Comments on: Some Thoughts on How to Deal with Thanksgiving Leftovers

By: michele

michele — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:31:23 +0000

Leftover potatoes make easy and delicious gnocchi…and gnocchi can be frozen and eaten later! Add one whole beaten egg and 2 cups of flour to each one cup of leftover mashed potatoes. Mix together well, then knead until smooth. Roll out into a long snake shape, then cut small pieces off and roll lightly with a fork to get the striped marks. Freeze immediately, or drop into boiling water. When they rise to the top, they are cooked! Sauce and serve.
We also use leftover stuffing to make meatballs. I use it instead of breadcrumbs and it’s really delicious. Meatballs can be frozen forever, too after cooking.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:52:45 +0000

Thanksgiving empanadas. I’ve done this for the past three years using a Sandra Lee recipe from Food Network. Basically, mix together some leftovers with taco seasoning and cheese, take a pie dough and cut circles out. She uses 2in circles, I get through leftovers faster by cutting larger circles – thy can hold a lot more filling via the magic of surface area to volume, and they’re more of a meal than a snack-y food. Stuff, crimp, poke vent holes and bake for 20 minutes. We serve with cranberry sauce.
I also plan to make turkey enchiladas. Don’t ask me why all my leftovers turn into TexMex.

By: Rockledge

Rockledge — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:23:46 +0000

#12 SLCCOM Well, now, I do a lot of cooking and read cookbooks like novels and I’ve never heard of that. Thanks for posting it.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:24:26 +0000

I’m with #15 & #16. The only item we freeze part of is the turkey (there are only 2 of us, so 12 lbs of turkey goes a long way). We also freeze the carcass & use it with the saved meat for soup in a week or so. More immediately, we just reheat any of the other leftovers & enjoy.

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:53:51 +0000

If we aren’t home for Thanksgiving dinner, I make a Thanksgiving dinner just to have leftovers. I think I like the leftovers better than the actual dinner. Soups, pot pies…YUM!

By: Creede

Creede — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:51:16 +0000

Around our house Thanksgiving leftovers are what’s known as a “self-correcting problem.” In fact some years we’ve done two turkey dinners in the week so we can have more leftovers!

By: Skirnir Hamilton

Skirnir Hamilton — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:01:18 +0000

I love left over turkey. So while we traveled for thanksgiving, we did buy one turkey that we will probably cook up in about two weeks for the left overs! We have a number of favorite dishes for left over turkey… love it in salads, and left overs the next day for sandwiches, of course the hot open face sandwiches with left over mashed potatoes and gravy, but also some turkey with a bit of barbecue sauce on an open sandwich… or turkey, peas and half cooked elbow macaroni and a can of cream of chicken soup as a casserole. Delicious. Almost any recipe you can make with chicken you can use left over turkey. Sometimes not quite as good using already cooked meat, but very fast.

By: renee

renee — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:21:21 +0000

Mix cranberry sauce with an equal amount of mayo and spread on your turkey sandwich.

By: SLCCOM

SLCCOM — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:50:17 +0000

Take the stuffing and make burger bundles. Take a pound of hamburger, put a small can of condensed milk in it and mix. Pat out a circle of meat, put in about a eighth cup of dressing. Pull the meat up around the dressing and pinch closed. These can be made in advance and frozen for later use.

Put about 5 in a glass casserole dish, and cover with the sauce: take 1 can cream of mushroom soup. put in 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and 1 tablespoon of ketchup. Bake until bubbly, serve with noodles.

By: Marinda

Marinda — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:00:45 +0000

Hot turkey open faced sandwiches. You can toast the bread, heat the turkey and gravy, layer it and pop it under the broiler with a dusting of cheese or keep it plain. Get out the forks and napkins and enjoy.

Stock is made fro the bones of the turkey and we make a huge batch of turkey and sausage gumbo, freeze and use in the next six week for a good supper with rice and a green salad.

By: kevin

kevin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:35:33 +0000

Put them on a plate – put in microwave – heat for 60 seconds.

By: littlepitcher

littlepitcher — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:26:12 +0000

You can take the gravy, add a little caraway seed and just a hint of mustard, then simmer the white meat in the gravy and serve it on bread or on the dressing. I like habanero peppers in cranberry sauce, so it is used in place of salsa.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 08:31:59 +0000

Cranberry sauce makes excellent fruit muffins a la Tightwad Gazette recipe. We freeze dressing in ice cream scoop portions and put them in a plastic bag for sensible calorie consumption over the coming months.

By: Brittany

Brittany — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:08:27 +0000

A good friend called me today and mentioned he was making perogies out of his leftovers. Made a dough from the stuffing and mashed potatoes, filled them with turkey and cranberries. Yum.

By: Jacque

Jacque — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:39:46 +0000

Is it just me or does it sound like someone else wrote this post? Perhaps Sarah?

We just eat Thanksgiving dinner again until all the sides are gone. If there’s even more turkey we do turkey sandwiches possibly with a bit of mashed potatoes and a good amount of mayonnaise. Boring, I guess, but I love it!

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:56:53 +0000

Reheat and have everyone come back on Saturday to eat up the leftovers.

By: elyn

elyn — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:39:08 +0000

Leftovers, well, I just like to eat them reheated, but we’re vegetarian, so we don’t have the turkey forever problem. This year though, we’re having friends over for a leftover potluck- they bring theirs, we break out ours and have a second feast.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:07:40 +0000

I can’t believe Trent is dissing dark turkey meat!

But on the other hand, my relatives have dozens of ideas for leftovers, but Trent’s were all original to them. Thanks! I will have to try them.

By: Tootie

Tootie — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:11:35 +0000

Good ideas! Last year, I used some of the leftover turkey (and stuffing, too) to make turkey pot pie. It was pretty tasty. I’ve also used the leftover turkey in soups – it’s good in basically any soup where you would use chicken.

By: Michael the Dumb Tech Geek

Michael the Dumb Tech Geek — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:11:15 +0000

My wife and I simply LOVE to put the leftover dressing into an omelette the next morning. I like mine with cheese, hers with leftover gravy on top. Many flavors combining together. Quite delicious.