Using up the leftovers

On Wednesday evening I have to give a talk for a group of culinary enthusiasts & historians, on my theory of food & cooking. One of my three rules is going to be "use up the leftovers, but don't go nuts". You know, don't buy $75 worth of ingredients to make a dish that will use up that half a bunch of cilantro in your fridge.

I've recently made food for two slightly under-subscribed events - my last dining club dinner, and John's art opening - and I've been spending a lot of time re-purposing those leftovers.

First, I gave away 2 quarts each of the potato and corn & black bean salads from the dinner. One of my friends didn't make it to the dinner at the last minute, so it was easy to pass of salads on her, since she was the cause of some of the quantity.
Yesterday, I gave the kids a big bucket of all this fruit to take to Lake Ripley.

I had baked Brie for lunch.

Not sure yet what I am going to do with this goat cheese torta; it's pesto, olivada, and roasted peppers - but I think the culinary history group might be eating it.
I made a picnic yesterday to take to a folk music fest - all the strawberry-topped cheesecake squares have now been eaten; took the Brie as well. I sent John back to Milwaukee with a bunch of brownies, and the rest are going to my class tomorrow. I might freeze the plain cheesecakes - or maybe they'll go to the Wednesday group too.
I pickled the carrots and cucumbers and made the peppers into an egg dish for breakfast.
There's not a whole lot of this salsa left - so maybe we'll just have to eat it! I do have lots of tortillas in the freezer - cheese quesadillas, fastest supper known to moms.

Pimento cheese - hmm

Crackers just went into the cracker bin.

Now I'm going to make some arrabiata pasta to use up salami & pesto. 'Course what I'm really worried about is the culinary group is actually at the same place the art show was; since there was too much food for the show, stands to reason I'll have too little for the talk. Or then again, maybe it'll all be just right.