Thanksgiving, The Day After: Leftovers!

[Gifted Gourmet]

So, we have threads by members who were agonizing over the size of their turkeys for this year's Thanksgiving feast .. too small? too big? A Hummer turkey? Turkey hash? Turkey shepherd's pie? Pot pie? Eggs and turkey over easy?

Where do we go from here? Your turkey leftovers?

and, while you're at it, what to do with a lot of turkey stuffing which is also leftover?

[Jason Perlow]

Turkey stuffing is great for making "Thanksgiving Sandwiches" -- Two slices of bread, some reheated turkey meat, some reheated stuffing, some cranberry sauce, and gravy.

[Chris Amirault]

Panang curry with the dark meat cubed, using the additional butternut squash that never quite made it into the oven.

[KatieLoeb]

Turkey stuffing is great for making "Thanksgiving Sandwiches" -- Two slices of bread, some reheated turkey meat, some reheated stuffing, some cranberry sauce, and gravy.

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There's a bar here in Philly's Chestnut Hill section called McNally's Tavern that serves the "Dicken's" sandwich. Grilled fresh sliced turkey and grilled stuffing with cranberry sauce on a toasted bun. They're delicious, I'm told, although I've never had the pleasure. "Tastes just like Thanksgiving" is what everyone says when they have one. McNally's is also home to the infamous "Schmitter" sandwich - basically a cheesesteak with the addition of grilled salami and tomato on a Kaiser roll instead of a long hoagie roll.

[SuzySushi]

Some of the leftovers get made into care packages for guests. The meat we keep is divided into white & dark, and frozen in separate Ziplock bags for future use (large slices make it into sandwiches, smaller pieces into curries or noodle soups). I'm saving the wings and some carcass pieces (also frozen) to make soup over the weekend or later next week -- either a classic mushroom & barley, or black bean.

[Pan]

My mother always used to make turkey Tetrazzini with leftover white meat turkey.

[mrbigjas]

Turkey stuffing is great for making "Thanksgiving Sandwiches" -- Two slices of bread, some reheated turkey meat, some reheated stuffing, some cranberry sauce, and gravy.

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i wonder if, with the addition of a little egg and maybe some more bread crumbs, one could make the stuffing hold together well enough to act as the 'bread' in a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich.

i'm picturing kind of forming the sandwich in your hand like a giant flatter version of suppli, with a slightly wet-ish stuffing encasing a few slices of meat and some fontal or other melty cheese, and then cooking them in a pan with butter till the stuffing casing sets up and the cheese melts.

in fact, i may report back on this experiment in a couple of hours.

[tazunemono]

I'm from Louisville, KY, and a popular use for leftover turkey here is the Hot Brown Sandwich. It's kind of a turkey "hot dish" prepared in a single serving bowl, and broiled. Very tasty!

Recipe

http://www.brownhotel.com/hotbrown.php3

for a picture, click this link:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...cial_s%26sa%3DN

[BarbaraY]

I HATE TURKEY SOUP!

Now that that's off my chest, I'm thinking about what to do with what is left. I've been thinking about Turkey Tettrazini. I used to make it when my kids were little but I don't even remember how it tasted. And my tastes have changed. Some of the things we ate then, now taste horrid to me.

Think I'll go get a bit of Cranberry Cheesecake to tide me over.

[Pam R]

I HATE TURKEY SOUP!

Then you won't want any of the Turkey and Wild Rice soup we're selling today .

It shouldn't be surprising that I'd use it up in soup.

[amccomb]

My Thanksgiving dinner is actually tomorrow (I went to Grandma's house for T-day), so I am still doing prep wprk for the big day, but I normally do turkey sandwiches, then turkey enchiladas, then turkey and wild rice soup. If I still have any leftovers, I freeze them.

[Tess]

Spicy Thai noodles with turkey. I lost my recipe (Nigella Lawson via the New York Times a few years ago) but I'll throw something together with what's in my cupboard.

[Susan in FL]

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks... what are you eating today? Are you going for leftovers right away, or are you doing like my husband proposed, skip a day completely before eating any of it? It you're having leftovers already, are you just heating the stuff up, or being creative?

For breakfast, I had leftover dessert which was Brownie Cheesecake with my coffee. Actually, I haven't been hungry since, but I'll be back to post what I eat during the rest of this day.

What I want to do for dinner is pick some of the foods I liked the best last night, and reheat or eat right from the fridge.

I cooked enough for at least twice as many guests yesterday, and we had just one couple with us for dinner. I filled doggie bags for them to take home.

Is it too soon after the feast for turkey soup or sandwiches?

[jackal10]

In addition to the above (especially sandwiches)

Confit the wings, legs and thighs (if left). I usually reserve one just of this.

Risotto is delicous

Curry has already been mentioned

Pie, with cubed turkey, onion, parsley and hard boiled eggs under a pastry lid

Finally croquettes or pancakes...

[Ktepi]

Leftovers all the way, today and tomorrow both -- for me, turkey is a container in which to cook stuffing, and I'll eat the leftovers until the stuffing is gone; for the Missus, sandwiches of turkey, cranberry, and a little stuffing are the highlight of the holiday, or at least share the spotlight with pumpkin pie.

Once the stuffing's gone, we'll move on to turkey gumbo, "turkey frita" (like vaca frita with leftover turkey), and pasta carbonara with shredded leftover turkey tossed in with the bacon. I was thinking of trying turkey rendang, but I don't know how leftover turkey will fare being cooked that long.

Monday or Tuesday I'm planning on something with beef to break up the poultry hegemony -- possibly the chili cassoulet from the Cook-Off.

The second of three batches of turkey stock (I don't have a nice big gumbo pot, so I do it in batches) is simmering as we speak, for that gumbo.

[hazardnc]

My husband love, love, loves turkey hash. Sadly, the kids and I don't share his affection as we find it dry and bland.

Can someone help maintain family armony and share a good recipe for a great turkey hash?

[Susan in FL]

Gumbo using leftovers is a real good idea, thanks. I might do that in a few days, or else freeze some of the stuff for gumbo at a later time.

Russ and I are still continuing our "discussion" about what to have. He called me on his way home from work and mentioned making Pasta Puttanesca (using NO leftovers). I'm craving the left over smoked fish dip with some Triscuits.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Can someone help maintain family armony and share a good recipe for a great turkey hash?

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I have made the following recipe and thoroughly enjoyed it:

Turkey Hash

Not only delicious but the colors of the bell peppers made it look festive, even when we consciously knew the holiday had ended ...

[linlee]

Turkey sandwiches for brunch. Hamburgers for dinner. Turkey Tetrazzini for

dinner tomorrow. Stock is done for soup next week. If ther is left over tetrazzini it will probably go into the soup

[birder53]

We finished up some leftover hummus, tabouli and babaganoush for lunch. We're getting ready to heat up turkey, stuffing, carrots, sweet potatoes and gravy for dinner. I haven't really seen how much turkey was left - hubby took care of that. I know we have a lot of sides left. I ran out of mashed potatoes, never got to cook the string beans and made too much of the other stuff. Tradition!

[Dave the Cook]

I suppose it's sort of cheating, but the day after is my day with the kids. Since I knew they would get the traditional stuff on Thursday, I decided it was my opportunity to have first shot at leftovers. So I went at the two days as a joint menu. Here's today's brunch:

- Sparkling apple-pear cocktails for the kids; apple-champagne for the grown-ups

- Turkey-sweet potato hash, poached eggs, sage reduction

- Roasted asparagus, polonaise (minus the grated egg)

- Cranberry-ginger sorbet with green apple brunoise and turkey-skin garnish

- Pumpkin-pecan bread pudding with applejack sauce

About half of this was leftovers (the turkey, sweet potatoes, asparagus), about a fourth was simply a modifying step while making Thursday's dinner (cranberry sauce and sorbet -- just divide the berries after cooking, add different syrups; freeze some after dinner; the reduction; the garnish) and a fourth was all new (bread pudding and sauce, done last night; brunoise and polonaise this morning).

[foodie52]

Roasted pork butt, roasted cauliflower and sweet potato pancakes.

[suzilightning]

as a child the night before thanksgiving we always put a set of oatmeal bread from my great-grandmother wilcox's cookbook to rise on the hot water radiator cushioned by a folded towel and covered by a clean linen dishtowel(tradition also said a cat had to step in the bread - hence the clean dishtowel- in order for it to rise properly). this was later accompanied by a set of portugese sweet bread. we didn't eat these with the dinner - these were specifically for the sandwiches we had for supper - white meat, cranberry sauce, some dressing and miracle whip.

barbara - you might like to try the tetrazzini recipe we used:

the dark meat shredded, cooked noodles or spaghetti and a "mushroom soup" of button mushrooms(now adays i use a mix of crimini, shittake and oyster), milk, flour, some oil, chopped onions, salt and pepper. mix all those ingredients up and add some breadcrumbs. bake 40-50 minute.

[LBNoble]

One of my contributions to the T'day dinner yesterday was a bust-the roasted new potatoes, w/ asparagus, cherry tomatoes, & olives. Almost everyone hated something in the mix (although everyone likes potatoes, they all had mashed potatoes)! I guess Thanksgiving is just not the time to try anything new. Everyone raved about the bean dip, however, & there were no leftovers...

Today, I took the leftover roasted veg & made a soup, w/ some mixed beans, ham scraps, & chicken stock (horrors! but since I didn't cook the turkey, I didn't have a carcass for stock)-it was pretty good. When we all went back to my SIL's to eat leftovers, someone brough a 4 in 1 cheesecake-eggnog, peppermint, pumpkin, cranberry-orange-the cranberry/orange was yummy!

[suzilightning]

breakfast was a western sandwich

it was too cold on the hawkwatch to take my gloves off to eat!!

dinner will be an indulgence for me - baked beans with cut up franks, raisin brown bread i just have to reheat and the green beans with garlic i didn't do yesterday to go with the chili and cornbread - salad instead.