leftovers, defined.

it’s totally wednesday.  and i have many things on my mind.  almost all of which have something to do with cookies.

first of all, i am dang proud of myself for remembering what emma told me the other night that was so funny.  yay for me.  the funny comment came into my brain today as i was looking through my mom’s cookbook and came across a recipe for “swamp cookies”.  and POP! the returned to my {overloaded} brain.  there is hope for me yet.

part 1:

when we were younger, my mom was always testing recipes on us (she is a cookbook author).  one of our “favorites” was a recipe called swamp cookies or kitchen sink cookies.  this recipe was one of our favorites not because it tasted that wonderful (though, i remember them being pretty good), but because of how unique they were. 

one of the main ingredients was leftovers from your fridge. 

and i’m not kidding.

1 1/2 cups of leftover goodness pureed in the blender. 

in your cookies.

and lots and lots of cocoa and sugar and other ingredients to disguise the potatoes and broccoli and other things you didn’t eat from last night’s dinner. 

what we loved most about these cookies was giving them to our friends…without telling them what the ingredients were.  after they had eaten them all up and said how good they were, we would tell them what was actually in the cookies.  man, we thought that was hilarious. 

sadly, i’ve never actually made these cookies for my children- or my children’s friends (yet), but my children are well aware of this swamp cookie legend.

part 2:

here in seattle, we are big-time recyclers.  we have 3 large garbage bins outside that are collected weekly by 3 separate garbage trucks.  there is one for garbage, one for paper/glass/plastic recyclables and one for yard and FOOD waste.  believe it or not, our garbage can usually has the least amount of stuff in it.  it saves me money, and i like that.  we are a large family of seven and we rarely fill up the smallest garbage can that is offered by the city (there are 3 sizes).  double yay for me.

anyway, food waste is where i’m going with this.  we don’t throw our food waste in the garbage; we put it in the small food waste bin we keep under our sink (which then gets dumped in the yard waste bin to be composted).  

we put such things as egg shells, fruits rinds and pits, banana and mango peels, crusts of bread leftover from sandwiches from half-eaten sandwiches, celery core, week-old corn cakes (only 2, aimee- we did eat the rest),  leftovers that aren’t liquid-y or that we don’t want to put in the garbage disposal, and apparently dog food.  those are the current contents of our food waste bin.

part 3:

the other night, i was cutting up fruit, and i had the food waste bin on the counter next to me so i could dispose of the pineapple rind and core as i was cutting. 

in walks emma.  she plops herself down right next to me at the island, looks in the food waste bin, and says,

“remember when your mom used to make those cookies out of your food waste bin?  that’s gross.”

and that was the funny moment that i am so proud to have recovered from my memory. 

i had to explain the difference between {edible} leftovers and {inedible} food waste. 

and, let me assure you, there is a {big} difference.

believe it or not, meatloaf and spinach make for a much better cookie than  egg shells and dog food and avocado pits.

and now, cookie wednesday attendees, you can wait with trepidation at the arrival of swamp cookies…coming soon to a cookie wednesday near you.