The Leftover Quandary

You go out to eat, or make a lovely upscale dinner at home, and end up with a small container of leftovers. Maybe its yours, maybe its your spouse/sig other’s, maybe its both. (like in the instance of a few ounces of each steak left so you just combine into one box) You put it in the fridge and there it sits. Occasionally you look at it, wondering if the other person will ever eat it, but you don’t eat it. Maybe its because its theirs and that’s the rule you have…. “Don’t eat my leftovers until I say you can”. But what about those times its not so clear? Who eats it? Will you be mad if I eat it? Will I be mad if you eat it? Are we saving it for something special? I call this The Leftover Quandary.

We experienced The Leftover Quandary a few weeks ago. We went to a lovely meal, had some excellent steak, and took a little baggie home. Honestly, we had quite a bit to drink and couldn’t exactly remember whose steak was in there (don’t fret-we didn’t drive). I think it was a few ounces of mine and few of his, but he thought it was mine. Anyway, there it sat. I saw it every day, calling to me, reminding me of how good it was. I even thought about making some killer omelets with it, but felt that was a waste. I felt the need to save it. Perhaps Mr. Lush wanted it for something. Well, there it sat, until a week later, when I threw it away, sad that no one loved it enough to finish it.

In general, the Lush Leftover Philosophy (the movie version will be out in 2010) is you have 3 or so days to eat “your” leftovers then it’s a free for all. But I think both of us wanted to save it and make sure we didn’t upset the other one, since it was such a great steak. But in the end, our selfless act ended up for naught, with some good steak tossed in the trash. Does anyone else have a Leftover Philosophy or is it just us? If not, dear readers, make one of your 2009 resolutions to define a Leftover Philosophy and stick to it.