July the 4th leftovers.

Now, in previous years, I may have cooked this meal (of coleslaw, the ham, cornbread, biscuits, green bean salad, tomatoes) for two and so I had some pretty copious leftovers. Actually, as with my annual Thanksgiving cook-up, it's part of the intention. I like cooking -- but I have other things to do: you know -- like darning and tending my dahlias.

You could be making biscuits or cornbread any day of the week. Cornbread, I find, is particularly good with a spicy lentil or tomato soup. You could make one with the stock left over from the July the 4th ham! The coleslaw, green bean salad and ham would make a fine meal just as is -- but if you're bored after this, how about the following. Because, after all tomorrow is another day.

Biscuits: warm them up and make them into little sandwiches with thin slices of the ham. English mustard. Or, possibly, some sliced gerkins? Or both!

Cornbread. If you chop up your cornbread into little croutons and bake them in the oven with maybe a little garlic, they make a wonderful snack. You can throw them into a big bowl of green salad.

Even better, break up any leftovers into coarse crumbs, freeze them, and use as a quick dressing (which is what a Southerner might otherwise call stuffing if it inside the bird) for a roast chicken. That is, seasoned with a little sage and scrap of onion, moistened with water and cooked alongside not inside the chicken. The bread is already cooked, so will only take about fifteen minutes to cook second time around in a hot oven. Leftover biscuits also make great dressing -- on their own or combined with the cornbread. Or as stuffing inside a roast chicken or your Thanksgiving turkey.

Are you following me? Confusion reigns in our house because I naturally refer to both as stuffing which, to my husband, is illogical. But then he might still stumble over such things as 'tea', a mince pie, the word 'pudding,'the (to him)_peculiar confection that is the classic English trifle.

And how about reserving half the cornbread batter and making what is so commonplace in modern Southern food and yet such a treat in our house? I'm talking Hush Puppies. Now, to a British ear, the hush puppy is a type of shoe or sometimes, perhaps, confused with a drink of much crushed ice sugar and many E numbers.

To a Southerner, hush puppies are cornbread fritters. You just fry tablespoons of the batter in hot oil for three or four minutes until they are crisp and brown. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen towel. I'd be in hog heaven if I were served these with a plate of fried catfish -- these being the traditional accompaniment for a fried fish. However, try having them to dip into mayonnaise, a chilli sauce or tomato ketchup. Or tartare sauce?