BRING ON THE LEFTOVERS!
It is Wednesday night and already I am plotting for what to
do with the turkey leftovers! Call me
crazy, but I enjoy the leftovers. This
is when I get truly creative in the kitchen.
I have lots of ideas and would love to hear from you if you have other
suggestions.
Be sure to follow simple food safety guidelines to be sure
you keep your food safe and your family void of food borne illness. When your dinner is complete and everyone is
full, enlist help to put leftovers in containers and into the
refrigerator. If you have some dishes
that are large in size, be sure to divide them into smaller containers so they
cool quickly as well as so they do not cause issues with the rest of the food
in your refrigerator. Personally, I work
on taking the meat off the bone as soon as I can. Be sure to keep the bones however, there is
nothing like turkey noodle soup! Left
overs can safely be used for 4 days and then, throw them out. Utilize your freezer so nothing goes to
waste.
Now that your food is safe in the refrigerator, the fun
begins! This year, I am going to try my
hand at a turkey potpie. I have to admit
that in college, I had my share of the frozen banquet pies and they were the
best comfort food! So, I am imagining
homemade pastry, vegetables and turkey should be really good. I found a recipe online at http://southernfood.about.com/od/turkeypierecipes/r/blbb187.htm
, I have had great luck with recipes from this site. I will more than likely be creative and use
vegetables that may be in my leftover stockpile. This is the beauty of leftovers, you can be
creative!
One of my favorite things is to create a casserole that is a
version of Shepard’s pie. In a 9X13 pan, I place gravy, turkey cut into chunks,
and vegetables (again, what I have on hand), on top, I put left over stuffing
or mashed potatoes, maybe even a little of both. Put in oven and bake until heated thoroughly.
I typically bake it at 350 degrees.
A family favorite is hot turkey roasters. You got it, just like a hot roast beef
sandwich except with turkey. A slice of
bread cut in half, scoop of potatoes in the middle, sliced turkey (However you
prefer, slices or chunks), and gravy over top.
Talk about your comfort food!
The last “hoorah” is the tried and true turkey and homemade
noodle soup. The beauty of this is there
are always leftovers and I freeze them in quart self-sealing bags to pull out
for a day that is cold and soup hits the spot.
The bones that you kept are put into your stockpot, cover with water and
any broth you may have left from the original bird. I add onions, carrots, cabbage and again,
whatever else I may have. Adding the
vegetables gives the soup a wonderful flavor.
I also add a few fresh herbs from my kitchen garden, a little rosemary
and thyme and a bit of cracked pepper.
While this cooks, I make my noodles.
Very simple, ½ cup flour to one egg.
For my family of four, I use about 2 cups flour and 8 eggs. Slightly beat the eggs, add to flour, stir
with fork. Kneed this into a ball. Then, refrigerate for 10 minutes to allow the
gluten to work. Roll out on a floured
surface. I have found a pizza cutter
works great for cutting noodles. If I
have time, I let the noodles dry a bit.
If not, add them to the broth when it has come to a nice boil. Before adding the noodles, you may want to
strain the broth and remove the bones from the soup.
From my kitchen to yours, I hope you had a very Happy
Thanksgiving! Enjoy your leftovers and
let your creative mind go!
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