Before the SO moved in, breakfast was whatever leftovers happened to be in the fridge. Could be curry, could be pizza. Since she’s been living here, we have what she calls ‘breakfast food’. Hashbrowns (made from scratch), bacon, pancakes, eggs, omelettes, ‘fry-up’ (diced potatoes and onions cooked in bacon grease, the bacon added back, and eggs cracked on top and ‘poached’), biscuits and gravy, ‘home fries’ (when I’m too lazy to grate potatoes for hashbrowns)… Oh, not all at the same meal, of course. Nothing wrong with this ‘breakfast food’. This morning we each had two 2-oz. patties of Jimmy Dean’s sausage, two eggs over-easy, and a biscuit with butter and jam.
But leftover meatloaf or pot roast would sure be nice!
Grate the potatoes with the grating disc on your food processor. (Box graters are a PITA.) Rinse in a colander, squeezing the starch out. Keep doing it. Soak in water while you cook your meat. (I cook the bacon, and then hold it in the oven so I don’t have to dirty another pan.) Rinse and squeeze. Dry it as much as you can. Some people use cloth towels, but I use paper towels and squeeze the potatoes in them. Fry in butter or margarine. Not too hot, because you want the middle done. Just fry 'til crispy, turning once.
Mmm, I’m starving.
What’s for dinner?
Leftover parfait.
It’s even worse than it sounds! Once a week Mom cleans out the fridge. Anything that doesn’t have something growing on it gets served for dinner.
Did we have spaghetti or Chinese food on Thursday?
Neither.
Ah! No digging!
(SQUELCHING) Sunday, Saturday, Friday… It finally happened! The fifth level of this week’s leftover parfait is last week’s leftover parfait!
My favorite sandwich all through grammar and junior high school–last night’s meat loaf on bread (Mom would include a ketchup packet to be applied just before devouring, so the bread wouldn’t get soggy.). If the meatloaf warmed up a tad before lunch, so much the better. Good times.
O’brian potatoes, bell peppers and onions, bacon, diced ham, and colby jack cheese. Place on half a 4 egg omelet then fold in half. Lightly salt and pepper and add a little hot sauce. Thomas’s English muffins, lightly buttered. Coffee and Orange juice.
I missed this post first time around. Cold, leftover, homemade lasagna for breakfast? You betcha! My mother was a hillbilly, but she could make lasagna from scratch that you’d pay $20 a pop for. It was even better the next morning, cold from the fridge. I’ve made scratch lasagna once; it was really good but, MAN, it’s a lot of work. Thanx, mom!
Also, use either a russet potato or a Yukon Gold. Reds are too waxy and should be used in potato salad. No need to squeeze out the starch, but definitely squeeze out the moisture. You can also fry in bacon fat or duck fat. Most important, per your last sentence, don’t fuck with them until you’re ready to flip them over in one large piece. I’d also recommend using a cast iron or stainless clad steel pan, rather than non-stick.
Mine was a leftover spaghetti sandwich. Mom would brown two pounds of hamburger meat with chopped onions, and use that in the spaghetti sauce then mix it into a stock pot with two pounds of spaghetti. Even feeding ten or more people, there was always plenty left in the fridge the following morning to slap between two slices of buttered bread.
ETA: Meatloaf was also great. But there was hardly EVER leftovers of that.
