Christmas Dinner Leftovers 2018

[Porthos]

Now we've seen all of the beautiful dishes from our Christmas dinners, let's see how we use the leftovers.

 

I'll start.  I had these 2 meaty ribs from my Rib Eye Roast. Since I have to be away from home tonight, but with access to a kitchen, I'm going to have there for my dinner.

 

 

[liamsaunt]

How are you going to reheat the beef?  I also made a bone in rib roast yesterday and my husband, niece and nephew want the leftovers for dinner tonight.  It's prime dry aged and cost me a pretty penny so I really don't want to mess it up.

[Porthos]

Because of the amount of time the bones sat out I'm going to sous vide them at 131.5 F as if they'd never been cooked.

[kayb]

The aforementioned on another thread turkey and asparagus quiche.

Some of the leftover ham went into a Christmas Day breakfast casserole.

 

Have also made deviled ham spread and egg and olive spread (from the leftover deviled eggs). Still to come is recycling the leftover sweet potato casserole into sweet potato muffins.

 

 

[Porthos]

The SV'ed bones were not photogenic but I did enjoy eating them cave man style, gnawing the meat off of the bones.

[Katie Meadow]

Lunch / dinner / linner will be as repurposed as possible. For xmas eve I made a big lasagne with fresh sheets of noodles. I bought two too many sheets, so I'm going to cut the remaining sheets is wide slices, cook them, and add them to leftover turkey vegetable soup from two days ago. There will be far too much for the soup, so at least half the noodles will be made into something tomorrow. Misc. items will include egg salad made from a couple of hard-boiled eggs that never got deviled with their siblings. Also included will be leftover smoked spare ribs that were gifted to me the other day and which should take us through another couple of days.

 

Apps will be leftovers as well: a small hunk of very good runny washed rind cheese left over from cocktail hour yesterday and some pickled carrots that have a story to go with them: I got a copy of McFadden's Six Seasons for my SIL this xmas eve, and it arrived two days before. So I looked through hastily and realized I had all the makings for his roasted brussels sprouts with pickled carrots. So that day I used up a bunch of carrots that were languishing in the fridge and made the pickles, to be combined with the sprouts the next day. I completely forgot the plan and wrapped up the gift. It wasn't until we were in the car on our way to said SIL's house for xmas eve dinner that it even occurred to me that pickled carrots and fresh brussels sprouts were still waiting to be roasted as per the recipe, which of course was no longer available. 

[Darienne]

Not too exciting.  Leftover vegetables and some bits of Spiral Ham went into a black bean soup.  So nice to eat something that is completely down to earth and isn't 'festive'. 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Porthos said:

The SV'ed bones were not photogenic but I did enjoy eating them cave man style, gnawing the meat off of the bones.

 There is no other way.

[ChocoMom]

Well, my SIL (husband's brother's wife) hosted and made lasagna for Christmas dinner, and sent us home with half a tray of it. Super Delish! There were 15 of us present for that. I made desserts and salad for that dinner. 

 

Arriving the following day were the rest of the kids and grandkids. Since we had all 5 kids, spouses, and 4 grandkids here....The extra lasagna came in handy. Reheat and eat.  My first DIL made bread and brought that along...so with leftover salad, it was the perfect meal. (We also hit a Mexican restaurant for lunch- which was fab!) 

 

Dec 27 was my SIL's 60th birthday. (This is my husband's older sister.)  It was a surprise party, with a whopping 24 people in attendance. I hosted that event, and wow!  Glad we did an open floor plan.  Made it buffet style....

Meal was as follows: 

Martha's Vineyard Salad (a family favorite)

Homemade breads

Rib Roast, Rump Roast, Venison backstrap fillets....dry rubbed with Umami powder. 

Mac and Cheese (recipe from ThatWhichNourishes)...its very creamy and wonderful

Mixed veggies

Rosemary/garlic/sour cream smashed potatoes

Gravy made with portobello mushrooms, yellow onion, tarragon and beef broth. Had that simmering for 8 hours. 

 

Dessert. Birthday cake, of course. ...3 layer. Devils food center with white outer edge. Thin buttercream icing.  In a mille feuille style, added a vanilla marscapone filling, alternating with raspberries. the center of the cake was black cherries rolled in maltodextrin (so they didn't ooze). Made a barrier around them with the marscapone. So that was the bottom 2 layers. The tops was dotted with the marscapone, and piled high with blackberries and raspberries, garnished with mint leaves.  Meant to encase the whole thing with spun sugar; ended up mostly the top being encased. Served with a French vanilla ice cream and bourbon caramel sauce.  SIL was very happy. (waiting for a pic of that to post it here. ) 

 

My other SIL brought a couple extra chocolate cakes for the kids to dig into, because the whole cheese-berry- thing with cake was not appealing to the youngsters.  We are eating leftovers from that for dinner tonight.  

 

I was extremely pleased to hear that the venison was well-received.  We have some folks who can be quite critical about that "gamey " taste they expect- which I can understand. But, remarkably, there was none of that taste detected- which was surprising given the number of critics present.  I'm told that the experience has converted one relative over to taking up deer hunting.  

 

[Tri2Cook]

Christmas dinner this year was enchiladas, pinto beans and rice for me and disappointed looks on the cats faces because there was nothing of interest to them. The leftovers were just reheated same, didn't see a whole lot of repurposing potential in that meal. Older daughter and family spent this Christmas with her husband's family, younger daughter spent Christmas with her boyfriend's family this year (she came by for a couple hours in the afternoon though, so that was nice). Seemed a bit silly to go too overboard on Christmas dinner just for me, though I'm sure the cats would have greatly preferred turkey. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

Seemed a bit silly to go too overboard on Christmas dinner just for me, though I'm sure the cats would have greatly preferred turkey. 

 Next year plan on spoiling yourself silly for Christmas dinner. You are worth it. And the cats will appreciate it. Just don’t invite me because I hate turkey.😂

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Just don’t invite me because I hate turkey.

Not a big fan myself. I don't care much at all about the traditional turkey dinner. To me, the best part of turkey is sandwiches from the leftovers. Cold between two slices of buttered bread with mayo, salt and lots of pepper works a kind of magic on turkey. Transforms it from something I don't care about to something I look forward to.  

[kayb]

4 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Christmas dinner this year was enchiladas, pinto beans and rice for me and disappointed looks on the cats faces because there was nothing of interest to them. The leftovers were just reheated same, didn't see a whole lot of repurposing potential in that meal. Older daughter and family spent this Christmas with her husband's family, younger daughter spent Christmas with her boyfriend's family this year (she came by for a couple hours in the afternoon though, so that was nice). Seemed a bit silly to go too overboard on Christmas dinner just for me, though I'm sure the cats would have greatly preferred turkey. 

When I spend a holiday alone, I use it as an excuse to cook things I love to eat. One Thanksgiving, I had potato salad and wine, because that was what I wanted.

 

[gfweb]

End-of -the-tenderloin (whatever that cut is called) with port/mustard sauce, CSO fingerlings and smart-oven squash

[suzilightning]

13 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Not a big fan myself. I don't care much at all about the traditional turkey dinner. To me, the best part of turkey is sandwiches from the leftovers. Cold between two slices of buttered bread with mayo, salt and lots of pepper works a kind of magic on turkey. Transforms it from something I don't care about to something I look forward to.  

Portuguese sweet bread, Miracle Whip, turkey than cranberry sauce.😀

[Katie Meadow]

18 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Christmas dinner this year was enchiladas, pinto beans and rice for me and disappointed looks on the cats faces because there was nothing of interest to them. The leftovers were just reheated same, didn't see a whole lot of repurposing potential in that meal. Older daughter and family spent this Christmas with her husband's family, younger daughter spent Christmas with her boyfriend's family this year (she came by for a couple hours in the afternoon though, so that was nice). Seemed a bit silly to go too overboard on Christmas dinner just for me, though I'm sure the cats would have greatly preferred turkey. 

I would be thrilled to have  enchiladas for a holiday dinner. Maybe I'll make them for New Years Day. Turkey is so yesterday. Your cats, like all cats, are a bunch of ingrates.

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

Your cats, like all cats, are a bunch of ingrates.

Cats are not generally my pet of choice. I don't dislike them, just don't particularly want them as pets. But these have lived here their entire lives, they were my late wife's, so I wasn't going to make them homeless due to circumstances that were no fault of theirs. Once their time is up, there will be no replacement cats. I've seen these two eat some things I would never have expected but they had no interest in enchiladas. They always have interest in turkey. 

[Katie Meadow]

44 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

Cats are not generally my pet of choice. I don't dislike them, just don't particularly want them as pets. But these have lived here their entire lives, they were my late wife's, so I wasn't going to make them homeless due to circumstances that were no fault of theirs. Once their time is up, there will be no replacement cats. I've seen these two eat some things I would never have expected but they had no interest in enchiladas. They always have interest in turkey. 

It wasn't meant as an insult. It's their nature to be ingrates, and part of their charm. Clearly your cats are not New Mexico cats. When I lived in NM I did in fact have a cat. She could eat the chicken and cheese out of a rolled enchilada. After she died I became mostly a dog person. For a couple of years a large male cat invited himself to live with us even though we had a German shepherd. That cat mercilessly teased the dog by hanging his tale over the edge of the table, waving his paw down, and then whipping all limbs out of reach when the dog wanted to play. Not really very nice, considering he was an interloper, but there was no denying he had personality to burn. He was a California cat, and frankly, kind of a bum.

[ChocoMom]

Abigail and the chickens have been fighting over scraps since Christmas. I toss it out the back door, and whoever's close by gets dibs.  But, the second Abby starts sniffing around, the chickens run. (She doesn't hurt them, but they're still scared.)  Ethel, on the other hand, will go neck in neck with Abby when it comes to food scraps. She's more bold, not to mention old and cranky.  

  Since its been quite frigid out the last few days, Abby has been snuggling on her new blankie downstairs on the heated floor in the mudroom. I did toss her down a few lean scraps from the rib roast...and she's not complaining.  Its been a feast for all the animals, except Cooties. She's petrified of humans under 3 feet tall, so, she stayed hidden for the past 5 days.  The last of that crew just left a little while ago, so she'll be happy with some milk leftover from the little human's sippy cups.

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by ChocoMom (log)

[kayb]

This is straying way off topic, but we had for 18 years a massive cat named Willie who trained all our dogs (Weiaraners). They all bore a network of white scratches criss-crossing their noses where he swatted them when they did not behave to his specifications.

 

Willie's favorite Christmas leftover was cranberry sauce. He loved it on his cat food, and I would occasionally buy a can as a treat for him for several days. He also loved buttered popcorn, and apples. Weird cat.

 

[Tri2Cook]

6 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

It wasn't meant as an insult.

It wasn't taken as one. We're just discussing leftover turkey and the cats disappointment at the lack thereof. 

[chromedome]

On 12/29/2018 at 3:29 PM, Tri2Cook said:

Cats are not generally my pet of choice. I don't dislike them, just don't particularly want them as pets. But these have lived here their entire lives, they were my late wife's, so I wasn't going to make them homeless due to circumstances that were no fault of theirs.

 

My elderly Willow kitty was also my late wife's cat. We got her from a friend/neighbour several years ago, when our rental had a mouse problem. Willow fixed that in a hurry, but when we made overtures about returning her, my (now-late) wife told me that the original owner would prefer we kept her, since Willow'd been bullying the owner's other (older) cat.

 

Well, in the fullness of time that friend/neighbour divorced her husband and my wife passed away, and she is now my GF. It turns out that, while telling me that Willow wasn't wanted in her previous home, my wife was telling the previous owner that I myself had gotten so attached I was upset at the thought of giving her back. So it turned out my late wife was...well, manipulating is a harsh word, but it fits...let's say "making expert use of spin" to achieve the desired end result of keeping Willow.

 

The funny thing is that my GF never felt that Willow was her cat. Willow was her dog's cat. Her now-deceased Piper had fallen madly in love with this particular kitten within a day or two of her birth, and monopolized her to the point that little bitty Willow might have starved to death if they weren't vigilant about taking her back to Mama periodically to feed. They were inseparable for eight years until Willow came to live at my house, and even after that she'd go back most nights for a quick visit.

[kayb]

Sigh. The sweet potato muffins were a bust. I forgot the baking powder. What I get for making them in a semi-asleep state. And those things are good, too!