Thanksgiving, The Day After: Leftovers!

[ludja]

Going for a nice hike today with some friends and then coming back here afterwards for turkey pot pie! A wild mushroom soup beforehand and sauteed brussel sprouts alongside. Grapefruit and pomegranates in port for dessert.

[therese]

I'm just getting back into the swing of things after traveling one week and cooking all the next---will reply about the boiled eggs later tonight.  Plus, I've called in the Big Guns over on the Southern thread---to see if any of them serve their gravy avec oeufs---it's just what Mammaw always did, and then Mother, so that's how we're all used to it.  I'm the one who started the two-gravy thing...I don't like entrails in mine.

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Well, I don't know about the Big Guns, but I've eaten a lot of Thanksgiving gravy in various parts of the southeast, and the only place I've gotten it with added hard boiled eggs is in Texas, prepared by my sister-in-law according to family tradition. I find it icky, as the whites are very rubbery and the yolks do not make up for what is otherwise a very unpleasant concoction.

My sister-in-law is not a great cook, so it's entirely possible that this version of gravy might be wonderful in the right hands.

[Susan in FL]

Well it's the day after the days after now, but we are still slowly finishing up the Thanksgiving food. Last night we ate left over green beans and wild mushrooms with cornish hens and cheese grits souffle.

Tonight we will use up left over roasted cauliflower (this was the first time ever we've had any roasted cauliflower not eaten in one sitting) by roasting it a bit more and turning it into a sauce for pasta, and perhaps have a fried egg on top.

Then, it's all over except for the making of soup and perhaps freezing the makings for a gumbo later.

[bergerka]

Well, last night we had a salad of green leaf lettuce, hard-boiled quail eggs (they were supposed to go with one of the courses at Thanksgiving, but I think um...slkinsey forgot about them...), sliced leftover turkey breast (sous vide-cooked turkey breast is delicious in salads), julienned cucumber and honey-mustard dressing.

That's a good way to eat leftovers!

[Fat Guy]

Turkey sandwiches and partial-meal reheats aside, what are you doing with your Thanksgiving leftovers this year?

I'm probably going to do some turkey hash, and we've got a turkey-carcass soup going.

[Jon Savage]

Well our leftovers are not turkey...

That being said a rindesbratensalat with onions & olive oil and such would not be out of place.

Edited November 26, 2010 by 6ppc (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Unlike you, Steven, I've never been a big hash fan, but I cured and SVed the dark meat in a confit style, and it is now perfect for hash. So: hash & eggs for dinner tonight.

[kayb]

I'm thinking turkey enchiladas. Or maybe pasta with an alfredo sauce and turkey. I'm about to eat sweet potatos and cranberry salad for breakfast, though.

[robirdstx]

We had a bone-in ham this year, so I've got some great northern beans soaking in prep for a big batch of ham and bean soup. And I'll be making cornbread to go with.

[Bonnie Deahl]

You gotta love making those turkey sandwiches with leftover white meat. Our bird was brined and grilled with tamarind glaze. Suvir Saran has a day after turkey hash in American Masala that will be the inspiration for today's leftover foray. We made this dish at a cooking class back in the summer and it was really a hit. You will need some curry leaves, cumin, jalapeno, cilantro and mustard seeds along with onion and tomato for a well spiced day after dish. Try the skillet cornbread to go with it also.

[xxchef]

Doing the same as every year...making lots of ready-to-eat full turkey dinner meals for the freezer.

We like turkey a lot and we always cook a BIG one, even for just the two of us (this year I cooked two 14 pounders because I couldn't find any big ones to buy), and make LOTS of sides and accompaniments in quantity. In the days following Thanksgiving we package up a couple dozen home-made TV dinners with a little bit of everything in ~5x5x2" plastic Tupperware-type containers.

It's just my wife and I here on the Ranch and our work schedule gets pretty crazy especially around goat kidding season and this time of year with all the extra candy-making work and sales in addition to our regular dairy work. 14-hour jam-packed work days are not uncommon at all so meals are often grab-n-go. These nuke-and-run holiday meals are just the ticket for such days.

[Sean]

I'm making a casserole.

A layer af mashed potatoes on the bottom, then a layer of cornbread sausage dressing, next is the turkey meat soaked in gravy, then the herbed bread dressing, next the candied butternut squash and topped with creamed spinach and bread crumbs. I bake it in a 9X13 pan and then serve with cranberry sauce.

The only thing is that I have house guests coming this weekend and some of them don't eat pork so I'll probobly do 2 different casseroles, one larger with the sausage dressing and a smaller one without.

[Dana]

Andrea Immer Robinson has an interesting turkey quesadilla with sweet potato mole video on her website that I'm going to try.

[Dave Hatfield]

Food for forward thinking.

We don't do this after Thanksgiving, but could I guess. We do it the day after Christmas which is Boxing day in the English tradition.

In any case we invite any number of friends over for a pot luck. The only rule is that the dish they bring MUST be made from left overs. We give a silly prize to the dish voted best by everyone.

In our case we coupled this with a casino night with lots of games (poker, black jack , roulette, craps ) Each guest gets a pot of 'money' and the one with the most left money at the end of the evening gets their very own silly prize.

Great fun & now a tradition for us & friends.

[Florida]

Typically, I make gumbo on the day after Thanksgiving, with the carcass being used to make the turkey stock which forms the base of the gumbo. And then turkey hash on Saturday morning.

However, this year, I just ended up making a rolled, stuffed Turkey breast, so left over options will be limited as there is stuffing formed into the meat.

[Big Mike]

Thanksgiving Sandwiches - turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, a little dash of gravy and swiss on rye. I like that meal more than the actual dinner.

[Rebecca263]

Well, the pies will be devoured by guests and Kiddle's mysterious fork of "just a bite".

The rice dressing is a favorite on it's own. I use wild rice, lots of cumin and toasted pine nuts- everyone looks for this on the Thanksgiving table! Some of it will be piled into two of the last of this years' local Jersey tomatoes then I'll shake some nutritional yeast on them and they will be baked and broiled as a delicious lunch. The last cup will go into our turkey soup- which is the reason for turkey carcass, after all!

The myriad roasted veggies and butternut squash discs will be a last minute add to the soup as well.

I make veggie balls out of various beans and chick pea flour, they are delicious in turkey soup- they'll go in.

The breasts of the turkey will become turkey pot pie- not the South Jersey style "pot pie", which is actually turkey and dumplings(but who am I to quibble? My family hasn't lived in this colonial era town for 200 years yet, I'm still a foreigner!), but a pie of flaky dough filled with turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pole beans and onions- all touched by cumin. I rarely make it because I am BOTH pastry challenged AND uncomfortable with shortening, but this year I am determined to find a recipe for making a flaky NON-shortening based pastry crust.

The remaining leg will be eaten by Kiddle, of course- she likes dark meat the best- and the wings will be frozen for some future nefarious use.

The broccoli salad has been frozen- it will become yet another pot of soup sometime, when I am in too much pain to stand in the kitchen chopping or directing others to chop.

I cook for my loved ones, and Kiddle doesn't like cranberry relish, so I didn't make any this year. As soon as cranberries are a special, I will buy a few bags for my freezer, though. I like to thaw them and eat them with a bit of stevia for a snack. I have some stevia saved in the pantry since last winter, just for this treat.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Rebecca263 (log)

[jscarbor]

Turkey and smokes sausage gumbo.

Stock from carcass. Pretty solid gumbo.

[ScoopKW]

Did three things:

Turkey tetrazzini (It's so old-fashioned it might come back into style one of these years...)

A faux-North-African turkey pie (I have a glut of Moroccan spices that I need to use before they get too old)

My favorite -- shredded turkey enchiladas with a screamin' hot buffalo-ranch sauce. (Did this for Sunday football. Surprisingly good.)

[Pierogi]

I was a guest, but still came away with a BOATLOAD of leftover turkey (no one but me liked the dark meat, *suckers* !). I had another complete meal from some of the turkey and some of the dressing (which was my contribution to the feast) with some newly made mashed potatoes and gravy on Saturday.

Tonight, I killed the meat with turkey enchiladas with creamy tomatillo/cilantro sauce. Really an excellent recipe. The sauce was salsa verde, a couple of tablespoons of canned Ortegas, cilantro leaves, heavy cream and S&P blitzd together in the blender. Jack cheese in the filling and on top. Quite, quite tasty.

I had bought a breast half and a couple of drumsticks (wanted thighs but they were sold out when I got there) because I wasn't sure how much leftovers I'd get, if any, so those are now in the freezer for future use, and future tetrazinni, ScoopKW. That's one of my favorite leftover dishes !

Well, I didn't really kill all the leftover turkey myself. There's been a couple of little doggies with very fat little bellies, belching turkey burps for the past few days.......

[Doodad]

Let's see. I made turkey tacos the day after. Reworked the cranberrry relish into a salsa with habaneros and orange juice.

Yesterday was jambalaya with the turkey and sausage from the stuffing. Tonight the turkey stock from the bones and more turkey will be hot and sour soup.

[Alcuin]

Turkey and smokes sausage gumbo.

Stock from carcass. Pretty solid gumbo.

I've done this every year I make Thanksgiving. Only been doing that for a couple of years, but the gumbo's become something we look forward to now on top of Thanksgiving itself.

[chileheadmike]

I just made a big pot of turkey and noodles. Stock from the carcass with onion, celery, and carrots. The turkey was smoked, and my wife hated the T&N, my daughter loved it. So batting .500 with it.

Usually its turkey and andouille gumbo, but I thought I'd try something different this year.

[KaffeeKlatsch]

An old standby that I didn't do this year is to make a casserole where I mix in all the leftovers that make sense. It's usually the leftover dark meat (no one but me eats it unless I disguise it), mashed potatoes, vegetables, gravy, and then I use the leftover dressing as a topping. If there's not enough stuff, I add noodles, sour cream, stock, etc...

A new one this year for me was I created a muffin from the leftover sweet potato casserole. They came out quite nice. My 4-year-old loved them, but she's never met a sweet potato she didn't like.

[mgaretz]

I'm doing a variation on my sweet and sour cabbage borscht with the leftover turkey. I was short on the normal amount cabbage, so I've added carrots and potatoes to bulk it up. It's a slow cooker recipe and I will add the turkey at the end.