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Turkey in the Slaw and Other Leftovers
What do you do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? I imagine some of you get quite creative.
It’s possible desperation, not creativity, inspired the day’s menu presented below, but for your delectation, I thought I’d share it:
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Menu:
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Breakfast:
Popcorn and Pie with Caramelized Cream
What it is:
What it says.
Why you eat it:
Because the family needs a breakfast taking near-zero preparation in order to get out the door on time. Plus, both popcorn and pie taste good with coffee. The cream is caramelized because someone topped the pumpkin pie this year with a thick layer of whipped-cream frosting, a layer which melted and browned when you warmed the pie slices in the oven. Popcorn, a classic New-World food, is a fitting addition to any Thanksgiving feast, and is probably better for you than many breakfast cereals — not that “better for you” is really operative when you’re starting the day with dessert.
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Lunch:
Thanksgiving Mashup
What it is:
Stuffing mashed with squash, sweet potato, gravy, chopped turkey and green beans.
Why you eat it:
Because even the cuisinier agrees that this year’s stuffing, while flavorful, turned out denser than plutonium and stickier than fly paper, so that mashing it with leftover squash and sweet potato actually lightens it. The gravy adds much-needed lubrication, while the chopped turkey and green beans complete the flavor profile — it’s an entire feast in every bite!
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Dinner:
Turkey in the Slaw
What it is:
Slaw veggies combined with shredded turkey, then tossed with your choice of slaw dressing — we mixed ranch and vinaigrette.
Why you eat it:
Because the post-Thanksgiving blizzard delayed your weekly trip to the grocery store, and you’ve used up nearly everything in the fridge but the Thanksgiving turkey shreds, a single packet of ranch dressing (acquired from heaven knows where), and a forlorn bag of undressed slaw. This salad, born of pure desperation, turns out to be surprisingly tasty.
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Dessert:
Chocolate-Covered Pineapple with Grape Kebabs
What it is:
Exactly that — fruit, on a stick, with some chocolate.
Why you eat it:
Because someone brought one of those Edible Arrangements for a Thanksgiving centerpiece, and eventually an Edible Arrangement ought to be eaten. Half the pineapple rounds, cut into decorative shapes, have been dipped in chocolate, a combination tastier than it might sound. Grape kebabs are apparently the baby’s-breath of the Edible Arrangement world, artfully filling out the arrangement without distracting the eye too much from… well… stuff like the chocolate-covered pineapple.
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Well, there you have it. An entire day’s worth of Thanksgiving leftovers. In truth, we had these leftover meals interspersed with other meals over the span of a few days, rather than packing the menu into one day of marathon leftover-eating. It did use up all our leftovers, though.
What have you done with yours?
Published in Humor
Four Christmases ago, Santa delivered a kitten for my granddaughter. “Christmas Kitten” (her name to this day) had a slight sniffle, so on December 27, my granddaughter and I took her to the local veterinarian to get her checked out. We had left the Christmas ham, part of which we’d enjoyed for breakfast, on the kitchen counter (trustingly, but foolishly, I thought someone would put the dishes on to wash, and put the remnants of the meal back in the fridge while we were gone. As it was, Mr. She decided to sit down and read the newspaper, and my stepdaughter decided to go and enjoy a nice long shower all to herself.)
You can guess what happened.
We got home and the 4 upstairs dogs were replete. The ham bone was well chewed and on the floor. Miraculously, the platter was not broken. A little later, though, Twiggy, who I think had pigged out on most of it and was looking a little green around the gills, was expansively and comprehensively sick.
Pretty much like this (I see Mr. She’s newspaper even has a starring role):
Plus, it’s a good excuse to say “Mulligatawny”.
We are, too, though it’s been a while since I’ve cooked some.
Perhaps the most flattering commentary on my cooking ever made was made by a Saint-Thomas Christian at a bible-study potluck. I had made… some curry-like substance from what I had lying about, prompting him to exclaim “This is goldurn good curry!” — though he used somewhat stronger language than “goldurn”. Prompting such strongly-worded (for a bible study, at least) approval from someone who grew up eating the real stuff over in India was quite gratifying.
If only I had been following a recipe, so I could repeat the dish, rather than throwing whatever I had on hand into the pot in a desperate attempt to make up for the stuff I didn’t have on hand… I am sensing a pattern in my cooking here…
A good cook uses whatever is on hand. That’s a compliment.
But now I’m reminded of a very very very un-PC sketch, with the punchline “put it in the curry”.