So you have leftovers—either from your own holiday cooking or those that were sent home or left with you by other Thanksgiving cooks in your life. In this household, Thanksgiving leftovers are first relished—simply reheated by the plateful and immensely enjoyed.
I myself like to take leftover turkey or ham and grab a leftover roll to simply stuff the meat inside and eat lickety split—this usually first occurs mere hours after the first plate has been consumed. Then, plate lunches are fixed up for that hard-working Husband o' mine to take with him to work and enjoy tremendously in the day or so after the holiday.
Finally, the turkey is properly idolized in the form of specially made sandwiches—unique to each turkey eater. That Husband o' mine likes his leftover Thanksgiving turkey on soft white bread spread lavishly with Miracle Whip and topped with a slice of real American cheese.
The Queen of this House prefers my her turkey on rustic Italian bread or an artisan roll, sprinkled with salt and pepper, topped with green olives and provolone cheese—all toasted to crunchy, gooey goodness and maybe even dipped in good ranch dressing every bite or three mmMMmm.
The hooligans kiddos? They just heat n eat the turkey all by itself for days—especially if there is gravy to reheat as well--for dipping, ya know.
What about ham? Ditto for ham as for the turkey, deliciously relegated to sandwiches made very similar to those listed above if not exactly the same.
How 'bout your family, what do y'all do with those leftovers?
I realize many--okay MOST--of my blog entries are about food :) I'm a bona fide, shameless foodie-girl. I cheerfully blame my Italian father for that ~~oh the hereditary things we must put up with *sigh*~~ Such a hardship LOL--as IF!!
This weekend I made the traditional big breakfast for my family--biscuits n gravy, sausage n eggs, went all out and made cinnamon rolls as well. I catered to ALL the taste buds in my house and let me tell you, they were dancin' lol.
Besides breakfast cookin', other good things were goin' on here. I discovered a pasta salad recipe whilst shopping at Sam's Club--ya know how they have alllll kindsa samples n such on Saturdays? Well, the girlie tried a pasta salad that she insisted she LOVED and wanted to make it RIGHT NOW. I glanced at the recipe card and assured her it was a breeze to make n we'd have all the ingredients. And sure enough, we made it later that afternoon. Both she and her Daddy loved it. It's a refreshing, summery pasta salad that I thought was well worth sharing.
Tuscan Pasta Salad:
Rotini or Penne Pasta
Olive Oil
2 Green and 1 Red Bell Peppers(a mix of both make this salad so pretty)
1 Red Onion
Roma Tomatoes (others would be fine but I think Roma is best here)
Feta cheese, crumbled
Italian salad dressing
*Cook pasta al dente in water, 1/2 cup olive oil and salt; then drain,running under cool water
*Toss pasta with 1/2 cup olive oil
*Cut four tomatoes, 3 bell peppers and 1 red onion into strips
*Add vegs and cooled pasta to salad bowl and mix together--adding
1 1/2 cups of feta cheese, 1 cup Italian dressing and salt/pepper to
taste
*Serve cold
Oh. My. This stuff was SO good--you've got to give it a go!
Pecan Praline French Toast
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
2/3 c light packed brown sugar
2/3 c coarsely chopped pecans
5 large eggs
1 c milk
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1-2 dashes ground cinnamon
french bread cut into @ 1 inch cubes
Preheat oven to 350° F
In a 9x13 pan, melt butter in oven as it warms up. Make sure you do not brown the butter.
Stir in the brown sugar and sprinkle with pecans.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs, stir in milk, vanilla and cinnamon.
Dip bread pieces into egg mixture. Arrange slices over brown sugar mixture in pan. Pour any remaining egg mixture over bread.
Bake 35-40 minutes until bread is golden brown.
Invert onto a serving plate.(I did this on a foil-lined cookie sheet) Serve at once--although we thought the leftovers were great as well!!
Tis kinda like sticky buns or such--fantastic stuff!
But what's also coolie, to me, is the tips in baking I glean from folks like the Mage *bows*. My lit'l ol' pretty-good blueberry muffins that were liked here are now WOW blueberry muffins that I've been asked to make twice since the Sunday debut. And, effort? Not one whit more than any other muffin recipe.
Being fairly new to really and truly cooking from scratch, my recipe book was...well...nonexistent, to be honest lol.
It was a book my mother gave me once that she intended to fill with recipes but finally gave up and just gave me the empty little binder and told me to copy some of her recipes. I copied a few but, busy with baby boot camp at the time, I mainly just stuck the book in a dusty corner and poked a scrap of paper with a scribbled recipe on it or a torn magazine recipe into it's pages now and again. I never pulled the book out until I began my cooking-from-scratch journey two years ago. I had read so many great articles by so many neat ladies about leaving a legacy,about cooking with your kids underfoot in the kitchen and keeping a recipe book where you not only write the recipe but particular tips, changes you make,likes and dislikes, etc along the way. I got inspired one day and pulled out that dusty recipe book. It was very sentimental to me already, even though I'd hardly used the thing, because my mother has since left this earth.
My entire cooking-from-scratch journey has been so that I can not only feed my family wonderful, healthy foods; but so that I can make memories of a warm kitchen full of wonderful smells and tastes, a place where you can wander through and join Mom in whatever she's making or pull up a chair and visit....all in hopes that my children love to cook for themselves and for their future families as well. The idea of a well-used, well-loved recipe book that's opened and flour-dusted daily by me, with them in my kitchen, really struck a chord.
So, I cleaned up that little book, tossed out things that made no sense (there was ALOT of that lol) and recopied onto the cards recipes I thought we would use...this was the start of my journey--about this same time I bought my big mixing bowl and wooden spoon. Already this book is special-- my kids go get it without me asking when we're pondering menu ideas or when they want something particular, I've even memorized many of our favorites. We’ve added quite a few tried n liked recipes to it as of late. All basic stuff, just from scratch. I'd like to broaden the book a bit further by writing more journal-type comments alongside favored recipes. Who really loved cooking it with me, who loved eating it best lol, what we did or didn’t do regarding the recipe, was there a special day or did we make the day special?
What a priceless way to live every day, making memories and leaving legacy--and eatin' good!! :)
I made my first ever homemade bread WhooHoo!! I've made alot of things from scratch for awhile now but had yet to attempt a loaf of bread until this week. The extreme cold outside(a whole THREE degrees--'feels like -5'--MERCY!) spurred me into baking/cooking even more, keeping the kitchen warm n fragrant--not to mention the fun we have eating it!! ;)
I used a Parmesan Bread recipe I've had for awhile and it was wonderful!! Made two pretty good sized loaves and the gang here LOVED it!! The crust stays soft, I found that interesting as I didn't expect that for some reason. That's a plus around here--they don't like crunchy crusted bread nearly as much as I(what's wrong with them?!? LOL!)
One loaf was eaten right up as it was *poof*, whilst the other one I sliced and made into garlic bread to have with our pasta mmMMM!
Here in southern Indiana, we're beyond excited that the Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl! WHOOHOO!! It's a great reason to have lotsa good food goin' on, so I'm pondering what to have.
That husband o' mine has a tailgate party at work Friday--I've decided to make chili and send it with tortilla chips or homemade tater chips n some toppings. I 'spect he really wants the homemade tater chips, so I know what I'll be doing for quite awhile Thursday evening/night!!
For us here at home Sunday, I'm thinking along the lines of several great finger foods. Things like bacon wrapped chicken bites with a sauce for dipping and a sausage-cheese dip for nachos as well as brownies or a cake for sweets. Oh the possibilities!! :D
Today is that husband o' mine's 40th birthday! He's so amazing, I just cannot begin to tell y'all...just know it is so.
In his honor, I'm giving this meatloaf recipe a go tonight. He loves meatloaf and I've never really mastered it, therefore we don't have it very often. So, here goes! (With mashed taters n such mmMM)
We'll top off the celebrations with angel food cake, whipped cream n strawberries mmMMM! (A little ice cream, too, naturally!)
Cheeseburger Meatloaf and Sauce Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon House Seasoning (garlic powder, black pepper, and salt mix)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
1 cup grated Cheddar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz)
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (recommended: Lawry's)
2 slices white bread
Sauce, recipe follows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix all ingredients together, except the bread slices and Sauce. Shape into a loaf. Line a 1 1/2-quart loaf pan with the bread slices. Place meatloaf on top. Bake loaf for 45 minutes. The bread absorbs the grease and should be discarded after loaf is removed from oven.
Sauce:
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar
Chopped onions, optional
1 bunch fresh parsley leaves, chopped, optional
Heat the soup and milk over medium heat; add the cheese. Add the chopped onions and parsley to the sauce, if desired. Pour sauce over the meatloaf or pass at the table. (I plan to use it as gravy with the mashed taters, too!)
**I'm not sure about that sauce....a tomato based sauce would be more typical of the meatloaf he likes....hmm....we'll see!
This will be an 'in the kitchen' weekend 'round here! I plan to put several things in the fridge/freezer for our use this week. We're babysitting the usual three wee boys this week PLUS two youngsters that will arrive at 5:00 am(*groan*) Some things in the fridge will make life easier and we'll still eat good even if I'm extra-tired by the end o' the day.
I'm going to make a huge batch o' biscuits to freeze(uncooked), as the girlie here has been asking for a biscuit alot o' morns lately! Freeze them up and twill be easy to grab one or three any morning.
I also hope to make up some breakfast sandwiches to refrigerate for that husband o' mine as well--some sausage, egg n cheese biscuits. Alternate those with his oatmeal.
A batch o' 'pizza pockets', a baked ham, a chicken n rice casserole and a breakfast casserole will finish off the plans as well some chocolate chip cookies.
As I said, an 'in the kitchen' weekend for me! I enjoy cooking and plan to crank the music and have fun preparing these things for my family while making life easier during the 'work week' at the same time. Multi-tasking, it is! ;)
