Second Time Around
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Amazing Entertainment & Lightning Fast Xperia™ HD. Find Out More!Thanksgiving, like Christmas, is a time of family get-togethers, shared meals and fellowship. It is a time when we celebrate nature's bounty and give thanks for all that is good in our lives.
What better way to celebrate together than over a marvelous, traditional feast of turkey with all the trimmings - mashed potatoes, green bean casseroles, yam casseroles, crisp salads, carrots and turnips, cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy - and pies...
No feast would be complete without all our favorite sweets - apple pie, pumpkin pie, grasshopper pie - you name it and we will enjoy it. ...and after the feasting is done and the family heads home... what on earth can we do with that leftover turkey?
Pumpkin Pie from homedecoratingandentertainingtips.blogspot.co - source wikimedia.commons By the time the dinner guests were gone, and the weekend visitors departed, most of us are heartily tired of Tom Turkey. We've eaten enough stuffing and gravy to float a battleship. We've polished off the last of those yummy casseroles, and the thought of another pie just makes our tummies groan. We wince at the thought of what the scales will tell us in the morning.
Both my mother and hers knew, well in advance of Thanksgiving, that all too soon turkey-overload would set in and they would hear the post-Thanksgiving whine: "Not turkey again..."
Tom was packed off to the kitchen, stripped of the rest of his meat, and unceremoniously hoisted into Granny's soup kettle. There his bones simmered for a good few hours, along with a chopped onion or two.
His meat was divided into slices, which were set aside for hot turkey sandwiches with lashings of rich gravy. Then came the large chunks, which were chopped and refrigerated ready to be turned into turkey salad buns or a casserole at some later date. Smaller scraps went into the soup kettle. Anything over what we would use in the next two days was sliced or chopped, and immediately frozen.
Once the bones simmered for several hours, the soup stock would be strained and cooled in the fridge. Our family's fresh turkey soup for lunch was not to be missed, but sometimes, if the gathering was small, the stock would be frozen. After a few weeks of regular food, we would all be ready for another savory turkey dish.
This recipe is a combination of two favorites - Chicken Rice Bake, and Campbell's Turkey-Mushroom Casserole. The prep time is almost halved when using pre-cooked turkey, and this recipe tastes just as good with turkey or chicken.
Sometimes I'll go all out - saute fresh boneless, skinless chicken thighs in garlic and chopped ginger, and make a home-made mushroom sauce with fresh mushrooms fried in butter, along with some sliced celery, and then thicken the sauce with flour, real cream, and a splash of white wine.
Another family standard was the famous turkey bun-wich - a fresh kaiser roll brushed with mayo, piled high with turkey slices, stuffing, and topped of with a generous spoonful of cranberry sauce - yummy!
Here's a variation on that theme using pre-made tortillas, fresh salsa, and commercially prepared Asiago Cheese and Artichoke dip. This recipe makes a scrumptious light-yet-filling lunch, paired with a cup of your favorite soup.
Kids love this simple, flavorful recipe, and helping to prepare the tortillas can be a fun way introduce them to cooking, and helping in the kitchen.
Wow! Your version of this Turkey Risotto recipe with the fresh poultry, mushrooms, and ginger and such sounds out of this world good! I am a huge fan of risotto of any kind, but yours has my complete attention!
It is scrump-dilly-icious, K9keystrokes! Fresh is always best, though I have made this with dehydrated soup vegetables, and it turned out quite well. Hugs to you, too!
Very clever solutions for a common, vexing problem for people who love turkey but get sick of the same reheated stuff and sandwiches after Thanksgiving.
Oooooooooooh wow. Turkey tortillas. Turkey risotto. I'm really of a mind that ol' Tom Turkey is better as leftovers than he is as Thanksgiving Dinner!!
Flora, it's a variation on Key Lime pie, but, for one thing, it uses regular limes, not "Key Limes" which have a distinctive flavor.
Those look like great recipes, we just finished off our Thanksgiving day recipes, Canada was early Oct, they never last long in our house, thanksgiving leftovers are so good! Thanks for sharing your leftover ideas, maybe for next year...
Turkey rissotto sounds like a wonderful and delicious change from the normal reheated turkey leftovers. I really like the idea of adding orange juice. Thanks for sharing. This is definitely going on my list of things to try after the holiday! Voted up!
The orange juice adds a very subtle flavor - not easily identifiable, but a totally yummy blend. So glad you liked the recipe, Stephanie!
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