Leftovers

While my husband thinks I am the best cook in the world, the area where he thinks I really shine is leftovers. I always have many different ways to cook what is left over from meals with my aim generally being to make the second meal different in multiple ways from the first meal. My family does like turkey cottage pie with Thanksgiving leftovers. No one really needs a recipe for that since it's essentially cut up meat, leftover gravy, some peas or green beans, covered with mashed potatoes and baked until the potatoes are browned and the filling is hot. The following recipe is almost as easy with instructions that are nearly as flexible. It is my variation of a Chinese recipe for "noodles both sides brown".

One package Chinese noodles cooked and drained. One brand is Wel-Pac Chow Mein Noodles in the 6 oz package. Many grocery stores sell fresh noodles now but the dry ones are just as good and if you can't get them you can always fall back on plain old spaghetti.
Toss the noodles with 1 tablespoon sesame oil and let wait while you prepare the rest.

Some leftover cooked meat such as turkey (light or dark meat), chicken, pork roast, duck breast, even beef if that's what you have, cut into small pieces--about 1/4 inch thick and about 1 inch by two inches long. For 4--6 people one and a half or two cups is more than enough.Let sit in 1 teaspoon soy sauce and one teaspoon rice wine.
Assorted fresh Chinese vegetables such as bok choy, snow peas, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots. You can also add western vegetables such as sliced onion, fresh green bean pieces, broccoli, carrot, bell peppers, even celery. Just aim for crunch and color. All pieces should be the size to pick up with chopsticks.

Seasoning sauce--Two tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine, 1 tablespoon chili paste with garlic, 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated, fresh garlic to taste, 1 tablespoon rice wine or white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon sesame oil. If you want this sauce a little thicker you can stir in a teaspoon of cornstarch. This will thicken up at the end when it is poured over the hot mixture in the pan.

In a large nonstick frying pan, cook the drained noodles until one side is browned lightly. Using a pizza pan as a lid, flip the noodles over and cook the other side. Slide the noodle cake on to a large serving platter.

In the same pan, put a tablespoon of cooking oil and cook the vegetables. I usually cook the onion and the mushrooms together for about five minutes and then add the meat and cook until that is warm. Then add the other vegetables and cook very quickly 1 to 2 minutes until the snow peas are bright green but still very crisp. Pour in the seasoning sauce and stir to coat everything. cook until cornstarch thickens,  then pour everything over the noodles and serve.

You can fool around with this recipe endlessly, changing the meat, the vegetables. add black bean and garlic paste to the mixture, more hot chili sauce, oyster sauce, etc. It's not authentic Chinese, it's just leftovers.

It isn't club sandwiches that's for sure.