I hope everyone is able to spend it with family and friends and eat some good food.

On Friday, after the food coma has worn off, I encourage you to make this:

It’s a really simple turkey melt with leftover turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

It’s a great sandwich.

I’m going to take tomorrow off also, but will be back on Saturday with a fresh brunch dish as usual.

If you need some ideas to get rid of all those turkey leftovers, be sure to try out my turkey fajitas, mashed potato gnocchi, or browse through ingredients page to find some new ideas!

Have a great day everyone!

Well, these were good!

A quick brainstorm! Things you could do with leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving:

1) Eat them cold with a spoon.

2) Put them in a bowl and melt cheddar cheese over them in the microwave.

3) Make a mountain out of them.

4) Start a mashed potato fight.

Or you could do the smart thing and make these awesome mashed potato gnocchi!

Mashed Potato Gnocchi

Yield: Serves 2 as a meal.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups mashed potatoes
1 large egg yolk
1 cup all-purpose flour, maybe a bit more
Pinch of salt

Sage Butter Sauce:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
2 tablespoons cooking water from gnocchi
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (opt.)

Helpful Equipment:
Dough Scraper

Directions:

1) Mix together mashed potatoes and yolk with a fork until it's well combined.

2) Add in flour and mix well until the flour is incorporated. You should be left with a fairly dry dough. It shouldn't be sticky at all. If it is, add more flour a few tablespoons at a time.

3) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut it into 4 even pieces.

4) Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough out into a long strand about 1/2 inch wide in diameter. Try to get it as even as possible, but it's okay if it's not perfect.

5) Use a dough scraper to chop the strand of dough into 1 inch dumplings.

6) Once your dumplings are chopped, use the back of a fork to gently press into the gnocchi and make some grooves.

7) Once all the gnocchi are made, cook them in simmering salted water. They are done when they float, about 3-4 minutes.

8) For butter sauce, melt butter in a large skillet. Once melted, add cook water, herbs, and spices, and stir well. Toss drained gnocchi with the sauce and serve immediately!

You might think that gnocchi are a lot of work, but the fact that the potatoes are already cooked and everything really cuts down on the prep time. Start-to-finish, you can have these guys on the table in about 30 minutes.

The Dough

The tricky part about devising this recipe is that everybody probably has a different mashed potato recipe. This can be a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is that whatever flavors you put in your mashed potatoes (butter, cheese, garlic, etc) will also be in your gnocchi which is great.

The bad news is that the consistency of your dough might change a bit depending on how creamy your mashed potatoes are. So this recipe is a starting point.

Measure out exactly two cups of mashed potatoes and add an egg yolk to them. Easy enough so far!

Just the yolk.

Once that is all mixed together, add a pinch of salt to the dough and stir in about a cup of flour.

The tricky part is that you might need more flour if your mashed potatoes are really creamy. But start with a cup and see where that gets you.

If, after you stir in the flour, your dough is still sticky, then you need more flour.

At some point you’ll end up with a fairly dry dough that you can scoop out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead this a few times just to make everything is combined well.

A starchy dough.

Cutting the Gnocchi

Once you have your dough ready, chop it into four even pieces just to make it easier to work with.

Then use your hands to roll one of the pieces into a long strand of dough. Try to make it about 1/2 inch in diameter and try to make it an even strand. It probably won’t be perfect unless you work in an Italian restaurant and make gnocchi every single day of your life.

Once you get the strand rolled, then just chop up the strand into individual dumplings! I like to use a dough cutter to do this. It makes quick work of the job.

This really isn't hard, people.

Once your gnocchi are chopped up, use a fork to put the signature grooves in each dumpling. These just help the gnocchi hold on to the sauce.

Plus they are pretty.

Groovy!

Once you do one strand, you’ll get fast at this. You should be able to pop out a plate of gnocchi in no time.

I’m well aware that my gnocchi aren’t 100% perfect or even the same size.

I have to ask though… who cares?!

Pretty things.

Cooking the Gnocchi

When you’re ready to cook the gnocchi just get a large pot of salted water simmering. A good ratio is 1 Tablespoon kosher salt for each gallon of water.

It’s really important that your water is just simmering and not boiling. A rough boil could just rip your soft little gnocchi into bits.

After simmering for a few minutes, the gnocchi should start to rise to the top which means they are done!

These will cook really fast. Must faster than pasta.

Float when they're done!

The Sauce

These guys are good with almost any sauce you can think of. If you’re looking for something lighter, you could definitely serve them with a light tomato sauce. The simple tomato sauce I made for my homemade trial would be a good one.

I made a quick butter sage sauce though because it just seemed like the right thing to do. I just melted a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and then stirred in a few tablespoons of cooking water from the gnocchi. The salt and starch from the water will help the sauce really come together. Then I added in some fresh sage and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Once my gnocchi were done, I just tossed everything together!

Delicious!

Can't go wrong with butter and sage.

The Full Story

Ok. I can’t lie to you guys. The truth is that the gnocchi that you see above was actually my second attempt to make some sort of dumpling out of leftover mashed potatoes.

At first I thought it would be easier to make a spaetzle, which is similar to gnocchi but smaller.

I failed miserably at this project and made possibly the most unappetizing thing of food ever.

I knew I was onto something though because even though these didn’t look great, they actually tasted pretty solid.

So I just worked on the dough consistency a bit and figured that gnocchi might be easier than spaetzle.

If you have some leftover mashed potatoes after tomorrow, try out some gnocchi!

Or make a mountain. Your call.

Quick. Simple. Delicious.

There’s come a point after every Thanksgiving I’ve ever hosted or attended where there’s a few huge bags of leftover turkey meat in the fridge and everybody has pretty much had as much turkey as they can take.

You will eat it with stuffing, put it on a sandwich, and probably sneak it at midnight, but sometimes even with all of that, you’ll be left with more turkey than you know what to do with.

This is when fajitas come in and save the day. They may just be the perfect way to use leftover turkey. Let me explain:

1) They take just a few minutes to make. After slaving away over the stove for days, it’s nice to have a quick meal.

2) They are somewhat healthy. They are mostly lean meat, veggies, and salsa. It’s actually a somewhat light meal after days of gorging.

3) They have a different flavor profile. Even though you’re using turkey, it has a completely different taste because of the spices.

Even though the actual turkey day is still a few days away, this is a great way to put a dent in some of those leftovers!

Leftover Turkey Fajitas

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1-1.5 pounds leftover turkey, chopped
1 red pepper, sliced
1 orange, yellow, or green pepper, sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt and pepper
12 flour tortillas

Toppings:
Sliced avocado
Salsa
Sour cream

Directions:

1) Chop up turkey roughly. You can use white or dark meat. Also slice peppers and onions into strips.

2) Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees and wrap tortillas in foil. Add tortillas to oven and let heat up for 5-10 minutes.

3) Add oil to a large skillet over high heat. Once hot, add the peppers and onions and cook until they are slightly caramelized, about 4 minutes.

4) Add chopped turkey to skillet with spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.

5) Toss ingredients together well and cook until the turkey is slightly browned.

6) Serve turkey mixture with warm flour tortillas and toppings.

Peppers and more Peppers

Like I said, one of the great things about fajitas is it gives you a chance to use some nice fresh veggies after days of carbs.

I like my fajitas to be really pepper-heavy so I usually use a red pepper, one other kind of pepper, and a jalapeno or two.

Essential fajitas ingredients.

Slice up the peppers and onions. For the jalapeno, if you’re using one, remove the seeds and chop it a bit smaller. Nobody will enjoy a huge slice of jalapeno in their fajitas.

This might take 5 minutes to prepare.

A good guide for size of slices.

Gobble Gobble

As far as the turkey goes, you can definitely use white or dark meat. I used leftover turkey from my apple cider brined turkey. I was worried about the apple flavors not going well with the fajitas, but they were delicious.

No problems at all.

There are some options when it comes to prepping the turkey. You could shred it, but I like my fajitas to have larger chunks of meat so I just roughly chopped my leftover turkey.

I like big chunks in my fajitas.

Cooking the Fajitas

Before you actually start cooking your fajitas, I’d recommend wrapping your tortillas in some foil and sticking them in a hot oven for 5 minutes or so to get them nice and warm.

The fajitas themselves only take about 10 minutes to cook at the maximum.

Start by heating your oil in a large skillet over high heat. Once it’s hot, add your onions and peppers and cook them until they start to caramelize a bit, about 5 minutes. Then add the turkey and spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook this all for a few more minutes and you’ll be ready to rock.

Really easy dish to pull together.

Cook the fajitas on a high heat is key so you get some browning on the veggies and on the turkey.

While they cook, I always like to get some fun toppings ready. For this meal, I just used some salsa, sour cream, and diced up an avocado.

Can't go wrong with these toppings.

Serve the fajitas with a few flour tortillas and pile on the toppings.

Two or three fajitas is a really good meal.

A good fajita.

There’s nothing tricky or hard about this recipe. It’s just straightforward good food which is all you need when you’re looking for a way to use your leftovers and relax.

If you have some turkey leftover after Thursday (who doesn’t?), try out the Tex-Mex route!

Checkmate!

I had never even heard of chess pie until about two years ago. Betsy and I were picking out a caterer for our wedding and when we finally selected one, we told him that we were going to make our own desserts.

He was totally cool with this, but he did recommend that we at least try his chess pie. Considering I had never even heard of chess pie, I was pretty skeptical.

After taking one bite, we ordered a bunch of them. I had no idea what was in it, but it was good. Some sort of deep rich custard mixture in a pie shell. I had to immediately apologize for eating half of the poor man’s pie before he even knew what happened.

While traditionally chess pie has a lemon base, I decided to change it up a bit and try one with a chocolate and orange flavor. It kind of turned out like one of those chocolate oranges you can get over the holidays, except in pie form.

In other words, freakin’ good.

It’s a really rich pie and one could easily serve 10-12 people. It would be a great and unique pie for the holidays!

Chocolate Orange Chess Pie

Yield: Serves 12.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Crust:
3 cups graham crackers, crushed
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt

Filling:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 orange, zest only
1/4 cup orange juice
4 large eggs
1 pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Zester
Tart pan with removable bottom

Directions:

1) For crust, crush graham crackers until they are finely ground. The easiest way to do this is to pulse them in a food processor, but you can break them up by putting them in a plastic bag and rolling them with a rolling pin also.

2) Mix melted butter in with graham crackers and add sugar and salt. Mix well.

3) Press crust mixture into a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. You can also use a normal pie pan if you don't have one of these.

4) Bake the crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Then let it cool.

5) For filling, melt butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat.

6) Stir in sugar, cornmeal, vanilla, salt and orange ingredients. Make sure mixture is roughly room temperature and then beat in the eggs.

7) Pour filling into prepared crust and bake the pie for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

8) Let pie cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Making the Crust

I used my standard graham cracker crust for this recipe. When you’re crushing up your graham crackers, you can use a food processor or take it as an opportunity to get some aggression out!

Just stick all the crackers in a large plastic bag and whack them with a rolling pin until they are finely ground.

Then mix them with your other crust ingredients. Be sure to measure out your 3 cups of graham crackers after you crush them into bits.

Making the crust.

I used a cool tart pan with a removable bottom for this pie, but you could use any pie dish that you have.

Just add your graham cracker mixture to the pie dish and pack it evenly around the bottom and up the edges of the dish. I use a combination of my hands and a measuring cup to make sure the crust is really packed in evenly. Take your time with this step. You want a nice even crust.

Take your time here...

Once you’re happy with your crust, bake it at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and then let it cool.

Meanwhile, you can…

Make the Filling

This filling is really close to fudge. It doesn’t have flour in it though so it’s more custard-like I guess. Whatever you want to call it, it’s very rich and perfect for a pie.

Start by melting your chocolate and butter together in a pan over low heat. I actually use a metal bowl over some boiling water (double boiler) just to make sure my stuff doesn’t burn.

Hard to go wrong here...

Once it’s melted, there’s a few key ingredients that need to get whisked in to the filling. You can take it off the heat after everything is melted.

Sugar, vanilla, and salt are all pretty standard ingredients, but one that really makes this filling is orange zest.

You’ll need a zester for this obviously.

Balance!

When you’re zesting, try to just get the orange part of the zest. If you get a lot of the white part of the peel, then it starts to get a bit bitter.

You will only be able to get a teaspoon or so of zest off of one orange, but the zest is really flavorful. It will be plenty to flavor the filling.

Aggressive zesting.

I also stirred in a small amount of orange juice just to round out the orange flavors.

The other secret ingredient that you might not think about is cornmeal. One tablespoon will do the trick, but it just gives the filling some body.

It’s the ingredient that will give the filling a texture that people won’t expect. You could leave it out and the filling would still work, but it’s a nice touch.

Secret ingredient alert!

Finally, make sure that your filling has cooled down to around room temperature and then mix in your eggs.

Stir this all together and your filling is done!

A filling... a soup... whatever.

Baking the Pie

Pour your filling into your prepared pie crust. Keep in mind the filling will puff up as it cooks so make sure you have 1/2 inch of space at the top. Don’t fill the pie all the way up even if you have enough filling to do so.

Looking good.

Bake this bad boy for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

It’ll come out of the oven puffed and beautiful.

Looking better!

Chess pie is really just fudge pie in my opinion. The top of the pie gets a bit crunchy, but the filling is just like a delicious fudge.

This should go without saying but the chocolate and orange flavors are awesome together. That was just a no brainer!

This is a dense slice!

If you’re sick of the classic pumpkin pie every year, try out chess pie. It’s rich just like a pumpkin pie and can be served with whipped cream.

I was really happy with how this turned out.

Any chess pie fans out there? Leave a comment!

Better than it looks!

“I’m going to have to email your Mom…”

My wife, Betsy, replied, “Yep.”

I had just made the best roasted turkey of my life and the planned Thanksgiving menu was going to have to come to a screeching halt to accommodate it.

Betsy and I normally spend Thanksgivings with her side of the family and over the years they’ve slowly relinquished control of most of the meal to me. There are, of course, exceptions. Betsy’s mom is always in charge of mashed potatoes and gravy because I can’t imagine that I could improve them in any way from her versions.

So, I’m normally in charge of the bird, stuffing, rolls, one or two sides, and maybe a pie or two if I’m feeling frisky. Normally, I just use Alton’s fantastic turkey brine recipe that makes a very solid bird.

Unfortunately though, I’m not sure I can ever go back to that recipe after trying the brine in this post. Hands down, best roasted turkey I’ve ever had.

I just did a turkey breast for this version, but you could easily cook an entire turkey with the same brine mixture. I intend to do just that in about 10 days.

Apple Cider Brined Turkey Breast

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours + overnight brine

Ingredients:

Note: If you want to do a whole turkey, just double this recipe.

1 whole turkey breast (5-6 pounds)
1 quart apple cider
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
4 whole star anise pods
3 garlic cloves
3 scallions, sliced
3 inches fresh ginger, sliced thick
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cinnamon stick
A few sprigs of cilantro
10 cups cold water

For cooking:
1 green apples
1 lemon

Helpful Equipment:
Digital Probe Thermometer

Directions:

1) Mix the cider, salt, soy sauce, and sugar in a medium pot and bring it to a simmer to dissolve the salt and sugar.

2) Add all the other brine ingredients except the turkey and the cold water. Let the brine simmer for about 5 minutes. Then kill the heat and let the brine slowly cool to room temperature.

3) Mix cold water in with brine and submerge turkey breast in brine. If you don't have enough brine to cover the whole turkey breast, just make sure the actual breast meat is submerged in the brine.

4) Stick this in the fridge overnight to brine.

5) When ready to cook, preheat oven to 475 degrees. Rinse off turkey breasts with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brine.

6) Slice apples into 1/4 inch slices. Add two slices of apple and the lemon (cut into eighths) into the cavity of the turkey.

7) Set turkey, breast side up, in a roasting pan on a bed of the sliced apples.

8) Cook turkey breast at 475 for 30 minutes. Then remove and insert digital thermometer.

9) Turn oven heat down to 350 degrees and cook turkey until it registered 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast, probably about another 75-90 minutes. If you don't have a probe thermometer, I would check the temperature after 60 minutes and go from there.

10) Once the turkey is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes.

11) Slice off each breast and slice them across the grain into 1/8-1/4 inch slices.

Adapted from November 2011 Bon Appetit.

Preparing the Brine

I’m not going to get into the science of why brining is good, but basically it results in a cooked turkey that’s much more moist than its unbrined brother due to the way that salt reacts with the proteins in the meat. Just trust me. It’s good and worth the time.

I’ll admit, there are a lot of ingredients in this brine. They all serve a purpose, but if you can’t find them all, don’t feel like you can’t make this brine. At the end of the day, I’d say 80% of the flavor comes from the apple cider. As long as you have that, you can make this happen.

The base of the brine and really all you need to make this if you’re in a pinch.

The basics of a brine.

Of course, if possible, any of these spices will just up the flavor complexity of the brine. Use as many of them as you can, but don’t freak out if you’re missing one.

Bring the cider, brown sugar, soy sauce, and salt to a simmer in a medium or large pot. Then add in all your spices and herbs. The only prep I did to my spices was chop my garlic cloves and scallions in half and slice my ginger into coins. Then just toss everything in the pot.

This will smell good.

Let this simmer for about 5 minutes, then kill the heat and let it slowly cool to room temperature. This will give plenty of time for the flavors to infuse into the brine.

Once the brine is room temperature, add the cold water and you’re ready to brine.

Brining the Bird

If you’re doing a full bird, make sure you have a large bucket or pot that can fit your entire bird. Most years, I use a small cooler for this honestly. It works great.

I was just doing a turkey breast though so I just used a large bowl and make sure that my breasts were submerged in the brine. When I do it with a full bird, I’ll make sure the whole bird is submerged.

That's a big bowl FYI.

Whatever device you use, cover it well and place it in a refrigerated place overnight. Depending on the temperature, sometimes I’ll just stash my turkey cooler setup outside somewhere or in a cool garage for the night. Just make sure your temperature outside is around or under 40 degrees and make sure rodents can’t get to it.

Cooking the Bird

When it’s time to cook, take your bird out of the brine and discard your brine. There’s no reason to keep it. It’s done all it can do to help us out.

Then rinse off your turkey really well with cold water. The brine is very salty and you don’t want it coating the bird. There’s plenty of flavor soaked into the bird. Trust me.

So rinse off the bird and then pat it dry with some paper towels.

At this point I’d recommend adding some lemons and apple slices to the cavity of the bird. This will just give it a bit more flavor and moisture as it cooks.

Stuffed with flavor.

The next step is very far from necessary in my mind, but Bon Appetit recommended it so I tried it out. I’m not entirely sure what it accomplished. Basically you just set the turkey on a bed of apple slices in the roasting pan.

It did make it a bit easier to take the bird out of the roaster after cooking because it wasn’t stuck to the pan at all.

I would call it an element of flare. It’s not necessary though by any stretch.

A bed of apples...

Lately I’ve used Alton’s technique when it comes to cooking turkey and it works really well.

Basically, you start the turkey in a super-hot, 475 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then pull the turkey out and insert your probe thermometer if you have one. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue to cook it until it reaches 165 degrees internally (thickest part of the breast in my case here, or thickest part of the thigh if you’re cooking a full bird).

This was my breast after 30 minutes cooking in the super-hot oven.

NOTE: If you’re using a probe thermometer you can’t have it in for this part of the cooking. It could melt.

After the high heat bake.

Total cooking time for your bird at this point will depend on a huge number of factors so I’m not even going to try. I’ll tell you that my 5-6 pound turkey breast here took about 70 minutes to finish cooking at 350 degrees.

If you’re doing a whole turkey, obviously this will be much longer, but in the past, my turkeys have finished in about 3 hours. The quick, hot cooking period at the beginning really speeds up the overall time. I can’t even imagine cooking a turkey without some sort of thermometer so just rely on yours to tell you when the bird is done.

If you are cooking a whole bird though, I high recommend watching Alton’s videos (sound!) to learn how to use a foil triangle to keep your breast meat from drying out. It cooks a lot faster than the dark meat so by covering it in foil, you can make sure the breast meat and dark meat are perfectly done at the same time. It’s a crucial technique and easy to do.

Resting and Slicing

Once your bird hits its temperature, pull it out, cover it in foil and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. This is maybe the most important part of the whole process. If you slice right into it, all the juices will run out and you’ll have a much dryer bird.

For my breasts, after they had rested I just sliced them off the breast bone so I could slice them up nicely.

These breasts are around 2 pounds each.

Then I slice them across the grain into thick coins. This is how I carve a full turkey also. It’s makes sure everyone gets some of the crispy skin and just makes it a lot easier to serve.

Very juicy.

I know you can’t smell this, but I’ll hold it up really close anyway.

It has a really faint apple cider and spice taste and smell that’s just out of this world.

Delicious piece of turkey.

Well, this has been a long post, but it’s an important one.

You still have over a week to make this happen for Thanksgiving. I highly, highly, recommend you give it a shot.

Have you brined a turkey? Have you apple cider brined a turkey? Leave a comment!

The Burrito Tower

Over Thanksgiving, my Mom came down to visit and I did my best to host my first ever Thanksgiving! It actually wasn’t too bad. I had a schedule for the cooking and had no major kitchen mishaps.

If you follow me on Twitter you might have known that I was considering doing a goose instead of a turkey but that idea got quickly squashed. By the time I went to reserve my bird all the smaller ones were gone so I just decided to go big: 21 pounds big.

Since there were only four of us actually eating Thanksgiving, you can imagine the dent we put in a 21 pound turkey (barely noticeable). Even after turkey sandwiches galore, I had a bunch of leftover turkey.

So, I thought I’d share the two ways I decided to use my pounds and pounds of extra turkey! If you’ve already burned through your leftovers, that’s cool. There’s always next year!

Green Chile Turkey Burritos

It was actually Betsy’s idea to make burritos, but I don’t give her that much credit because I’m pretty sure that’s she always looking for a reason to make burritos. Frozen burritos are a great way to use any amount of leftovers you have. I just happened to have enough to make a burrito tower (see above).

As soon as I recovered from my food coma on Thanksgiving, I pulled off as much turkey meat as I could from the bones (more on the bones later).

I didn’t weigh it exactly, but even after sandwiches, I would bet I had 3 or 4 pounds of shredded turkey.

This is a gallon bag that’s stuffed full.

Gallon bag of turkey.

I took a few minutes to go through it a bit more carefully the next day, removing any skin or fat pieces and then roughly chopping up the turkey.

Don't need to be too picky here.

I also shredded two pounds of Pepper Jack cheese.

2 pounds of cheese!

I made a quick trip to the store for the cheese. I was going to keep the burritos really simple and then I happened to see this green chile sauce, which I’ve never seen before in my life.

Why did I just discover this stuff?

I pretty rarely endorse products here, but I’ll tell you what. This stuff is amazing. If you can find it, I highly recommend it. It has an intense green chile flavor. It also has no preservatives or anything and is made from just a few normal ingredients. This, of course, means that you need to use it relatively soon after opening it, but trust me. That won’t be a problem.

I took my flour tortillas, added a few slices of avocado, about 2-3 Tablespoons of green chile sauce, and a small mound of turkey and cheese.

Piled High.

Roll it up and you’re all set! When I’m rolling burritos, I fold the ends over and then roll it up so the filling is nicely enclosed. Wrap it in foil and then store the burritos in freezer bags and they’ll keep for many months in the freezer.

I, of course, had to cook one up right away just to make sure it was as good as I thought it would be.

It was.

I'm okay with having 20 of these.

You might not need a specific recipe for turkey burritos, but here’s a rough breakdown of what I used:

- 20 flour tortillas
- 3ish pounds shredded turkey meat
- 2 pounds shredded pepper jack cheese
- 3 avocados, sliced thin
- 4 Cups green chile sauce

Turkey and Rice Soup.

Once I had picked most of the meat off the bones after Thanksgiving, I just tossed all the scraps in my large stock pot and covered the whole thing with water.

I let this simmer for about 3 hours. Of course, I could have added some other ingredients like an onion, some carrots, celery, black pepper, etc. The turkey had a lot of flavor though so I figured it would be good enough and less work.

When it was done simmering, I didn’t want to deal with it that night so I just stuck the whole thing in the fridge.

I woke up to a stockpot full of congealed stock and turkey parts.

Taking stock of the situation.

I hadn’t really kept an eye on my stock and I don’t think it had enough water in it so the stock was kind of thick. Not a big deal though.

I took out the bones and poured the stock into a large bowl.

This was good turkey stock and a great base for my soup!

Looks murky, tastes great.

I was shocked at how much meat was still left on the bones (I thought I did an okay job before), but there was still probably 2 pounds of good turkey meat I was able to pull off the bones after boiling it.

From the bones.

I also knew I wanted to use some nice, nutty brown rice for the soup along with some really fresh veggies. Some of these were also Thanksgiving leftovers.

Mostly leftovers still...

Here’s the basic list of ingredients I used, but again, this is a really flexible recipe and I would encourage you to not follow mine exactly. Just use what you have around.

This recipe made about 2 gallons of soup for me. SO adjust accordingly…

- 1.5 gallons liquid (I used about half stock and half water)
- 2 pounds shredded turkey
- 1 1/2 large onions, diced
- 4 stalks celery, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 4 Serrano peppers, diced
- 1 pound new potatoes, cubed
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons fresh thyme
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 Cup Green Chile Sauce (had it leftover from burritos so I just threw it into the soup)
- 1 1/2 Cups brown rice
- Salt and pepper

To make the soup, I just heated my oil in a large pot and added the onions, celery, carrots, and peppers. Once they cooked for a few minutes, I added the potatoes, herbs, turkey, rice, and green chile sauce. Then I covered all that with my liquid, brought it to a simmer, and simmered until the rice was cooked through (about an hour).

Season it well with salt and pepper and you’re all set.

Finished soup!

Of course, I froze most of this as for later.

Frozen soup isn’t as impressive as the burrito tower though!

What did you use your holiday leftovers for? Leave a comment or link with any interesting ideas!

Tastes like Thanksgiving!

It’s always a good idea to have a bunch of snacks out for people during a holiday feast. This is because it’ll take you 2 hours longer than you expected to actually get dinner on the table.

Oh sorry. I’m projecting again.

I always like to have snacks out that way I don’t feel pressured if dinner is a few minutes (120 say) late.

Peanut brittle is a great treat for just such a thing, but sometimes I find it to be too sweet so I thought I’d add some herbs and spices to it to change it up a bit. Betsy and I brought this big bag of Thanksgiving toffee to a party and the verdict was split: Betsy didn’t like it. Everybody else did.

What’s that they say about your loved ones being your biggest critics??

As an aside it happens to be my biggest critic’s birthday today… so Happy Birthday Darlin’!

Ok. Sorry. Back to toffee.

Thanksgiving Toffee

Yield: 2 sheets

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup water
1 Cup peanuts
1 Cup walnuts
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 Teaspoon fresh sage
1 Teaspoon fresh rosemary
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
2 Teaspoons baking soda
4 Tablespoons butter

Helpful Equipment:
Silpat Baking mats
Candy Thermometer

Directions:

1) Prepare all ingredients before you start cooking toffee.

2) In a large pot over medium-high heat, add sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir and cook until sugar is dissolved and syrup reaches 280-285 degrees.

3) Stir in nuts, herbs, spices, and salt. Keep cooking until toffee reaches 310 degrees.

4) Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and butter.

5) Spread toffee out on silpats or parchment paper. Let toffee cool to room temperature.

6) Break toffee up and enjoy!

The thing about toffee

Toffee is a really simple thing to make up to a point. You just stir a bunch of stuff together until it’s ready and then spread it out and let it dry. Sounds easy right?

The trick is knowing when to stop cooking because if you cook it for a minute too long, you’ll burn the stuff.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. To start, you need some sugar and corn syrup.

Not great for you but oh well.

And some chopped herbs and spices. My favorite part of this toffee was actually the red pepper flakes. The spice worked great with the sweetness of the toffee.

I also overdid it on the sage. Sage is a pretty intense flavor and kind of overpowered my candy. I toned it down in the recipe though.

Too much sage!

You could use almost any kind of nut for this. Peanuts are standard and you could use all peanuts if you wanted. I decided to throw in some walnuts also.

This is getting nuts.

No matter what herbs or nuts you use, make sure you have everything ready before you start on the toffee because you don’t want to have to waste time measuring or chopping once the toffee is going.

Making the Toffee

Start by adding the water, sugar, and corn syrup into a heavy pot.

Serious Syrup

You will 100% want to use a candy thermometer for this. The only reason why you would be able to do this without a candy thermometer is if you’ve made toffee for like 20 years and can tell when it’s ready by sight. Of course, if you’ve been making toffee for 20 years then you probably also have a candy thermometer.

SO use a candy thermometer no matter what.

Stir this mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and the temperature is 280-285 degrees. That’s very hot by the way, so don’t touch it or anything.

I know this because I accidentally drizzles some hot syrup on my skin and it burned like Hades.

Anyway, when your toffee mixture reaches the right temperature which will take about 10 minutes probably, very quickly stir in all your nuts, salt, herbs, and spices.

You’ll end up with something like this. It’ll be sticky for sure.

Temperature is very important.

Keep stirring and keep it on the heat until it reaches 310 degrees. This part will go really fast and is the tricky part. Try not to let it go too far over 310 degrees or the sugar will start to burn.

You need to keep stirring it constantly and keep your eye on the temperature. For stirring, use a silicon spatula if you have one. The toffee mixture won’t really stick to it.

Spreading the Toffee

Once your toffee reaches the right temperature, take it off the heat and quickly stir in the butter and baking soda. Then pour it out onto a silpat. If you don’t have a silpat, get one. They rule.

But you can also use parchment paper I think. The toffee shouldn’t stick to it.

Work quickly and spread it out as thin as you can.

Work quickly people.

I needed two Silpats for mine so plan accordingly.

Let the toffee cool to room temperature and then you should be able to break it up into shards. This is the fun part.

Take out some aggression!

I thought this stuff was pretty addictive which is always the sign of a good toffee. In all honesty though, I think it would’ve rocked with just the spicy pepper flakes in it. That was the part that did it for me.

Toffee is an easy thing to play around with once you get the technique down.

What do you think? Does herbs in toffee sound like a good idea?

Fresh colors and flavors!

It’s always important to remember that there’s a world of difference between irreplaceable and The Best. Something can be irreplaceable to you without necessarily being all that great of a thing. Like your raggedy childhood teddy bear or that special grungy T-Shirt that you refuse to let your spouse throw away. If you’re me, you have at least two dozen such T-Shirts.

Green bean casserole, to me, is irreplaceable. Something about the flavors that those strange canned products create when smashed together just reminds me of my childhood.

BUT.

That doesn’t mean that I can’t make an objectively better version and leave it up to you whether or not you stray from the traditional Campbell’s path this Thanksgiving.

So this is a green bean casserole made from scratch. And I must say that even if the traditional variety is irreplaceable to me, this variation is damn good.

Green Bean Casserole from Scratch

Yield: Serves 4-5.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh green beans, washed, trimmed, cut in half.
2 Cups (1/2 pound) sliced cremini mushrooms (Baby bella)
1/2 Cup pearl onions, frozen work fine
4 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (and/or thyme)
2 Cups chicken stock, homemade is best, but make sure to get low-sodium if you use store bought.
1/2 Cup shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Cup breadcrumbs, I like Panko
1/4 Cup slivered almonds
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Wash your green beans, trim off the ends, and chop them in half.

2) Dunk the green beans in a pot of boiling, salted water for about 90 seconds. They should turn bright green and be slightly tender. Drain the beans and immediately dunk them in a bowl of salted ice water to stop them from cooking.

3) Slice up mushrooms, de-thaw your pearl onions, mince the garlic and herbs.

4) In a large pot over medium-high heat, melt the butter and then add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt.

5) Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms start to break down and release their liquid. Then add garlic, pepper flakes, and herbs. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.

6) Add flour to the pot, stir, and cook for another minute to cook out the flour flavor.

7) Stir in the chicken stock in small batches. Don't just add it all at once. Stir it constantly as you add the stock so it stays creamy and doesn't get lumpy. If it's too thick, add more stock or water. If it's too thin, just simmer for a few minutes until it thickens.

8) Add green beans and pearl onions and stir to combine.

9) Pour mixture into a buttered casserole dish and top with Parm, breadcrumbs, and slivered almonds.

10) Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until the top is nicely browned.

11) Let cool for a few minutes and serve immediately.

Prepping the ingredients

So even though this dish is from scratch, it’s actually really easy to make. Something that I’m sure the Campbell’s and French’s people don’t want you to know. There’s only two mildly tricky parts.

The first is the green beans. You need to blanch them which should not scare you away. Basically just wash the beans and chop off the tips. I like to use a pair of kitchen shears so I can chop off 5-6 at a time. Then chop all the beans in half.

Dunk them all in salted boiling water for about 90 seconds. They will turn bright green which is what you want. Then immediately drain them and dunk them in some salted ice water.

The boiling water will tender them up a bit and the ice water will shock them and stop the cooking so they are still slightly crunchy.

Shocking!

It’s not hard, but is kind of annoying. It’s worth it though in my opinion.

You’ll also need to slice up some mushrooms and get some pearl onions. I wasn’t sure if the pearl onions would work out but they were maybe my favorite part of the dish!

I just used frozen and defrosted them in the microwave for a minute.

Simple stuff.

Also mince up a few cloves of garlic and some fresh oregano and/or thyme. Again, this is pretty easy stuff.

You could use a variety of herbs here.

The Second Mildly Tricky Part

The next step is making the mushroom gravy base for the dish. Of course, this is the part that you usually get by using a big ass can of cream of mushroom soup.

Like I said, those flavors to me are irreplaceable, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t make something that tastes better.

If that makes sense…

Start by letting your butter melt in a medium-large pot (depending on how much casserole you’re making). Once the butter is melted add the mushrooms along with a pinch of salt.

Let this cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat until the mushrooms start to soften and release their liquid. When that happens, add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and fresh herbs.

Cook this for a minute or two and then add your flour to the pan. It will look pretty dry, but just stir it together and you should end up with a mushroom-paste situation. Cook this for about a minute just to cook out some of the flour taste. If it’s really dry, like you can still see flour, then add a bit more butter or a drizzle of olive oil.

You just made a roux.

Or, as I like to call it, a mush-rouxm.

Mush-rouxm.

Once you have this roux ready, start slowing adding your chicken stock to the pot, stirring the whole time. Add in in a few batches and stir stir stir.

Two cups should be about right but if it looks too thick, add more obviously. If it looks too thin, that’s not a problem. Just let it simmer for a few minutes and it will thicken up.

Eventually, you’ll end up with this wonderful mushroom gravy that smells amazing.

Pretty much gravy.

Ok. That’s the only hard part of the whole deal. And I have full faith that you can do it.

Next, just dump in your onions and green beans and season with salt and pepper. Look how fresh and colorful this is?

Nice colors right?!

Assembling the casserole

Lightly butter a casserole dish and then pile in your green bean mixture. Top it with some Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, and slivered almonds.

If you’re addicted to the French’s onions, you can also use those, but I wanted to branch out a bit on the toppings.

The almonds are a good idea.

Bake this at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. The crust should be nice and crispy and you might notice some of the gravy bubbling up.

It’s pretty much done when the crust is lightly browned though.

Creamy and delicious.

I was nervous when this won the poll last week because I know that green bean casserole is a serious deal. But I can honestly say that I think I did it justice.

If you’re looking for a from scratch version of the classic then I think this is about as good as it gets!

Something different.

The thing about mashed potatoes that is super-challenging to me is that they are the most delicious food on earth as-is. It’s hard to even imagine an improvement on really creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes.

But I had an idea and I ran with it and it ended up being really good. My idea kicked up the normal mashed potatoes a bit by baking them under a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, potatoes like you would use for an au gratin. The results is a crispy layer of potatoes on top and the same delicious garlicky ones inside!

Oh. And I couldn’t resist adding a layer of bacon and cheese because why not right?

Double Potato Casserole

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

7 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (one sliced thinly)
4 Tablespoons butter
5-6 cloves garlic
1 Cup milk
1/4 Cup cream
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheese. I like Pepper Jack
6 strips thick bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Optional herbs: Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, etc.

Helpful Equipment:
- Mandoline

Directions:

1) Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Boil potatoes in salted water for 10-12 minutes until very tender and then drain them.

2) Add garlic, butter, milk, and salt and pepper to potatoes and mash or beat with a hand mixer until you have the desired creaminess that you like. Feel free to add more milk if it looks too dry.

3) While your potatoes cook, lay a few strips of thick bacon on a rack over a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes until the bacon is super-crispy. Let it cool and crumble it.

4) Butter your casserole dish and add mashed potatoes. Top with a drizzle of cream and shredded cheese. Then add crumbled bacon.

5) Use your mandoline or a very steady hand, to slice a peeled potato very thin.

6) Add thin potato slices to top of casserole dish and drizzle with olive oil.

7) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and then set under the broiler for a few minutes until potatoes are nice and browned.

8) Let cool for a few minutes and serve immediately!

Starting the Mashed Potatoes

I made my standard mashed potato recipe for the base of this dish which is basically one clove of garlic per potato and a pretty good dose of butter and milk.

I had a small dilemma though which I’m sure you’ll also encounter at some point which is that I had no idea how many potatoes to make for the dish I was putting the potatoes in.

It turns out that if you peel the potatoes and just pile them in the dish, it’s roughly the right number. After expanding and all the add-ins, six potatoes filled my dish very nicely.

A rough guess.

To make the mashed potatoes, just cut the potatoes into even 1 inch cubes and boil them in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until they are very tender. Then drain off the water, add in the milk, butter, a pinch of salt and pepper and chopped garlic and mash them up!

If you want them super-creamy you can beat them with a hand mixer. I just mashed mine with a masher though.

Lotsa garlic!

You’ll probably want to adjust the amount of milk you use. Don’t worry about adding too much. It’s almost impossible unless you just let the kids pour it in until the bowl is full.

Also, since it’s Thanksgiving, play around with other fresh herbs if you have extra. This would be excellent with some fresh thyme mixed in with the potatoes.

Putting together the casserole

While your potatoes are cooking, you’ll want to make some really crispy bacon. This is an optional step but it gives the final dish a good salty flavor and great texture.

In my opinion, the only way to make perfectly crispy bacon is to bake it in the oven on a rack. After about 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees you’ll have some of the crispiest and best bacon you’ve ever had. Guaranteed.

The only way to make really crispy bacon.

Next, take your casserole dish and rub it down with a bit of butter. Make sure you get all the corners and everything. As a rule, I always butter my dishes when making casseroles like this so they don’t stick around the edges.

Then pile in your mashed potatoes, drizzle a little cream over the potatoes, and top with a good layer of cheese. No need to go crazy on it though. The cream will just make everything really moist when it bakes.

No need to go too crazy on the cheese.

Then add some crumbled bacon.

So good.

The Potato Topping

OK. So this is the step that I wasn’t sure about. My idea was that a layer of potatoes on top would crisp up nicely but also keep a lot of the moisture from the potatoes from escaping.

But you need pretty thin potatoes. Enter the handy mandoline. If you don’t have one, the one I linked to is the model I’ve been using for almost a year now and it’s really easy to use and also extremely dangerous. Be sure to use the guard if you use one.

Because you don’t need a bunch of potatoes for this (one potato sliced thin is enough), you can also just slice with a knife if you have a steady, even hand.

The mandoline makes quick work of this job though.

A mandolin or a steady hand.

Then just arrange them decoratively on the dish and drizzle the whole thing with a bit of olive oil.

Try to make it pretty...

I baked this at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and then turned on the broiler for just a few minutes near the end to really crispy up the potatoes on top.

Let it cool for a few minutes and then dig in!

This would rock with some gravy.

This would be a fantastic side dish and the presentation is really nice I think.

I see no reason in the world why you couldn’t serve this next to some stuffing and drowned everything in gravy!

A slice of awesome.

Just like most mashed potatoes, this dish keeps perfectly. I’ve been snacking on this version for almost a week now. If you microwave it, just add a bit of milk to it and it’ll end up being nice and creamy.

What do you think? Acceptable Thanksgiving side or too out there?