a ham bone that was not your to begin with. You were an invited guest as was the other person.
Lets be practical about things. Not embarrass ourselves or others about bones. You may have put the host and hostess in an embarrassing position and maybe an argument after you left. Common sense and self decorum, people…
I agree!
I thought it was a funny story about two equally smart and frugal people.
I agree.
We had many potlucks at the place I worked. We called them cookins and they were fabulous. We had no customer contacts and could pig out all day. But I do not remember what happened to the leftovers. Maybe everyone took home their dish?
I like your thinking, Food waste is a big problem that needs to be addressed! I do not waste anything. With todays freezers there is no excuse to waste.
When you said about your mother saying it was a sin to waste food, I had to chuckle.I always heard from my grandmother, ” eat it, what about all the starving Children in Africa, and you want to waste it”? Made me feel awful bad back then, so I would force it down. Now I dont’t think that is such a good idea. Also, if you don’t clean your plate, you won’t get dessert, but the plate portion was too big.
My mom probably thought it was a sin to waste food because during her childhood food was sometimes hard to come by, especially in the winter, since most adult family members were employed seasonally. We never got the guilt trip, but when I was a young adult and we talked about food she said it was an awful thing to waste food when some people didn’t know where their next meal would come from — and I get the feeling she was having flashbacks.
I nabbed a half price bone-in shoulder ham before Thanksgiving. I cooked it along with a turkey a week ago, then canned up the meat. The turkey was passed along to me by someone who would not be able to use it. (14 pounds and FREE!!)
The ham bone has been waiting an idea. Today we are having a good snow and I’m cleaning the basement. (car died so I can’t go anywhere) Mr. Ham Bone is now simmering in a pot. I’ll add veggies and lentils for soup.
And for good measure, I tossed ingredients in the bread machine and its churning away.
When I mentioned my plans for the ham and turkey, people look at me like my hair is on fire. I’m single and, at best, have two for a holiday dinner right now. We had our meal already planned, so these finds were put by.
(I also added some sad carrots to the dehydrator this morning. Peels added to the stock bag in the freeze of course! )
We’ve never canned ham, only turkey; DF will cook a ham, slice some of it for sandwiches and freeze the rest.
Writing about this reminded me that we have a ham bone in the freezer, too, from a ham he bought on sale — although not half-price, which would have been awesome. (A second ham is hanging outside; one of these days DF will cook it.)
Forgot to put pinto beans to soak last night, so we’ll do it before we go to bed. Tomorrow our house will smell as good as yours does right now, especially when I slide a skillet full of cornbread batter into the oven. Odds are I’ll eat more cornbread than beans that first meal, because it’s always best that first night, hot and fresh.
Okay, now I’m hungry.
Love this post – my Mother always said “Think of the starving Armenians.” This would have been in the 1940’s, and I never did find out what war or trouble affected Armenia. My children and grandchildren still waste more food than I like, but certainly not in my presence!
She may have been referring to the Armenian genocide:
http://www.history.com/topics/armenian-genocide
Thanks for posting the Armenian genocide link. It is a shame that most Americans are not informed about this time in history.
Timely post Donna! We had an office potluck prior to Thanksgiving and the boss catered a LARGE ham, there was a good sized bone, with meat, that I rescued from being tossed out 🙂 I’m
know around the office as one who doesn’t like to waste food!
I gleaned enough ham off for myself and a friend, and cut the bone in 2 (I.T was a big one!), I made split pea soup with one bone, the other is in my freezer for a future soup pot!
DF was talking about using some of the ham to make split pea soup. The bone will go into a pot of pinto beans. And any leftover ham will become one of my favorite cold-weather lunches:
In a small skillet, saute some chopped onion until soft (I’ll probably toss in some of the celery we grew). Add ham and saute until it’s a bit crispy and the onions are more or less caramelized.
Add a cup or so of cooked lentils (which I first heat in the microwave).
Crack an egg on top, put a lid on the pan and let it cook until the egg is poached.
Serve with some mustard vinegar, i.e., leftover pickle brine poured into the mustard bottle when it’s almost empty.
http://donnafreedman.com/good-to-the-last-drop-getting-full-use-of-condiments/
The dish is comfort food par excellence, and so easy to make.
My 16 year old son is a homeschooler but attends a class for high school students at a local technology institute. When I went to pick him up on a recent Friday afternoon, he was late. When he finally got to the car, he was carrying a ton of pizza. A fellow student who works at a pizza place had brought one that had been done wrong (with black olives when it was supposed to have peppers) to class to share. However, no one wanted it because of the said black olives (what?? I love black olives), so my son couldn’t bear to see it thrown away and brought it home. It fed him and my husband for 2.5 meals. They both said it was delicious. (It also had sausage on it, and I’m a vegetarian so I didn’t have any.) Seeing my son save that pizza was one of my proudest parenting moments thus far! And I know most people would think I was crazy for feeling that way but that you and will understand it completely!!
Hear, hear! No waste and free meals for the guys!