Tag Archives: Leftovers

Thank you, Mr. Turkey

Thanksgiving is the same and different every year. For consistency, I thank the turkey and the trimmings. After that, it’s a free-for-all. Rarely solemn, sometimes hilarious (relatives), combative (politics), aggravating (relatives), or poignant (the past), Thanksgiving gets to me year after year.

Has there ever been a more comforting meal? I think of it as a solace (We’re here in this moment. With this turkey. We’ll eat and talk and shore ourselves up a bit.) The clink and clatter, the munch and crunch, the chuckle and the sigh make us content.

Hope and optimism, like turkey and stuffing, are things to count on, and this year, they are particularly honored guests. Grimmer times are hard to ignore but we can take pleasure in our hopes for the future. Pass the gravy!

Mary and Mr. Turkey

Photo by Kelly Miller

And let’s not forget that mischievous guest, Chaos, who always shows up, like it or not, wearing his usual disguises. Sometimes, he’s the burned pie, the thoughtless remark, or the broken heirloom. But, welcome Chaos.* Our world is not perfect and we can be thankful there too.

I don’t think a warehouse would be big enough for all the recipes, methods, and pointers involving the turkey itself. Tips on using Thanksgiving leftovers could fill a silo. Still, it makes for fun reading and adds a little freshness to the grand old meal. I never thought of making an Asian salad with leftover sweet potatoes and red cabbage. Or dumplings out of dressing.

Holiday leftovers present a great opportunity to make some tasty little meals that don’t cost a dime and make use of some great food. My favorite pointer is this:

Don’t eat leftovers right away. And definitely, don’t have warmed-up turkey four days running.

On the other hand, don’t rush your leftovers to the freezer either. You’ll have a mutiny on you hands when the first sandwich seeker can’t locate the turkey. But a careful division of the vegetables, meat, carcass, gravy and any other trimmings is a sound idea. Package, freeze, and store with labels so that when (in a week or so) you feel like making turkey soup for a Sunday night dinner, you will know where to look. And be reasonable. You’ll use up small portions whereas a football-sized lump of mashed potatoes or a pail of gravy could linger in the freezer until the 4th of July.

Cooks in mid-20th century America were advised to conceal leftovers by putting a new face (literally) on yesterday’s meal. Sliced meatloaf, for example, with olive eyes and a ketchup smile. Another visual ploy: the architectural main course. Sausage Stockade leaps to mind. In this dish, mashed potatoes are surrounded by breakfast sausages to form a large rectangle. Heated up with a parsley ‘flag’ stuck in the center and it’s, ‘Hello Fort Dodge!’ But, don’t get me wrong: as funny as some of these concoctions sound, the idea of making up something new from something old is terrific.

Maybe we’re just not as funny now: we don’t want to eat foods that contain words like Surprise, Heavenly, or Chuckwagon. But we also don’t cook as much so we don’t have the same need to doll up last night’s dinner. Nevertheless, from my reading of the news, folks are spending less time and money in restaurants which means that cooking leftovers may be an art in recovery. Seasonal, Warm, or Charred might describe our twice-cooked offerings.

So have a wonderful Thanksgiving and save those bones!

Bon appetit,

Mary

*A tip of the hat to Margaret Wheatley whose book Leadership and the New Science explores the idea of chaos as ‘order without predictablity’. A fascinating book.

Here are a few suggestions for Thanksgiving revisited.

Asian Sweet Potato Slaw

Mix the following ingredients in a large bowl:

  • 2 cups (leftover) cooked sweet potatoes, cubed
  • 1 small red cabbage, shredded
  • 4 tablespoons peanuts, chopped
  • 2 -4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 2-3 scallions, chopped (optional)

Prepare the dressing with the ingredients below and toss.

  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

Turkey Soup with Dumplings

A turkey carcass will yield a good strong broth but don’t over cook it.

  • 1 leftover turkey carcass
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cloves garlic (optional)
  • 2 or 3 sprigs thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

Break up the turkey carcass into pieces. Put these into a large pot and just cover the bones with cold water. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, skim any froth from the top, lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about two hours. Taste. It should be well flavored but will need salt. If it’s too thin in taste, cook a bit longer. Strain and season with salt. Let the broth cool and skim off the fat.

For a richer soup, you may want to add some vegetables and herbs (peas, green beans, finely cubed fresh zucchini, chopped parsley or chives for example).

For the Dumplings

  • 2 cups leftover stuffing
  • 2 eggs

Beat the eggs lightly and mix into the stuffing. Add another egg if the mixture is too dry. Form into medium-sized balls and add to simmering broth. Gently heat and serve.

The Whole Shebang Flat Enchiladas

Here we’re trying to get the most out of leftovers using some concealment practices.

  • gravy, about 1 cup or more
  • 1 teaspoon each: cumin and oregano
  • cooked sliced turkey, 2 cups approximately
  • corn tortillas – 9 or 10
  • 1 can tomatillos, chopped
  • 1 can poblano chiles or other mild chile
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
  • peas, sweet potatoes and possibly Brussels sprouts, about 1- 2 cups altogether
  • 1 1/2 cups jack cheese, shredded
  • Salt and pepper

Grease a 9 x 12 inch baking dish. If you have the time, fry the tortillas briefly in a small amount of hot oil. Drain and salt lightly.

First, we’ll heat the leftover gravy and season it with some cumin and oregano. If your gravy has a lot of sage in it, you may want to omit the oregano. Adding a lot of different seasonings – or fresh garlic, say- will not make a better sauce. Keep it simple.

Spread about 2 tablespoon of this sauce in the baking dish. Cover the dish with 3 or 4 tortillas (plain or sauteed as described above). Add a layer of turkey. Mix the tomatillos, chiles and cilantro together and spread a few spoonfuls of this mixture to the turkey.

Cut the sweet potatoes and/or the sprouts into small slices or cubes. Mix together with the peas. Add a thin layer of these vegetables and top with another layer of tortillas. Repeat the layering ending with the vegetables. Sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbling.

Serve with a green salad.


Orts and Leavings and Remembering Peg Bracken

If you do crossword puzzles, the word ort, like erne or oast, is familiar. To the question, “What’s for dinner?” my response was frequently, “Orts and leavings.” Which is to say, scraps. And scraps can be the basis of awfully good food. I enjoy a meal of orts. It forces me to clean out my refrigerator, makes me feel a little smug about saving money, and keeps me from making a trip to the store.

I also feel I’ve paid respect to the food huddled on the refrigerator shelves. I like to think those withered lettuce leaves and leathery squash enjoy this treatment. “No trash can for you, my pretties!”

Let’s explore this path. To begin, examine the terrain. What happens to be in my refrigerator right now is the following: a handful of celery leaves, a wilting head of lettuce, a piece of cooked chicken, 2 strips of bacon, 2 leeks, a half dozen eggs, a cupful of rice, and some very smelly cheese. These orts shall start with salad.

My Salad of Orts

For 2 or 3 servings. Can be easily doubled.

Wilted lettuce can be revived by pulling off and discarding the outer leaves and then soaking the whole head in a sinkful of cold water for 20 or 30 minutes. The sand and dirt will drop to the bottom. Separate the leaves and then lift them out and dry them in a salad spinner. Refrigerate about a half hour and the lettuce should be crisp and fresh.

  1. In a salad bowl, combine lettuce and other greens you may have hanging around such as, several sprigs of parsley, mint, basil, celery leaves.
  2. Shred the cooked chicken breast. Fry the bacon slices and crumble.
  3. Hard-boil 2 eggs. Cut in halves.
  4. Prepare a vinaigrette. I use some Dijon mustard, one part red wine vinegar and 2-3 parts olive oil. Toss the greens with the vinaigrette, saving a few spoonfuls.
  5. Toss the chicken with the remaining vinaigrette and some salt and pepper. This seasons the chicken, which may have become dry.
  6. Divide the greens between 2 plates and put the chicken, crumbled bacon and egg on top.

Your Salad of Orts

Composed salads, as the cookbooks are fond of calling them, can be custom fit to your orts and provide you with a meal in one dish. The basic components are:

protein, crunch, and greens.

The protein: nearly any bit of cooked meat, fish, ham, cheese, or tofu cut in strips, cubes, or shredded is useful in salads. Plan on about ¼ cup per serving. I added the hardboiled eggs because I didn’t have quite enough shredded chicken.

Crunch in my salad comes from the bacon but you could use chopped nuts or croutons instead. About a tablespoon per serving. The fat in the crunch adds flavor but to keep a salad lean, you might choose chopped celery, carrots, or sprouts.

Adding a few leaves of herbs such as basil, mint, or parsley makes for very interesting and tasty salads. Just try to balance bitter or tough greens with enough lettuce so that eating the salad doesn’t sound like dinner in the horse barn.

Serve your salad with French bread, pita, whole-wheat toast, Swedish crispbread or whatever you have on hand.

Just how smelly is that cheese?

Leftover cheese can be the basis for many a meal of orts and leavings. A good way to deal with it, especially if you have several small pieces of different types, is to make a quiche. For interesting reading about quiches, what they are and where they come from, read Julia Child’s discussion about them in the Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I. She has a nifty method for the basic custard mixture to which she adds all sorts of ingredients.

Quiche de Fromage Scraps

About 8 slices

If you like so doing so, make your own pie dough, otherwise buy a rolled out commercial one.

  • 1 sheet of pie dough
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup milk or cream
  • pepper, nutmeg
  • 2 cups shredded or crumbled mixed cheeses
  • Optional: 2 slices bacon, fried and crumbled or ¼ cup chopped ham

Press the dough in a pie pan and pre-bake the shell according to package instructions. Set the oven to 375 degrees.In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk or cream, several grindings of pepper and a few dashes of nutmeg until light. Put the optional ham or bacon in the bottom of the pie shell and cover with the shredded cheeses. Pour the egg mixture over top.Bake for about 30 minutes. It should be puffed and browned on top.

Your Quiche de Scraps

About 8 slices

The orts in the recipe above were cheese and bacon. Root through your refrigerator to see what you have. Quiche does not need to contain cheese. The custard is the important part to which many other ingredients may be added. A cup of chopped cooked vegetables (such as spinach, onions, red peppers, asparagus, zucchini, or a mixture), or cooked chopped chicken, salmon, or shrimp make fine quiches.

  • 1 – 1 ½ cups cooked chopped vegetables and/or meats or fish
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup milk or cream
  • pepper and nutmeg
  • 1 cup shredded, grated or crumbled cheese (optional)

Following the above method, pre-bake the pie shell and prepare the egg and milk (or cream) custard. Spread the cooked and chopped vegetable or meat mixture in the pie shell and pour the egg mixture over the top.Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.Serve quiche hot or cold.

Remembering Peg

Last week, Peg Bracken, author of the I Hate to Cookbook died at her home in Portland, Oregon at the age of 89. In the 1950s and early 60s, a full-time working mother was not the norm. ‘Participating’ dads were not either so after a day’s work, women had to get something on the table. The way Peg tells it, she and her friends pooled recipes that were fast, easy, and edible. This was the basis of her book and it was an instant success. Published in 1960, it sold 3 million copies.Here’s how it starts:

Some women, it is said, like to cook.

This book is not for them.

This book is for those of us who hate to, who have learned, through hard experience, that some activities become no less painful through repetition: childbearing, paying taxes, cooking. This book is for those of us who want to fold our big dishwater hands around a dry Martini instead of a wet flounder, come the end of a long day.

Peg has been one of my all-time heroes (and I love to cook.). What appealed to me was her humor, lack of pretension, and love of life. Read a book! Have a cocktail! See friends! Eat something tasty! She didn’t hate food and she didn’t mind cooking. She just hated being thrust into a role where daily cooking was somehow sacred. That thinking became obsolete but Peg was ahead of her time.

From my perspective (as a fierce advocate of home cooking), I think Peg was onto something. You don’t need to adore cooking to get a good meal on the table.

When I first moved to Portland, I found out that Peg lived there. Through her stepson, Jack Ohmans (the cartoonist for the Oregonian), I got in touch with her. She invited me to her home and the minute I got there, she offered me a spice cookie.

“Elevator Lady Spice Cookies!” I nearly shouted.

“Nope, but those were really good too.” she replied.

We had a great afternoon. She was as candid, funny, and warmhearted as I figured she would be. Her books are still around, canned soups and all. Peg loved what passed for convenience foods in the ‘60s but don’t be put off. She had some terrific recipes and that’s why my copies are falling apart. She wrote many books but my favorite is The I Hate to Housekeep Book (which tells you something).

Here’s one of Peg Bracken’s recipes that uses up the final ort in my refrigerator: the cupful of rice. It’s a large recipe but can be divided easily and is a meal in itself.

Hellzapoppin’ Cheese Rice

4 cups cooked rice
4 eggs
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound grated sharp Cheddar
small pinch each of thyme and marjoram
1 package chopped frozen spinach
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter

This is copied verbatim from Bracken’s book. She is referring to Sugar Belle, (possibly a fictional character) who gave her the recipe.

She beats the eggs till they’re light. Then she adds the milk and all the seasonings. Finally, she folds in the cheese, spinach and rice and pours the whole works into a greased casserole. After she pours the melted butter over it, she sets it in a 375 degree oven to bake for thirty-five minutes and she takes off her apron.

That’s all, friends!

xoxo, Mary