The Magic of Leftovers

Have you ever discovered that sometimes the best meals come by accident?

I had one such delicious meal last week.

It was hot. I didn't really feel like cooking - so I decided to combine some leftovers.

I'll grant you that when the leftovers you're starting with are shrimp scampi and honey mustard salmon, the chances of success are good. But I wasn't sure of some of the flavor combinations.

My daughter had been over earlier in the week and I'd made scampi. I had a bottle of white wine that really didn't taste very good, so I added that to the scampi and it was delicious. Now I wasn't so sure how the wine tang in the scampi would work with the honey mustard. But, since I still had more of the wine, I added it in to the leftover scampi and then stuck the frozen leftover salmon in.

I let it simmer for the few minutes it took to cook angel hair pasta.

Once the pasta was done, I scooped it into a bowl and poured the seafood mixture on top.

WOW! It was so good. I literally devoured it.

But now the sad news. Because I enjoyed it so much, I tried to replicate it a few days later - only this time I had no leftover shrimp so I had to cook more. Apparently part of what made it so tasty was the leftovers sitting and marinating in the sauce in the fridge for a few days. It was still good, but not the knock-your-socks-off good from the first time.

In case anyone is interested in trying to replicate -

For the scampi - I just melt butter in olive oil with lots of garlic, some parsley, and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Sometimes (this time) I also include oregano and basil to taste. I simmered the shrimp for a few minutes in the lemon butter before adding the wine. Simmered briefly a few more minutes and it was done.

The salmon is simple - I coat frozen salmon fillets liberally with honey mustard. I only ever use this honey mustard. It is the one I discovered 30 years ago and still the only one I like. It's thick and goopy - much more like a honey texture than mustard.

As you read this, I'll be in my classroom setting up for yet another year. It's always hard to go back after the freedom of summer, but within minutes of being there, I know I'm in my element and looking forward to the year beginning.
Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a sudden heat wave, so I'll be cleaning and setting up in mid 90s temps with no AC. Hopefully it cools off before the students arrive!

And since summer is waning, I thought I'd share some pictures of all the gorgeous flowers growing around my city. We have had so much rain this summer that everything is growing like crazy.

I'm also thrilled with the reader reactions to our collection. It's been gratifying to see this