Using holiday leftovers

While this may not seem like much of an emergency issue, this contains elements of food safety, proper nutrition, and thriftiness, so I'm going to allow it. Also, this exchange happened on Twitter yesterday:

"My family isn't large enough to save me from a future of excessive turkey sandwiches, and turkey pot pies."
"May I also recommend turkey and dumplings and turkey fajitas? I am thinking of trying turkey quesadillas."
"Ooooh...turkey quesadillas! Sounds wonderful. I'm saved!"

All in a day's work, ma'am.

I will be focusing on leftover meats. The sweet potatoes we just use as a side dish until they are gone, which is pretty much true of any of the sides. I wish I had a good use for cranberry sauce, because really only two people eat it, and maybe they will have some the next day too, but we will end up throwing some out. Probably my aversion to eating it would transform into some aversion to cooking with it though, so it may be for the best.

Regardless, the meat is the biggest expense, and it is the largest quantity of the leftovers, and that is more true for us because for both Christmas and Thanksgiving we do turkey and ham. (For Easter, we only do ham.) This satisfies the different tastes, but also provides us with different meals, where it ends up really helping instead of hurting the grocery budget. Using sufficient variety so that people don't get tired of the leftovers is important though. Being able to alternate between ham and turkey probably helps us with that, but if you only have one, do not fear.

Actually, one important thing to remember is that you don't have to eat it all now. Let's say you thaw your turkey, you cannot refreeze it like that, but having cooked it, and changed its physical state, you can then freeze the cooked turkey. So, if you want to eat half the leftovers now, and then half in March, that is fine. Separating frozen meat is a pain though, so instead of a gallon bag, it will make more sense to freeze the amounts you will use for different meals separately.

Now, let's talk about some recipes. Obviously, people know how to make turkey pot pies. Mine involves the leftover turkey, whatever leftover vegetables we have (usually baby corn, green beans, and carrots, but I have used celery, potatoes or regular corn), cream of chicken soup, some salt and pepper, and then just baked in a pie crust.

I do a very similar turkey and dumplings, where instead of baking in a pie crust I heat it in a slow cooker all day, then for the last twenty minutes top it with dumplings made from about flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. This works for me, because I am not really good at making pie crust.

I also like to do a soup totally from scratch. I will put bones and skin in a stockpot, add some salt, and cover with water. I let that simmer for several hours, and then strain out the bones and skin, adding vegetables and meat to the broth and letting that boil. I was once told a pioneer recipe for homemade noodles, which is that you crack an egg, then add one half of the shell full of milk, just enough salt to fill the small space in your folded hand (I guess that's like two pinches), and then enough flour to make a dough. Now, if you want to add ready-made noodles, that is completely fine, but if you are rolling out dough, let me strongly recommend using a pizza cutter instead of a knife for turning the dough into noodles. It works much better.

Obviously I have tried the fajitas, and they work okay. I have thought about trying other chicken recipes for turkey (croquettes, a la king, tetrazzini), so the question is, is turkey a good substitute for chicken? Yes, with some caveats. One is that it is a bit less flavorful. This is less of an issue with the fajitas, because with the seasoning and the peppers, there is flavor added.

There is also a matter of texture. There is a recipe that I have for ground chicken enchiladas that I always make with ground turkey, but using the leftover roast turkey would not work, because of the texture. Often, even in fillets, the chicken will have a smoother texture than the turkey, so you need to think about that. However, freeze some, and use the recipes that work for you all through the year.

I should add that I always roast the turkey upside down. A family in Modesto taught me this. What happens this way is that as the cooking fat drips to the bottom, it moistens the breast, which gets notoriously dry otherwise, instead of the rib cage. I don't even stuff or baste anymore, and I still have a moist, delicious turkey, so even if you are only going to do sandwiches, this gives you a leg up.I highly recommend it.

Ham is a less healthy meat then turkey, and we use it in less healthy dishes perhaps, but they are also delicious.

The most popular one by far is the Breakfast Bake Casserole. This was from a Pillsbury cookbook, so it involves a lot of processed food, though you could do some of the things from scratch. You start with hash browns (frozen, then cooked), and spread them in a greased casserole pan, and cover with shredded cheese. I think the recipe calls for Swiss, but I tend to use mozzarella, maybe with some cheddar mixed in. You then scramble eight eggs mixed with ham, and as that is almost cooked ad a cubed packet of cream cheese. Spread that over the hash browns, cover with crescent rolls (unrolled, obviously), and bake for about 20 minutes. I have forgotten the cream cheese, changed the shredded cheese, used bread stick or regular biscuit dough for the topping instead, and it doesn't matter, it is always good. Still, don't forget the cream cheese, and the crescent rolls work best.

Another fun thing to do is make scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. I strong recommend cooking the ham separately then mixing it in when the eggs are done, then adding the cheese. It just works better.

I will also always do a ham pizza. The ham basically acts the same as Canadian bacon. I have found pizza crust recipes online, and there are yeast packets specifically for pizza dough with a recipe on the back. There are recipes for pizza dough with no yeast, but the flavor is just not as good. Go for the yeast.

Also, there is a casserole from my childhood, where you combine potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks) with a can of cream of mushroom soup, one of cream of chicken soup, 2 cans of water, and then you top with slices of ham and cheddar cheese. This works well with some of the slices.Yes, it probably sounds very poor white people in the 70's but that's what we were.

Also, for lunch I am going to try a ham quesadilla. I believe it will work, cutting the ham in tiny cubes. Obviously, there is a lot more that can be done than I have covered here, but that's the point. Leftovers don't have to be boring if you use your sense of adventure.