Thanksgiving Leftovers

I hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings, or long weekends, or just regular weekends. I've had a great time the last four days; I cooked a successful Thanksgiving dinner, had a very nice visit with my parents, and best of all have had four days off from work. Bliss!

I deliberately cooked more than needed since I knew we would have company the whole weekend. It worked out great; turns out 8 pounds of turkey breast goes a long way, especially when it came out as well as this!



My dad's Brussels sprouts were also a big hit; they were so teeny tiny!



I don't have a clue how to make gravy, so my husband stepped in to help. He made a gravy so rich from the pan drippings and some excellent red wine that we called it "mole".  It was as thick as chocolate, and crazy good. We'll never be able to duplicate it.



I got several requests for my friend's Mashed Potato Casserole recipe. Truthfully, it should be called Horseradish-Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, as those are the main ingredients. It is so, so, so good, but can only be made once a year. The other name for it is "Heart Attack on a Plate",  LOL.



Mashed Potato Casserole
from Sharyn



8 - 12 potatoes (about 3 pounds. Depends on how big the potatoes are)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, peeled

1 stick of butter

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (you can prepare it yourself if you like. But I used the kind from the jar)
1 tablespoon coarse-ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
paprika (optional)



Preheat oven to 325 F.


Wash, peel and quarter potatoes (if you use red potatoes, you don't have to peel, although I prefer my mashed potatoes peel-less). Place in a large pot and cover with water. Boil potatoes until tender (about 15 minutes).


While potatoes are cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Coarsely chop onion and place in the skillet. Saute until translucent (about 5 minutes).


Drain potatoes and return to pot. Add onion, butter, sour cream, horseradish, pepper and salt. Now, the original recipe says to whip the potatoes using a hand-held electric mixer. I think it makes the potatoes a little gluey, so I just use a potato masher.
Then! Stir in your cheese.
Put the entire thing in an ungreased casserole dish.*
I sprinkle paprika on it at this point, but it's more for looks than for taste, so that's optional. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, or until thoroughly heated. Take foil off for last few minutes and it will brown up a bit, if you like that.


*If you want, refrigerate it at this point, and bake the next day. It takes more like 40 minutes to bake if it's cold when starting.


++++++

Of course, the highest priority was the annual Thanksgiving sandwich; the ritual began years ago at my aunt's house, when she fried up bacon and made toast, and everyone crammed all the dinner foodstuffs into their own sandwiches. I introduced my husband to it years ago, and we added our homemade cranberry sauce to the mix. As my husband said, he could just dip the bacon into the cranberry and eat that as is -- it really is such a great mix of flavors.




We all loved our own versions so much, we had it two meals in a row. I got so excited, I forgot to take a picture until I had already eaten the first half of mine. ;-D

By Friday, we were all a little tired of Thanksgiving foods, so we went out for both meals on Saturday, but by Sunday we were ready to dive in again. So this afternoon I made a soup. Hubby had already polished off all the roasted vegetables, so I had to start from scratch with that. I chopped up onions, carrots, minced garlic, and celery, and sauteed them in a soup pot for 5-10 minutes. Then I added two bricks of low-sodium chicken stock, and brought that to a boil. I peeled and cut into medium chunks the rest of my carrots and a sweet potato, and a ton of the leftover turkey. We seasoned it with salt, pepper, a few shakes of Worchestershire sauce, and then Hubby boiled down some more red wine to make it more concentrated, then added that. Again, another rich, flavorful dish, with relatively few calories. We also defrosted a couple of salmon pieces that Hubby had caught on his charter fishing trips this fall, and he cooked those on the grill. Some reheated mashed potatoes and stuffing, and everyone was nicely fed yet again!

Tomorrow we are having a potluck leftover lunch at work, so I'll be bringing the last of the mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries and stuffing. (I also have a container for you, Shopping Friend!) The plan to finish off the last of the turkey will be a quiche; we have another pie shell left, plus eggs, plus some leeks and spinach that I forgot to put into the soup. And, um, some more bacon.

What kind of leftovers did you make this year?

P. S. I wore jeans, tees, and sweaters all weekend. You missed nothing. Hee.