Veggies, veggies everywhere

Yesterday I made a huge amount of vegetable soup, mostly using leftover fresh vegetables from Thanksgiving.  I always buy extra groceries when I prepare for a holiday meal and/or overnight guests.  I would rather have food left over than have to make a trek to the grocery store during these times. 

That usually results in having some leftover fresh vegetables and pantry items to use up after the holiday is over and the guests have left town.  It is kind of a fun game to figure out what to do with the leftover, unused items.  If I end up throwing food away, (especially vegetables or fruit), because I let them spoil, I feel terrible. 

Yesterday I needed to use up two partially used heads of celery, way too many onions, two kinds of potatoes which were beginning to showing signs of sprouting, way too many carrots, 1/4 of a head of cabbage, and 1 1/2 bunches of parsley.  I made an "empty the fridge" vegetable soup.  There wasn't a recipe, just a throw it all in kind of thing.  I wasn't sure how tasty it would be, but it turned out really good. 

Most of these fresh vegetables were at least 1 1/2 weeks old.  Here are some tips on helping fresh vegetables to last a little longer:  I cut the very end of the stems of parsley and place them in a glass that is partially filled with water.  I want the stems in the water, and as few leaves in the water as possible.  Then I loosely put a plastic produce bag over the celery and glass and put a rubber band on the bottom of the glass/bag to secure it and keep the air out.  This usually keeps in the fridge for two to three weeks.





When I buy celery, I immediately take it out of the plastic sleeve and roll it up into aluminum foil and store it in the fridge.  My celery usually lasts up to one month this way.  When I first heard about this, I couldn't believe it would work, but I have been doing this for about five years.  Not long ago, I read that the reason this works is that the foil actually lets a very small amount of air get to the celery, which prolongs the life of the celery.  I don't know if that is true, but it sure works for me.

When I buy leaf lettuce, I immediately get the rubber band or twist tie off the lettuce.  That is the worse way to keep lettuce.  I then wrap the unwashed lettuce into some paper towels and then place into a plastic produce bag.  If I am going to use it fairly soon, I separate the leaves, wash them, spin them dry, then keep in a plastic container which is lined with paper towels.  I can usually get leaf lettuce to stay crisp at least two weeks using this strategy, if the lettuce is fresh when I get it.  It is also very nice to have the lettuce already washed, ready to grab for a weeknight meal.