Adios, Thanksgiving

I know I said I was at the end of my Thanksgiving-leftover adventure with the turkey pot-pie, but there wait, there’s more! The other day I decided to make risotto, and I needed some sort of stock. Low and behold, there in my freezer was a half-quart of turkey stock made from our Thanksgiving turkey! It made a delicious risotto – I’m sure this would work with any stock, but I’d like to think that my special turkey stock made it extra good.
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Portobello Risotto

Ingredients:

• ¼ Cup Butter
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 Portobello Mushroom, chopped
• 1 Cup Risotto
• ½ Cup White Wine
• 2 Cups Stock (or water)
• ¼ Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

Put your stock or water in a saucepan, and start it to a boil. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, melt half of the butter, then sauté the onion until translucent and soft. Add in the mushrooms, and sauté until soft.

Add the risotto into the onions and mushrooms, stir it up so the rice doesn’t stick, then add the white wine. Constantly stir until the liquid is gone, and then add a ladle of stock. Continue to stir until the liquid is gone. Repeat this until the rice is cooked to your liking. It took me until all 2 cups of stock were gone before this happened. The recipe can vary depending on the amount of onion/mushroom, so taste it as you go.

Once the risotto tastes done to you, take it off of the heat and stir in the remaining butter and the Parmesan cheese.

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I guess this isn’t the complete end of Thanksgiving as I still have some of the turkey pot-pie filling in the freezer for to make another pie down the road, but it’s the end of creating fun dishes. Adios Thanksgiving, catch ya on the flip side!

Turkey Leftovers: Turkey Pot Pie

Here I am, at the end of my turkey leftover adventure. To end it on a high note, we decided to make a pot pie with the rest of the turkey. I say "we," when I should say "my husband." He's did everything, and I sat on the couch and read my book. He basically followed Cook's Illustrated's Chicken Pot Pie recipe, but substituted the chicken for turkey. Instead of using a can of chicken stock, he used my turkey broth that I froze after making the big soup. Oh, and he used a pre-made pie crust dough - yeah, sometimes you gotta take shortcuts! It was a delicious dinner, and he even got creative with the crust - check out the photo!

As if the pie wasn't calorie-loaded enough, we decided to enjoy it with a side of tots. I mean, seriously, when are tots a bad idea? The photo to the right isn't that great - it's so hard to get the pieces of pie out nicely. I suppose we could do individual pies, but that usually lends to me overeating...as if I really need to finish the whole thing!

As usual, we had a great time being inventive with our turkey leftovers. For as much money as we spend on the big Thanksgiving dinner each year, it's good to know that we're getting the most out of the leftovers. It sure makes the next few week's trips to the grocery store less expensive! So long turkey, we'll see you next year! I'm already envisioning Turkey Tamales...

Turkey Leftovers: Turkey Salad

We are almost done with our turkey leftovers. I absolutely hate food waste, so I'm trying to be as creative as possible with this leftover meat. On Thanksgiving day, once the carved turkey cooled and no one else was interested in any more, my husband took one whole breast, sealed it in a food-saver bag, and froze it. This week we thought was as good a time as ever to break it out. I took a quarter of the meat and decided turkey salad sounded like a good idea. The weather has been oddly warm lately, and a cold sandwich just sounded really good the other day.

Ingredients:

• Turkey, chopped or shredded (as much as you want for your sandwiches)
• Celery, a couple finely diced ribs
• Onion, finely diced (I usually use green onions, but all I had was red and it was great!)
• Mayo
• Salt
• Pepper

Just mix all that stuff up. Use as much of each ingredient as you like. Taste it as you mix it up so you get the flavors that you prefer. Spread it on your favorite bread, and you've got a Turkey Salad Sandwich going!

Sometimes when I'm feeling sassy, I'll dice up a dill pickle and throw that in too!

Turkey Leftovers: Tacos

We still have turkey...so much turkey! We decided to take tonight's leftovers south of the border with tacos! Turkey tacos are kind of rad, so I suggest you try them if you have any more turkey leftover. Here's an easy method that I like to do - great for after work when you don't have a lot of time:

Shred up your turkey - however much you think you'll need. Then toss it in a saucepan with a can of Herdez Salsa Verde. I'm sure you can use any salsa verde that you like, I just prefer Herdez. If once you stir it up, it looks like you don't have much salsa, you can pour in some soup stock. Tonight we improvised with chicken bullion and water - whatever works. Get that pot a'simmerin' on the stove for a while - until the turkey is thoroughly warmed through. Scoop that goodness onto a tortilla with your favorite fixins, and you're ready to rock. Throw in some rice* and beans, and you've got a hell of a party going!

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*Check out my rice recipe here.

Turkey Leftovers: Sandwiches

When talking about leftover Thanksgiving turkey, you can't help but mention sandwiches. It's the easy-peasy thing to do with your leftovers. Especially a day or two after when you haven't had a chance to go to the grocery store (not that it would matter because you're broke from buying all the food for Thanksgiving) and you just want something fast and easy to eat.

I'm pretty particular with my turkey sandwich. Now this only goes for Thanksgiving leftovers, not regular deli meat - that can be any 'ol way. I start off by spreading a Miracle Whip on each slice of bread. Yes, Miracle Whip. Then I grind black pepper on each slice of bread so it sticks to the Miracle Whip. Next I lay out chunks of leftover turkey on one of the slices of bread. I prefer to use the dark meat, but I won't be picky if there's only white meat left. Once the turkey is down, I spoon some of my homemade cranberry sauce on top. Finally, I place the second slice of bread on top, cut it in half, and go to town.

This is the way my mom did our leftover turkey sammies when we were little, and it's just so familiar and comforting to me. Even my husband likes it - although I could see the doubt in his eyes the first time I made it for him.

His turkey sandwich of choice is getting all the fixings - turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce - and putting it all on his sandwich. Drizzling it with gravy before placing the top piece of bread on, of course. The first time I saw him do this, I was a little horrified. It just seemed so gnarly, but I tried it - and yep, it was pretty good. It's like all of Thanksgiving put into a tiny package.

How do you do leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches? It's okay if it sounds weird - hell, I use Miracle Whip, so I won't judge!

Turkey Leftovers: The Soup

For anyone who has hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, knows about the leftover situation. I think the turkey leftover crowd consists of three main schools of thought:

• Leftovers rock, I will do so many things with them!
• Eh, turkey sandwiches are okay...
• F the leftovers, blah!

Personally, I fit into the first group. I love the leftovers more than the main Thanksgiving dinner! Since I host it every year, I find myself stressed out and tired of the sight of food by the time the dinner is on the table. I pick at it a bit, drink too much wine and then pretend to be interested in attempting to sort of help with dishes...then drink more wine.

My favorite leftover is the turkey soup. Every year my parents come over the day after Thanksgiving, and we enjoy the turkey soup and some leftover bread together. It's relaxing, warm, and delicious.

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Ingredients:

• Turkey Carcass
• Giblets and Neck
• Carrots
• Celery
• Parsley
• Onion
• Garlic
• 8 oz Tomato Juice
• Salt and Pepper
• Small Pasta (optional)
• Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese (optional)

As soon as dinner is over, my husband starts dismantling the turkey carcass.  Dark meat goes in one container, and white meat in another. Once it's thoroughly cleaned off, we plop the bones and carcass bits into the stockpot*. I fill the stockpot with water, cover it, and start the boil. You can season the water if you like. I didn't season the water this year as I did the bacon turkey, and it was plenty salty and good as-is. Once it is boiling, turn it down to a simmer. This will go for as long as you want. I did mine for about 4 hours. Once you're tired and thinking of going to bed, take the stockpot off the stove, let it rest a bit, dump the carcass in the trash, and put the pot into the fridge.

The next day (early afternoon), take out the huge stockpot and see if any oil has hardened on the top. If so, just scrape it off with a spoon.

Put that bad-boy back on the stove, and turn up the heat. Add your giblets and neck if you didn't use them for gravy the day before. Roughly cut up carrots, celery, onion, parsley, and some garlic cloves. Add those to the soup. Pour in an 8 oz can of tomato juice, and season the soup with some salt and pepper. Once it comes to a boil, lower the temp to a simmer, cover it, and let it go. I let mine go for about 2 1/2 hours.

After about an hour or so of simmering, taste the broth and make sure it's seasoned to your liking. Add more seasoning now if necessary.

When you're soup is done, take it off the heat. Now is also the time that you'll want to boil up some small pasta** if you like that in your soup. I always put pasta in my soup, and I highly recommend it.

Remove the vegetables from your soup. I put these in a bowl and cover with some foil to keep them warm. It is now that you're probably going to benefit from some help - you need to strain the soup through a fine strainer. This gets you a really nice broth. Once your pasta is done, strain it and run some cold water through it to keep it from sticking together. Put some pasta in your bowls and top it with a couple ladles of soup.

Personally - it is at this point where I just top my soup with some pecorino-romano, and call it a day. My parents on the other hand, enjoy adding the cooked vegetables to their broth as well as chunks of leftover turkey. To each his own, and that's why this meal rocks. I made enough broth this year for at least 5 dinners!

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* My stockpot has a removable strainer inside it - this makes all the difference when you're making soup. You can easily dump out the turkey carcass and strain out your vegetables after your second boil.

** I used tiny star pasta this year, and it was so good!

No Fail Turkey

My husband and I have been hosting Thanksgiving for seven years now! We've been doing this since long before we were married, so each year we seem to have figured a little more out about this whole hosting a giant meal thing. Sometimes we change up appetizers, sides, and desserts; but we NEVER mess with the turkey. I have found a no-fail turkey, and I think we'd be stupid not to do it every year.

The idea isn't my own, in fact, it was something my dad talked about when I was little. Every year my mom made an incredible turkey, and I recall once my dad mentioning this method. My mom had her own way of roasting the turkey, so she never took the suggestion. I can't blame her, because once you find "your way," there's really no going back. I mean, who wants to try something totally new and have it fail on them with a table full of hungry people?

For those of you who would like to try something new or have never cooked a turkey before, you're going to want to give this a go.

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No Fail Turkey

Ingredients:

• Turkey (any size)
• Thick-cut bacon
• Veg/Herbs or Stuffing

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. First, rinse out your turkey - make sure to take the neck and bag of guts out before cooking. Pat the turkey down with a paper towel, and place it in your roasting pan. If you are doing stuffing, go ahead and stuff him now. If you're not, roughly chop up some veg or herbs, and put that in the cavity. An onion, some carrots, and celery work well. This keeps the turkey moist from the inside out.

Now the fun part. Lay your bacon on top of your turkey. As you can see, I don't use any particular type of pattern, I just lay it on there. I also don't season the skin of the turkey. I've found that the bacon provides enough saltiness that seasoning is not necessary.

Make a little tent-like structure out of foil and place that on top of your pan. You don't want the foil touching the turkey - it's just a loose tent, not a lock-down on the poor little guy.

Put that bad boy in the oven, the time will vary depending on the size of your bird. So Google that ahead of time so you give yourself adequate time to get everything done. About 20 minutes before the turkey is done, take off the foil. This will brown everything up really nice like.

When it's all done, take it out, and let it rest a bit because that mo-fo is going to be HOT! When the turkey has cooled down a little bit, start pulling off the bacon. I tend to put the bacon on a plate to the side. What doesn't get eaten by the vultures standing around the turkey gets crumbled and put on top of my mashed potatoes.

Carve up your bird, and enjoy!
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This recipe has NEVER failed me. The turkey comes out oh-so-moist and good - even the breast meat! Did you notice that part in the recipe about basting? Well, you shouldn't have because it's not in there. The bacon fat starts to render and bastes the turkey through the whole process, so you don't ever need to open the oven. The smell is incredible, and the bacon fat that mixes in with the turkey juices creates a great flavor in the stuffing and some amazing gravy. Yeah, you're going to want to make pan gravy from these drippings.

Yes, this isn't a very timely post since Thanksgiving is over, but you can always bookmark it for next year. Better yet, buy a turkey for cheap since the grocery stores are getting rid of them, throw it in your freezer, and give it a go when you're craving turkey again. Oh, and there's always Christmas...