Thanksgiving Leftovers

With a 11.5 pound turkey for two, we had plenty of leftovers. One tradition I learned from my mom is the need to make turkey stock Thanksgiving night. I simmered the turkey carcass with celery, carrots and water for a few hours. After I straining the turkey stock, I decided to make a turkey congee.

Cook one cup of brown short-grained rice for 2 hours with turkey stock, reserved shredded turkey meat, peas and zucchini.

While the turkey congee was great as is, we added some chili oil with black beans, Sichuan peppercorns and soy sauce to give it a Sichuan flavor.

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Friday morning brunch we ate turkey part two, a little of all of the leftovers from Thanksgiving. Friday nigth we ate traditional turkey salad sandwiches with celery and mayonnaise along with some congee. The rest of the congee was a fantastic breakfast the next day. After three days of turkey, I'm about ready for something different.

Thanksgiving

For the first time in a few years we did not have any guests for Thanksgiving dinner. While we enjoy opening up our home and planning a full day of food festivities, this year was very nice and relaxed. We both fit in pre-feasting workouts (the husband managed his hours earlier while I slept in). 

While the turkey was roasting in the oven, we had light appetizers while we watched some football.

 San Daniele prosciutto, pepperjack, aged cheddar, Maytag blue cheese, kalamata olives and fig preserves.

 Crudites with spinach-ranch dip.

Shrimp cocktail

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 The turkey turned out nicely browned. I seasoned it with butter, fresh sage leaves, thyme, salt and pepper, and roasted it at 325F for three hours. The best trick was preheating the oven to 400F, and lowering the temperature once the turkey went in.

 Green Bean Casserole

The husband requested this dish. I included some sauteed gourmet mushroom mix to the standard recipe. Fattening, but so satisfying.

Cornbread stuffing with mushrooms, celery and onions.

Lightly saute the celery, onion and mushrooms in butter, then add two eggs, chicken broth and cornbread before baking. I baked this Wednesday night, and they easily reheated in the oven while the green bean casserole cooked.

 We made light mashed potatoes (substituted chicken broth for some of the butter and milk), and boosted the flavor of the turkey gravy by making a turkey stock with the turkey neck. I love gravy.

Pumpkin Pie

Baked the pumpkin pie on Wednesday night, which filled the air with the smell of the holidays. This year I used evaporated milk and eggs along with the pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin pie spices. This was a custard-like, creamy pie. We ate so much on Thanksgiving, my husband didn't have his pie until Black Friday breakfast.

Still Wandering...

Still chronicling the daily food adventures of my husband and I. For my earlier posts, see this blog. 

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Hard to believe it's already Christmas shopping time. (I'm totally in denial). Thanksgiving even crept up on me this year. Work has been incredibly stressful lately, so I picked up a bowl of comforting noodle soup from Sichuan Express for lunch this week. You know it's a busy day when I didn't have time to eat more than half.  

 I enjoy the shrimp, bamboo shoots and edamame noodle soup, although the pork version is a little more smokey and has a deeper flavor profile. When I'm truly indulgent, I ask for the mabo tofu (#5) extra spicy. mmmm...

 My husband's colleague visited his office from Tokyo bearing gifts.

Packages of ramen noodles and soup base, two types of spicy Japanese curry mix, zosui in crab flavor.

 He even picked up some vegetable sauces and seasoning for chicken-burdock root rice dish. Felt a little like Christmas looking through the bag with all these natsukashii goodies.

Husband's Japanese Curry with pork belly, carrot, onion, potato, jalapeno.

My sweet husband threw together one of his specialties, Japanese curry and rice, for dinner this week. This was fantastic, and a great help since I was busy prepping Thanksgiving dishes.