An appalling amount of food is thrown away in this country. Real food. The stuff that can keep hungry people alive. Wintertime is one of those times that it is so very apparent: when oranges cost $1/pound at the store, and under almost every orange tree in town there are bushels of oranges the owners don't want, just lying on the ground, rotting.
We've been watching a show on the Travel Channel called "Bizarre Foods," in which a fellow travels to different countries and samples the weirdest foods he can find, or in the cases of poor countries, what people have to eat in order to survive. In those poor countries, nothing goes to waste.
We made enchiladas the other day, and Spanish rice and refried beans. We used beef that Bernie had canned earlier in the year, and of course he made his own beans. It was all delicious, but when I looked at the liquid left behind after the meat and the beans were drained, it bothered me that it might just go down the sink. We put the juice into the refrigerator, and I let my mind simmer on it.
Yesterday it came to me. Simmer indeed, a stew.
I sauteed some chopped onions (from my garden last summer) and some thin slices of celery in a tablespoon of Saffola margarine. When that was "sweated," I added potato and carrot slices, and the liquid from the beans. A bit later, the liquid from the canned beef. Suddenly the kitchen was full of a wonderful smell!
When the potatoes and carrots were cooked, I added zucchini and chopped mushrooms, and at the very end, just a minute or two before serving, I put in shredded chard.
It was great. It was healthy. It was a creation. It was ... not wasteful.
And then Bernie gathered up all my potato peelings and fried them in oil, as he'd heard a chef on TV explain about not wasting any food. They were great, and there weren't enough to go around to everyone's satisfaction.
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