Thanksgiving Leftovers

One thing they don't tell you about hosting Thanksgiving is that you're going to have a house full of leftovers. So this weekend, it is our mission to use them up without recreating the same old dinner for every meal.

This morning, we started with pumpkin pancakes, using up some of the leftover puree from my pumpkin cheesecake bars. Sorry, everyone was too hungry to take any pictures. Dinner at 3pm the day before will do that to you.

And tonight, we put together our version of a Shepherd's Pie. Here's the approximate recipe we used:

Saute chopped carrots and celery in oil about 5 minutes until starting to soften. Add 1/2 chopped onion and cook over medium until everything is soft. Add 1-2 cups of chopped turkey and stir until warmed through. Toss in fresh minced parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Add 2-3 tablespoons flour, stir to coat and add 1 cup turkey (or chicken) stock or other liquid. Cook, stirring until thickened. Pour into baking dish, top with a layer of reheated mashed potatoes and shredded gruyere. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until topping is browned.

yum!

Here are some ways to use leftover cranberry sauce:

• stirred into plain yogurt, oatmeal, or yogurt with oatmeal - this is so good, I might just make more cranberry sauce as an excuse
• breakfast muffins
• cranberry cocktails

Pretty sure that tomorrow we'll be having fried eggs on leftover turkey hash. Still need ways to use up these mashed potatoes!

Thanksgiving Menu

This marked our first year since moving to Ohio that we were responsible for hosting Thanksgiving. It was a low-pressure, low-key affair with only our household and three guests. We started prep on Tuesday night, making the cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree for cheesecake. Wednesday we made the bread and dip, brined and dried the turkey overnight, and picked up dinner rolls and pie from AJ at Sassafras Bakery. Everything else was done at a leisurely pace Thursday morning. Our 12-lb turkey actually took less than three hours to cook. Wherever possible, we used local ingredients, many from our Wayward Farms CSA.

Considering the alternative was hours of driving on I-71 in traffic and bad weather, hosting Thanksgiving dinner is a no-brainer. The hardest part on Thursday was resisting the urge to concoct more dishes to fill the time. I look forward to doing it again.

The Menu:

Mark Bittman's feta cheese dip from How to Cook Everything and no-knead bread

Roast Turkey and Gravy (using Mark Bittman's method from How to Cook Everything)

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Not Pictured:

• Mark Bittman's basic stuffing from How to Cook Everything, with pork sausage in place of some butter
• Mashed Root Vegatables (potatoes, turnips and daikon radish)
• Turnip Gratin
• Green Beans in Vinaigrette
• dinner rolls and dutch apple pie from Sassafras Bakery

Tomorrow I'll post about some of our experiments in using up leftovers.

Cranberry Orange Sauce

I always hated that jelly in a can that people serve for Thanksgiving and was pretty turned off to the taste of "cranberry sauce" until I learned how super easy it  is to make your own. Here goes - probably the shortest recipe I will ever write:

1 12-oz bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and any bad-looking ones removed
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 cup sugar
water as needed

In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, orange zest and sugar. Measure the orange juice and add water to bring it to 3/4 cup. Heat on medium-high to boil, then reduce to medium-low, cooking approximately 10-12 minutes until all the cranberries pop open and the liquid starts to thicken a bit. Remove from heat and refrigerate for at least an hour. The natural pectin in the fruit will help to "set" it into a gel, but it will ultimately be more like a jam, not jell-o.

Serve with thanksgiving dinner and stir leftovers into yogurt or use in a cocktail. Yeah, that's right, there's a cocktail that uses cranberry sauce. People are so clever.