The largest selling book each year is reputed to be the bible. I would hazard a guess that it is closely followed by cookbooks. Next to sex, food has to attract the most interest from the general population. Next time you go by the checkout counter at any grocery or stop and shop that has a magazine rack take a gander at the subject titles on the magazine and periodical covers. Daily scheduled news programs feature the latest creations from legions of chefs from every walk of life. Any and all holidays bring out the experts with the latest slant on preparing the traditional piece de resistance that they are noted for. Most of the so called experts are shilling their latest cookbook.

As an aside I have to say that no one has ever been more drawn into the web than me when it comes to perusing cook books and especially when it comes to dishes I enjoy the most. I have always been interested in cooking and at times tried my hand at it out of both necessity and interest. I found out four things. The first is that an awful lot of good food can be wasted. The second is I will never live long enough or find the time it takes to gain the experience needed before one can become a good cook. The third is that a great many of the recipes put forth in the most recent cook books do not live up to your expectations. Finally, like a great many books, the pictures, especially those in color, are the hook to get you to buy them and they are far better than the words written.

One thing that I have noticed is that there is a dearth of cookbooks dealing with leftovers. Now, I grant you, there is very little interest in most leftovers because there are very few that taste as good the second time around. Most main meals are virtually impossible to prepare without having some leftovers, what to do with them is a real problem.

Allow me to digress at this point to point out that it is not the problem to people today that it was back in the day. In my mother’s household everything got returned to the table until it was eaten and, if you were a kid, you ate everything on your plate. I polished off a portion of parsnips one time that had made it around for the second time,  because I could not bear the thought of looking at them for a third time. With the plethora of food indicated by the burgeoning numbers of obese people in the American population, there is bound to be more waste.

A recent event in our household prompted this article. We try to do our part in the whole green thing everyone is talking about and bought some grass fed local beef. It was delicious but so tough you could hardly cut the gravy. It was an assortment of cuts with the bulk of the package consisting of hamburger. I grew up on that kind of beef and thankfully was somewhat prepared. We finally came to a rump roast and after sampling the porter house I knew for sure we were in for a real challenge. Calling on our past experiences and the Good Housekeeping Cookbook it was browned and then slow cooked until it was medium rare. Tough? You bet, but what to do with about two and a half pounds of good solid lean meat? If I had a slicer I would have sliced it paper thin and got through it that way. I tried to shave it with a super sharp fillet knife and it could not hack it. The executive chef was away for the day so I took it upon myself to see what I could make of it. My mood at the time not being into the prospect of hash I cubed it up in small pieces and incorporated it into a vegetable beef soup. It turned out really well and we had four more servings to freeze after trying it for supper that night. They say hindsight is better than foresight and after the episode was over I thought back to how my mother would have cooked it. It would have ended up in a pot roast prepared in a pressure cooker and it would have been very tender and delicious. It all goes back to the old adage that experience is the best teacher.

There are many dishes that actually are as tasty the second time around or better. Spaghetti sauce and most marinara sauces as well as corned beef are two that come to my mind. Next day home cooked corn beef brisket is hard to beat in a sandwich. After the conventional boiling try glazing the brisket with brown sugar and browning it slightly in a conventional oven. Corn beef and pork chops are two pieces of meat that I believe vary a great deal in texture and taste depending upon which end of the cut they come from. Notice I mentioned brisket in relation to the corned beef. I prefer the brisket over the round and the bone in chops over the center cuts. We have also discovered that the thin sliced pork chops are easier to cook and come out tender and juicer.

Getting back to cookbooks I just have one thing to say. If you have a computer you have no need for one. I discovered on Bing Search you can find out how to prepare any food known to man including leftovers. Try it you will like it.

Ineptocracy: New word for the week? If it isn’t it should be. A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.