Today's Bento

Leftover dressing topped with turkey and a mushroom gravy. 

Mixed vegetables with mango and cranberry chutney.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

We had a lot of leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast, despite sending home some food with our guests.  

One lunch was a turkey dinner redux.

 For the leftover macaroni and cheese, I cut the cold macaroni into sticks, dredged them in egg wash and panko, then fried them in hot oil.  After they turned brown, I put them in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes while I made the spicy tomato dipping sauce.

The coating was nice and crunchy, the insides were meltingly luscious.  Extremely decadent and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, although maybe this should remain a once a year assault on my arteries.

I also made homemade turkey stock for a vegetable-filled turkey chowder.  Paired with a turkey sandwich, we've almost finished the last of the leftovers.  My boyfriend and I will need to go on a cleansing diet after this week of holiday gluttony. 

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, it's a day to bring people together and give thanks for all the wonderful people in our lives and events we have experienced.  What I do not like is traveling by plane, train or car during this 4-day weekend.  This year I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and a few friends who were staying in the area.  I haven't cooked a full Thanksgiving meal in a while, so it was with a bit of trepidation and excitement that I planned what to cook.

 My boyfriend's a Southern boy at heart, so he wanted some macaroni and cheese.  I made it with spinach, gruyere and a 3 cheese blend.  Due to limited oven space, I made it Tuesday night. It was ok but a little too crunchy on the top.

 I made a vegetarian and a meat-based dressing.  Listening to NPR, I got the idea to cook chicken drumsticks on top of the sausage dressing to give it that "stuffed in a turkey" flavor. I made both dressings Wednesday evening.

 My boyfriend picked up some pretty flowers for the table.

 We started off with some nibbles as I cooked the turkey.  Marcona almonds with sea salt and rosemary, olives, roasted red peppers, grapes, smoked salmon, salami and a smoked trout dip.  I also made two flatbreads, one with zucchini and feta and the other with mushrooms, zucchini and feta.

 We bought a 12 pound turkey, which I basted with a sage-thyme butter.  I roasted the turkey on top of onion, carrot, celery and some turkey stock, and placed lemon, onion and herbs inside the cavity.

 We needed a bit more space, so we set up a table to hold the hot dishes include mushroom dressing, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, sausage dressing, turkey, buttermilk biscuits and a cranberry nut bread.

 For a few lighter sides, I made green beans with lemon, salad and carrots with thyme.

 My turkey carving skills would have been aided by having a proper carving knife on-hand.  

The sausage dressing turned out much more flavorful than previous renditions.  The roasted chicken dumsticks gave a lovely aroma and moistness to the dressing.

***

Thanksgiving is so much more special when you can spend it with family or friends, and I'm so thankful I could spend mine with some wonderful people.  I think a few things could have been cooked with more finesse, but there were no major kitchen catastrophes and everyone had a full belly and a nice evening, which I consider to be a success.