Thanksgiving, The Day After: Leftovers!

[goldie]

Had potluck brunch for non family (who are so often closer than those we are related to by blood) with eggs, sausage, bagels and things everyone else brought. We have family near by but we always make it a point to celebrate the holidays in some fashion with our close friends. Enjoyed a case of champagne, assorted hard stuff, and two cases of beer sitting outdside by the fire- lovely time had by all!

Tonight it is pasta with butter and parmesan and lots of black pepper with steamed veggies and a crisp white wine followed by an early bed.

[tejon]

Nibbling on leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and cranberry jezebel sauce today. Tonight I'm making up some shepherd's pie with the turkey and potatoes, and tomorrow I'll make gumbo. Then the rest (if there is any) will get made into meal-sized bits to go into the freezer and the non-Thanksgiving eating will start. I always make lots of extra food so we can all pick for a few days .

[Susan in FL]

It's cool to see what Thanksgiving-like foods or leftovers are being consumed and what totally different things, on the day after.

Dave, I like what you did. Your kids will long recall with fondness the after-Thanksgiving Fridays with Dad for leftovers and creativity.

Had potluck brunch for non family (who are so often closer than those we are related to by blood).....

Absolutely, Goldie. Our dinner guests last night were a couple who are our closest friends living in the same town.

Tonight it is pasta with butter and parmesan and lots of black pepper with steamed veggies and a crisp white wine followed by an early bed.

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That sounds much like Russ's taste for pasta tonight -- nothing like yesterday.

So far tonight we have had the fish dip and Triscuits, along with beer for Happy Hour on the porch. Now Russ is fixing his pasta and I am getting ready to heat up left over Celery Root Bisque.

[racheld]

We had nine at table(s) last evening, sitting down at just about candlelight time. Our group consisted of us two, our one daughter who lives here, and two other couples, each of which have a daughter of their own.

We gathered in the living room for hot or cold cider, glasses of mead or beer, with pimiento-cheese-stuffed celery, cucumber cups with shrimp mousse, and a crab-artichoke spread with crackers.

Then we came downstairs, where there were six at the dining table, and three at the breakfast table a few feet away. All the girls, who are grown-up young women, took a moment to get acquainted, as we six at the big table chattered away. Then we began hearing lively discussions, whoops of laughter, good-natured arguing, and thorough discussions of each and every character, creature, and moment in the history of Harry Potter, from lightning-bolt to the last page of HBP. What a nice group.

Dinner was to be a plated salad course of mache topped with hearts-of-palm, baby artichoke hearts, tomato, brined mushrooms and avocado chunks, in a tart vinaigrette. One guest brought a huge platter of layered butter lettuce, cilantro, shredded chicken, crispy Chinese noodles, with a lovely sesame dressing to be added. So she dressed it, we put all the cold dishes on the buffet---the corn relish and the spiced pickled beets and the Waldorf, and just handed out plates and everyone helped themselves to all the salads and sat down.

Then it was easy to just take the rolls out of the oven, set out all the hot dishes---Sliced smoked turkey, Southern cornbread dressing, two gravies (one strained, then chopped sauteed livers and boiled eggs added; the other, just the boiled eggs in the unstrained, with all that lovely mirepoix of celery and onion floating in the golden brew). Miss Paula Deen's Pineapple Casserole, a platter of steamed broccoli and cauliflower, tossed with lemon butter and topped with roasted red pepper strips; mashed potatoes with runnels of melted butter all atop, rolls, two kinds of cranberry sauce: homemade with orange peel, and a clunked-out can of Ocean Spray, without which, etc....

And after the table was cleared, we plated dessert:

Slivers of:

Sweet potato pie with a dollop of whipped cream

Ultimate flourless chocolate cake, cooked in a pie crust, edges trimmed

Blackberry deepdish pie, with crispy lattice topped with golden crystal sugar

Guest's addition of a cherry-topped cream cheese pie

Punchcups with lemon curd, whipped cream and a leaf-shaped tuile

Today, Chris took the day off, ran errands, went to the shooting range, shopped at camera shops, whilst DD and I had a little serving of whatever leftovers we wanted to microwave, whilst we watched last night's Survivor.

Dinner was a 360---Burgers on the grill, with a nice slice of sweet onion and heavy on the dill pickles. But no one was tired of the dessert .

edited because I left out the word "cheese" from Pimiento Cheese" The whole South's gonna disown me.

Edited November 26, 2005 by racheld (log)

[Pan]

I had Thanksgiving at my godmother's place and didn't have any leftovers, so today was a normal eating day for me: Delivery from Grand Sichuan St. Marks:

Cold Cucumber with Scallion Sauce (Sichuan style)

Fish & Sour Cabbage in a Little Hot Wok, or really in a plastic takeout container (Hunan style)

With steamed white rice, of course.

[Susan in FL]

Rachel, your Thanksgiving dinner sounded lovely -- the style in which you served it, the company you enjoyed, and all the dishes. The two gravies sound interesting to me, especially the unstrained version. I make good sauces, but not good gravy. Maybe I should think of gravy as a sauce and I would do a better job. I had never heard of eggs in it! I hope I can remember that next time I cook a Thanksgiving dinner.

And hamburgers for dinner tonight...

After the smoked fish dip and Triscuits with Happy Hour, we ended up both eating left over Celery Root Bisque for a starter. Last night I put a piece of butter in the bowls before pouring in the hot soup. Tonight we drizzled some white truffle oil on top instead. It was so good, and that's one thing that is now all gone.

Then, Russ ate pasta with uncooked Puttanesca sauce, which he made. I ate left over duck and turkey from the Turducken with a little side of his pasta.

I don't know if I have room for a snack tonight. I think I am still full from yesterday.

[Dana]

I just don't get the HB eggs in the gravy. The first Thanksgiving we spent in Texas was at the home of some friends. She had added HB eggs not only to the gravy, but to the dressing as well. They were so rubbery!!! By the time they had been cooked the first time, then added to the gravy/dressing and cooked some more, they were horrid. I just don't get it.

[bergerka]

Well, I was up till 5 am cleaning up (not as bad as it sounds, the last guest didn't leave till after 2 and I didn't START cleaning till about 1/2 hour after that), then had to get up at 10 to get a caroling group going, so I didn't manage to eat anything till about 2pm.

I had cranberry cheesecake for brunch.

Then, um, I had cranberry cheesecake and some bread pudding for a late-afternoon snack.

then I ate a couple of truffles and palmiers.

Now I'm eying the pumpkin pie.

I love Thansgiving.

[SuzySushi]

I had cranberry cheesecake for brunch.

Then, um, I had cranberry cheesecake and some bread pudding for a late-afternoon snack.

then I ate a couple of truffles and palmiers.

Now I'm eying the pumpkin pie.

I love Thansgiving.

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That sound like my kind of post-Thanksgiving day!

Our Thanksgiving plans went to pieces the night before... Since we don't have extended family here, we were planning to celebrate Thanksgiving like we usually do, as a potluck dinner with two other families in similar situations. This year, however, one family couldn't make it, so it was just going to be ourselves and one other family.

Earlier in the week, our son (my stepson) called and said he wasn't going to make it -- he was staying in town and would dine with friends.

Then, Wednesday night, the husband of the other family emailed my husband to say his teenage daughter had made other plans, and his wife was stuck working -- so it was just going to be him and his younger daughter.

He also couldn't remember what his family had agreed to bring to dinner (the side dishes!), so he and my husband decided he should bring pies and a flan!!! (This was without consulting me, of course.)

That meant we'd be having turkey, stuffing & gravy prepared by me, canned cranberry sauce, 3 pies (storebought apple and custard, and homemade pumpkin pie with Splenda -- the latter baked by me), a flan, and NO vegetable side dishes!!!!! For 5 people. 3 of whom have diabetes. A really well-balanced diet.

It was too late to go grocery shopping--if the markets were even open--so on T-day I managed to throw together a veggie dish using chopped frozen spinach and some Parmesan cheese.

The turkey came out exceptionally well (I'd seasoned it with herbes de Provence), but as I was scraping up the browned its from the pan to make the gravy.... I noticed..... BLACK BITS!!!!!!! The nonstick coating was flaking off the roasting pan!!!!! So out went the homemade gravy--and the pan!!! Luckily, I had in the house a couple of envelopes of gravy mix that I normally use when my daughter wants last-minute mashed potatoes.

The dinner went well, all things considered. Our friend has gone home. His daughter was sleeping over. My daughter also took it upon herself to invite 2 other friends for a sleepover. So we had 4 9-10 y.o. girls in the house last night.

They finally fell asleep after 3:30 a.m. (me, too).

The dog woke me up at 6:30 wanting to go out.

So... breakfast this morning was apple pie. The girls, who DON'T LIKE PIE - had Cheerios.

Lunch for them was canned ravioli, by popular vote. My husband and I ate apple pie, and our daughter polished off the last piece of pumpkin pie.

My husband and the girls spent the afternoon at our complex's swimming pool (this is Hawaii, remember) while I got a few hours of peace and quiet.

Two of the girls went home. My husband's dinner tonight was... pie. The girls and I ate frozen taquitos. We still have almost an entire custard pie left. I hate custard pie.

[Rebecca263]

BREAKFAST- turkey(dark meat only)

LUNCH- too full to contemplate, give me some hot tea!

DINNER- an immense salad, mixed greens, an onion, tomatoes and an avocado

11:00PM- a delicious overcooked, crispy turkey wing, shared with kiddle.

None of you can see, but I'm being a really good girl and leaving the hashu alone! Kiddle doesn't eat turkey, only hashu, AND this batch of hashu is particularly rich.

I'm such a good girl, I ate 4 chocolate covered cherries to reward myself!

Edited November 26, 2005 by Rebecca263 (log)

[tammylc]

Pre-breakfast: woke up with insomnia at 4:30, and by 5:30 couldn't resist the siren song of a piece of pumpkin pie

Breakast: cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese

Second breakfast: toasted chocolate cherry bread with cream cheese

Elevenses: many samples at the cheese shop while picking out some cheeses for later

Lunch: a pot roast and horseradish cream sandwich at my favorite restaurant in town, with sweet potato fries on the side.

Pre-dinner noshing: 4 cheeses - Garroxta, aged Manchego, Brie de Fougerons, and some goat blue cheese that I don't remember the name of but was absolutely wonderful. With bread.

Dinner: Turkey and Wild Rice Soup. I started the stock before I went to bed on Thanksgiving and simmered it over night. It was the best turkey stock I've ever made. The soup had lots of dark meat turkey, chunks of sweet potato, and real (non-cultivated) wild rice. Plus we had leftovers from the day before - mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, matzo dressing. To drink - three half bottles of wine leftover from the day before.

Dessert: A little baby sweet potato pecan pie I picked up for half price at Zingerman's, cut into six tiny pieces. And larger pieces of a quite nice cranberry pie.

[Susan in FL]

Great stories, and comical too. Yet another reason Thanksgiving is so beloved.

Rachel, I think you better speak to us about eggs in the gravy. It might be getting mixed reviews. I would like to hear more about it.

After thinking I wouldn't even have a snack last night, just before bed I had another piece of brownie cheesecake and a glass of left over dessert wine, Campbells Rutherglen Tokay which is really really good.

[BarbaraY]

How often can we get away with eating pie for breakfast, shrimp puffs for second breakfast, cranberry cheesecake for elevenses and so on throughout the day? Pies are now gone but there is still a bit of cheesecake that's calling to me.

Rachel, I too would like to hear more about the eggs and gravy.

[WHS]

We had a Lawn Guyland Thanksgiving--day after was bagels, bialys, scallion cream cheese, lox, kippered salmon and creamed pickeled herring for breakfast, hot dogs, krinkle fries and Budweiser at Nathan's in Oceanside for lunch, and leftovers for dinner...I was lying in bed groaning for an hour before passing out.

(BTW, for those of you who are confused, "Lawn Guyland" is slightly to the east of New York City.)

[Jason Perlow]

Yeah yeah. Have you gentiles from New Hampshire considered untying the wire thats holding your jaws together?

[chow guy]

I have difficulty eating the same thing two days in a row. So, for lunch, I made a Thai style Tom Yum Turkey soup with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and sambal chili/garlic paste. I added a few of the last remaing tomatoes from my garden and some portabello and shitake mushrooms (left over from the sttuffing fixins). The rich turkey stock was great with the spicy,sour, sweet flavors of the other ingredients.

Dinner was ravioli with Marinara sauce and a salad.

Today we'll have a replay of T Day dinner with all the trimmings. Turkey, yukon gold mashed potatoes, wild mushroom stuffing, caramalized baby onions on a bed of rainbow kale, etc.

[Susan in FL]

I don't prefer to eat the exact same thing two days in a row, either .....unless it's the desserts. I'll gladly eat that two or three times in one day. A Thai style Tom Yum turkey soup sounds good. I was just cleaning out my freezer earlier today and saw I have kaffir lime leaves that I need to use up. And tonight, we're turning to Italian style, too. I'm going to make braciole using no leftovers.

This morning we used up the mashed potatoes, so they are the second thing to be all gone. We made them into potato cakes to go with eggs for breakfast.

[Malawry]

Yesterday, I ate the leftover stewed apples for breakfast before my 11yo cousin could get her mitts on them. There are benefits to getting up before 11:30am, lemme tell ya.

I had lunch while out shopping, a steak n cheese sub from Ghassan's (I was in Greensboro, NC with my family).

For dinner, Mom made a beef brisket and some gravy. She had some kugel left in the freezer from a relative's unveiling a couple weeks ago, so we defrosted that and threw it in the oven. We made a "salad bar" using this set of plastic containers that fit on a lazy Susan that Mom bought when I was about 10 years old. We heated up the leftover turkey, turkey gravy, stuffing, mashers, cranberry-apple crumble, and haricots verts. We ate Mom's challah from the freezer and had a big family Shabbat dinner together. The braised cabbage and the sweet potatoes were already long gone from people picking around the fridge. We killed all the leftovers with that dinner, which made Mom pretty happy. On my personal plate: brisket, haricots verts, challah, kugel, and salad.

Late last night, my cousins stopped by Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, but I had already retired for the night. I was just fine after all that food without it, to be honest.

[bergerka]

I'm currently lying on our big comfy living room chair, unable to move. We had our post-turkey day "get rid of the leftovers" brunch today.

Two kinds of turkey hash, one with spinach and one with mushrooms, crepes filled with Turkey a la Reine, sausage links, bacon, and all the leftover desserts. Plus the palmiers and chocolate truffles that we um...forgot to eat on Thanksgiving. Plus cappuccino, orange juice and grapefruit juice.

I might die, but it was worth it. There's even a little sliver of cranberry cheesecake left over for my breakfast tomorrow.

K

[DocDougherty]

Two days after it is soup: The bird bones take 24 hrs to give up their connective tissue to the stock pot, and another few hours to reduce to a concentration that will gel, then some time to chill and separate out the fat. Only then am I ready to make soup from the pickings. But it now has the flavors of curry and mole (it may sound strange, but it works if you focus on keeping it subtle), contains lots of turkey, bite-sized pasta and brown rice, and is served with some crusty sourdough and a crisp white wine.

[tejon]

Made gumbo with the last of the turkey meat tonight. Now we're down to bits of stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, perfect for nibbling here and there.

[mrsadm]

Last night I made Enchiladas Suizas with the leftover turkey. Delish!

[WHS]

Yeah yeah. Have you gentiles from New Hampshire considered untying the wire thats holding your jaws together?

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So that's why they were calling me "goyishe kopf"...

[TMus1111]

Friday Brunch - turkey sandwich with dressing on a huge soft roll - and sweet potatoe pie; I ate dinner out while shopping - grilled shrimp and bacon club, yum. Dessert - pumpkin cheesecake.

Today - my Mom's turkey hash - which I look forward to every year almost as much as T'Day itself.

[racheld]

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.

Now we're off to see the Wizard---Harry's on at 12:00!!!

rachel