When I first saw the name of this dish, I thought it was just turkey-flavored muffins that you would eat as part of a large meal, like dinner rolls or bread. But it's actually made with leftover turkey, gravy, and cranberry sauce and seems pretty hearty on its own (though the inventor of the dish suggests eating them with soup and fruit). Full recipe after the jump (what, you thought we were done with turkey leftover ideas?).
I mentioned before that I spent Thankgiving day out in the Philly burbs with my friend Roz and her family. Every year, Roz is assigned the job of making a roasted squash soup for the meal. I watched her as she made it this year and learned a few really terrific tricks. I am not a newcomer to blended squash soups, they are actually one of my favorites, but she introduced me to a two techniques in particular that have made me rethink my approach.
The first was that she cooked the onions in a bit of butter for the better part of an hour over extremely low heat. She didn't really even caramelize them so much as melt them into a rich, sweet, nutty jam. When they were translucent and nearly dissolving, she added the roasted squash and veggie stock. She cooked it all until tender and the squash mashed down with the flat side of a spoon. That takes us to her second trick, the double blend.
I will be the first to admit that when it comes to blended soups, I get a bit lazy. I like to use my immersion blender because it means that I don't have to pull out my blender or food processor and clean that too. However, having now tasted soup that was passed through a blender twice, I think I'm going to change my ways. What she does is put the pot on one side of the blender and a large bowl on the other. She works the soup through the blender in batches until it is all pureed and in the bowl. Then she washes out the pot so that there aren't any lumpy bits left and purees the soup again in batches, until it is all back in the pot on the other side once more. It was some darn good soup. I think I know what I'll be doing with the pumpkin and acorn squash that are currently on my kitchen counter!
I love This American Life. I love every trendy, emotionally orchestrated, hipster-ish moment of it. I try to catch it on Sunday mornings at 12 noon (that's when it plays on WHYY in Philly) but often times, I'm not at home when it's on the air. This last Sunday, I happened to be driving around with the radio on to catch the beginning of Jonathan Gold's story about how for six months he kept a live chicken on the top of his fridge, feeding it several cans of corn niblets every day. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to finish listening, because I had to get out of the car and buy ingredients for fruitcake.
However, thanks to Kim's post on Culinate today, I'm now aware that the entire episode this weekend was all about food, poultry specifically (so appropriate for Thanksgiving). Lucky for me, I subscribe to the show's podcast, so that episode will appear on my iPod sometime in the next few days and I'll be able to listen to it in all of it's wacky, foodie glory. However, even if you don't subscribe, you can check out the show online. It might even be airing again in the next day or two in your listening area. It's worth listening to just to hear Jonathan Gold say "niblets" over and over again. There is something inexplicably entertaining in that one word.
That's not my opinion, by the way. I love turkey leftovers. But Slate's Jill Hunter Pelletteri says that she's had enough with all the talk about what to do with your holiday turkey leftovers:
Every November, magazine editors and food writers, cooking gurus and TV personalities, foist turkey leftover recipes upon us. Unless we put our tired, picked-over turkey carcass to good use, they tell us, we're wasting some precious opportunity. But don't be fooled. Do not be tempted by that recipe for turkey and leek risotto. Those stringy last bits of gristle and meat that cling to your bird are better suited to the raccoons who rummage through your garbage. Do you really want to morph the centerpiece of your most ceremonial meal of the year into turkey bundles (stuffed with turkey, cream cheese, dill weed, and water chestnuts, among other things)?
Guilty as charged. But what's the fun of making a big turkey if you're not going to make soups and sandwiches and pot pies with the leftovers?!
Still have turkey leftover from your Thanksgiving dinner? If so, I recommend turning to Elise of Simply Recipes for a little post-holiday inspiration. This afternoon a friend of mine came over for a bit. While he was here, he mentioned that he was interested in making some chili that would incorporate all the meat leftover from the 12 pound bird he bought to share with his mother and brother. A quick Google search led up to the recipe for Turkey Chili that Elise posted two years ago. And just today, she shared a recipe for Turkey Tacos with Cranberry Salsa that sounds really tasty. I'm not much of a fan of reheated poultry (it's a weird quirk of mine) but after reading these recipes, I'm wishing I had just a little bit of leftover turkey. If these recipes whet your interest but don't seem perfectly for you, make sure to check out the box in the upper right hand corner of the screen that says More Recipes, as it links to even more terrific turkey recipes from Elise.
Thanksgiving was Thursday (yes, I realize that it's always on Thursday) and now it's Saturday. This means that you are heading into your third day of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes and might be ready for a bit of a break. Whenever I find that I've overdone the heavy foods, what my body wants more than anything is just a big, simple salad. However, just because you're eating salad doesn't mean that you can't still incorporate some of your turkey leftovers.
Wash and tear some lettuce. I find that romaine works best for this kind of salad, because it is tough enough to stand up to lots of add-ins. Then start looking in the fridge. Cube up the last of the breast meat (I promise it will taste different cold and doused with Italian dressing). If you put out a relish tray before dinner on Thursday, get the remnants of that out and cut up the last of those celery sticks, gherkins, baby carrots and olives. They all make great salad additions. A little cranberry relish (the raw kind, not the jellied stuff) is excellent with greens. If you are the type to serve steamed green beans at your dinner and you have a few leftover, they also are terrific in salad. However, green bean casserole won't work. If your leftovers make a paltry-looking salad, you can always open a can of black beans, steam up some beets, shred some broccoli and hard boil an egg or two to round out the toppers.
If you're making this salad just for yourself, you can just toss it all together in a big bowl. If you're feeding a bunch, I'd suggest doing this salad bar style so that people can avoid the bits they don't like as much. Use your favorite dressing to top it.
I spent Thanksgiving day with a friend and her family out in the suburbs of Philly. My family chose, for some strange reason, to celebrate today, so I'll be heading out to a different suburb in just a little while for another round of turkey, stuffing and gravy.
Yesterday, we cooked the turkey in the Orion Cooker that we used last month in the turkey episode of Fork You. This machine can cook a variety of things, including brisket, ribs, pork butts and of course, turkey. If you add smoking chips, the turkey takes on a deep, smoky flavor. My friend tasted the bird (and she's been a vegetarian for the last ten years or so) we made last month and was so taken with it that she knew her family had to try it. The other beautiful thing about this contraption is that it uses the power of convection cooking to cook really fast. Our 13.5 pound turkey was done in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
The only downside to this cooker is that the coals are totally exposed, so if it starts to rain, like it did briefly yesterday afternoon, you run the risk of having your flame go out. When the rain started, we ran outside with umbrellas and stood around the cooker until the storm blew past. But the turkey was so good that it was worth it.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, we have a strange love-hate-love-hate-hate-hate relationship with the Femme Faux-tale of the Food Network, Sandra Lee. On the one hand, the blonde, bubble-headed Barbie doll of a woman whose body couldn't possibly absorb a single molecule of the fat and calorie-laden "food" she "cooks" in front of the camera is everything we as food lovers would hate. Buy everything, and fake like you made it. On the other hand, who doesn't love a woman who matches her quilted headband to her JV-cheerleader-tight deep V-neck sweater to her apron to her kitchen tiles and appliances?!?! And when she goes all pink, you know she means business.
Now, we have to admit that it's been a very long time since we've sworn off the Food Network, so we haven't seen the semi-homemade siren since she dressed herself up as a semi-ho fairy Godmother for a Halloween special two years ago, but we suspect that she, like most other personalities, contributed in some way to the Network's Thanksgiving with her semi-homemade recipes and advice. However, we here at Slashfood wonder why? Why only go halfway? Why only go semi-homemade? It sounds like a cop-out. Why not go that extra mile, all the way, and go nothing homemade for Thanksgiving?
We give you Sarah (Lee)'s Nothing Homemade Thanksgiving, because yes, that's how we do when we're on the edge of a tryptophan-induced food coma:
As I've mentioned before, my dad typically makes a vat of gravy for Thanksgiving that nears the one-gallon mark. This means that in our house, gravy is not a scarce resource. It flows abundantly and when the gravy pitchers (boats are too puny for our purposes) run dry, it is easy to hop and refill them from the stock pot on the stove. However, I've come to understand that in other households, gravy is a valuable commodity, not to be wasted.
The first year I realized that not every family does gravy the way my family does gravy was when one of the pitchers accidentally slipped from my mom's fingers as she was passing it around the table and let loose its contents all over the green table cloth. An old friend of my parents had joined us for dinner that night and as soon as the gravy spilled, he leaped up, grabbed a teaspoon and started bailing the gravy back into the pitcher. When he was growing up, there was never enough gravy and so each drop was like gold to him, not to be wasted. He could not be calmed until we reminded him of the four quarts of gravy still waiting in reserve. Once he realized that there would be enough, he laughed, let us sop up the spill with some kitchen towels and we all settled down to eat again.
This story, of the night a friend tried to save the spilled gravy, has become one of my family's classic Thanksgiving stories. Whenever my mom and I start talking about it, we inevitably end up laughing, feeling affection for the friend and warmth from the memory.
Just about everyone I know has some Thanksgiving event that was unfortunate when it happened, but has become part of their holiday lexicon. What's yours?
Right about now, everyone is in the final throes of their Thanksgiving prep. Maybe you've got a pie to bake tonight or you have to hit the grocery store one last time on the way home from work, but basically, you're there. You don't need our help with recipes for tasty side dishes or tips on how wedge all your leftovers into the fridge anymore.
So here's my question for all of you. What's that one food item without which your Thanksgiving is not complete? Your staple food that has to be on the table or the meal just can't go forward. It doesn't have to be traditional or even cohesive with the meal, but somehow brings everything together for you. Me, it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving until I've had a little nibble of crispy turkey skin and a glass of sparkling apple cider. Over at the Epi Log, Esther Sung writes about how there needs to be a dish of kimchi on the table for Thanksgiving to feel rounded and satisfying for her.
Share your favorites, your quirky side dishes and things that make your holiday feel special.
We've been giving you a ton of recipes for Thanksgiving, many of them involving turkey. Here's a recipe for Roasted Turkey Pot Pie with Cornbread Dressing - from Oprah Winfrey herself! It's from the TV Guide TV Celebrity Cookbook. It was published in 1994, and we all know that Oprah has gone through many diets and sizes since then, so who knows if she still eats this or not. Sounds good though.
Thanksgiving brings with it a whole host of wonderful things. Delicious food, a couple of well-deserved vacation days and visits from far-flung family members. I have always gotten along really well with my family, both the immediate version as well as the extended clan. However, after appetizers, multiple plates of turkey, three wedges of pie and several glasses of wine, conversation can sometimes get, well...a bit honest.
Oooh, do you really think you need another biscuit? "I don't need it. I WANT it."
Do you know how many calories that has? "Yes, and I'm looking forward to every one of them."
If your family meal is a potluck and someone looks askance at your offering and asks, "Well honey, what is in that, exactly?" Barring food allergy inquiries, you can always just reply, "It's gourmet!"
A couple of weeks ago I got a call from my dad. He had phoned because he had just watched one of the Thanksgiving episodes of Fork You and wanted to give me a little advice. The piece of wisdom? Never offer to show someone how to do something on camera if, in fact, you don't know how to do it. The thing I didn't know how to do? Carve a turkey!
I agreed with him and explained that I didn't know that I was going to be asked to show the folks at home how to carve a turkey, it just sort of happened. However, now that I've been in that situation, I'm now making a point of learning how to carve a turkey. Thankfully, the New York Times printed a helpful article today with step-by-step instructions on the best way to carve up your Thanksgiving bird. Their tip? Do the carving away from the table in the kitchen for best results.
The Thanksgiving tradition from which I come dictates that we do not alter or reimagine the leftovers until several days have elapsed. This is because we all really enjoy just eating plate after plate of reheated stuffing, turkey, potatoes and squash. We are simple like that. However, once Saturday evening arrives and multiple plates of microwaved Thanksgiving food have been consumed, it is time to re-invent a little.
My dad is a fan of chopping everything up into small pieces, throwing it all in a large pan with several spoonfuls of gravy and stirring until it is uniformly brown and chunky. He declares it delicious, the rest of stay far away. My mother eats open-faced turkey sandwiches on squares of whole wheat bread that have been lightly touched with mayo. My sister tends to pick and choose from the leftovers, eating roasted brussels sprouts cold and straight from the peanut butter jars in which they have been stored. Me, I like to match up the turkey and leftover stuffing with freshly cooked veggies. It refreshes the eye appeal and makes the leftover turkey seem new and delicious once again. Some of my favorite quick-cooking veggies after the jump...
Obviously, if you plan well enough, you always have everything leftover, since leftovers might actually be the real reason we have Thanksgiving dinner, right?!?!
In our house, the funny thing is, no matter what I do about planning, we have the same pattern of leftovers every year. I can't not make cranberry sauce, but ever year, that is the one thing that seems to be leftover the most -- at least in proportion to how much I make.
What about in your house? What gets leftover the most? Mashed potatoes? Stuffing? The turkey?
A jar of honey can become a sticky mess. Next time you're adding honey to another dish or a mug of tea, use a honey dipper to prevent a thick gooey layer from spreading.
When I first saw the name of this dish, I thought it was just turkey-flavored muffins that you would eat as part of a large meal, like dinner rolls or bread. But it's actually made with leftover turkey, gravy, and cranberry sauce and seems pretty hearty on its own (though the inventor of the dish suggests eating them with soup and fruit). Full recipe after the jump (what, you thought we were done with turkey leftover ideas?).
I love This American Life. I love every trendy, emotionally orchestrated, hipster-ish moment of it. I try to catch it on Sunday mornings at 12 noon (that's when it plays on WHYY in Philly) but often times, I'm not at home when it's on the air. This last Sunday, I happened to be driving around with the radio on to catch the beginning of Jonathan Gold's story about how for six months he kept a live chicken on the top of his fridge, feeding it several cans of corn niblets every day. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to finish listening, because I had to get out of the car and buy ingredients for fruitcake. 
That's not my opinion, by the way. I love turkey leftovers. But Slate's Jill Hunter Pelletteri says that she's had enough with all the talk about what to do with your holiday turkey leftovers:
Still have turkey leftover from your Thanksgiving dinner? If so, I recommend turning to Elise of Simply Recipes for a little post-holiday inspiration. This afternoon a friend of mine came over for a bit. While he was here, he mentioned that he was interested in making some chili that would incorporate all the meat leftover from the 12 pound bird he bought to share with his mother and brother. A quick Google search led up to the recipe for Turkey Chili that Elise posted two years ago. And just today, she shared a recipe for Turkey Tacos with Cranberry Salsa that sounds really tasty. I'm not much of a fan of reheated poultry (it's a weird quirk of mine) but after reading these recipes, I'm wishing I had just a little bit of leftover turkey. If these recipes whet your interest but don't seem perfectly for you, make sure to check out the box in the upper right hand corner of the screen that says More Recipes, as it links to even more terrific turkey recipes from Elise. 
Right about now, everyone is in the final throes of their Thanksgiving prep. Maybe you've got a pie to bake tonight or you have to hit the grocery store one last time on the way home from work, but basically, you're there. You don't need our help with recipes for tasty side dishes or tips on how wedge all your leftovers into the fridge anymore. 
We've been giving you a ton of recipes for Thanksgiving, many of them involving turkey. Here's a recipe for Roasted Turkey Pot Pie with Cornbread Dressing - from Oprah Winfrey herself! It's from the TV Guide TV Celebrity Cookbook. It was published in 1994, and we all know that Oprah has gone through many diets and sizes since then, so who knows if she still eats this or not. Sounds good though.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
