how are you recycling your Thanksgiving leftovers?

[Blackdog Lin]

I made enough dressing to feed our small town, but the turkey leftovers didn't stretch as far as I'd hoped. So far:

- one meal of just pure leftovers. We finished the Brussels sprouts and the pecan pie.
- yesterday DH suggested/wanted turkey omelets and potato patties. Used a bit of the turkey and finished the mashed potatoes for the patties.
- had half-a-pack of bacon left from Tks'giving green beans, so it went for bacon gravy this morning served over crispy 'tator patties from the freezer.
- had 2/3 of a head of cauliflower left from the Tks'giving pea salad, so steamed it tonight along with a half a bag of frozen broccoli I found in the freezer, and made cheese sauce. It will serve for tonight along with maybe a slice of pumpkin pie.
- tomorrow is homemade noodles using 1/2 of the broth from cooking the turkey carcass, along with the rest of the turkey meat. And the rest of the pea salad for a veggie to go with them.
- I froze half the dressing, which will serve as a side for a future meal. Also have another 1/2 gallon turkey broth for some other use.
- and Tuesday will be casserole surprise (we call it that 'cause it's always a surprise as to how good it may turn out - or not) using the rest of the leftover dressing, the rest of the green beans, the rest of the gravy, a can of chicken, and sour cream and whatever else I may find in the crisper or the freezer to fill the dish.

I feel pretty good about the recycling this year - though DH is disappointed he won't get his turkey gravy over toast - not enough turkey leftovers. (and this always make me think about the end of "A Christmas Story", where they also didn't get their turkey leftovers.....) :)

Anyone else feel good about your non-wasting of big-meal leftovers?

[redfox]

We drove away from my MIL's house & left them all there!

[rodeosweetheart]

Pretty good. We had a bigger turkey than I wanted (nothing smaller available) so lots of leftovers, and thus we had

--turkey sandwiches
--turkey soup with the leftover broth and breast meat
--froze two meals of turkey/dressing
--ate the green been casserole tonight with baked potatoes and salad

--ate the cranberry as a side with spinach ravioli last night for dinner
--best of all, precycled--cooked the liver and heart for the dog and cat BEFORE cooking the meal, unlike the usual where I put them in the fridge for later and forget all about them
--leaving only the sweet potato souffle--will do pancakes with that, I guess, sort of like a fried mush kind of thing

[Gregg]

We did two turkeys (24 people for dinner). One was fried with lots of Cajun seasoning so I'm making turkey gumbo out of the few leftover bits of that tonight. Cranberry sauce went into cranberry mimosas at Sunday brunch. Enough people and football over the weekend to wipe out most everything else with no need for creative thinking.

[iris lilies]

Didn't have much leftover. We had duck and I really liked it: small and efficient. I'm doing duck again next year.

[pinkytoe]

It is a joke in my family that I always take home the carcass if we hold the gathering at someone else's house. It always gets me that they just throw it away if I don't take it. This time, I made a big pot of turkey and rice soup full of onions and garlic. I also made some cranberry vinaigrette with the leftover sauce. Very tasty on a bitter greens salad with goat cheese, pecans and mandarins.

[iris lilies]

It is a joke in my family that I always take home the carcass if we hold the gathering at someone else's house. It always gets me that they just throw it away if I don't take it. This time, I made a big pot of turkey and rice soup full of onions and garlic. I also made some cranberry vinaigrette with the leftover sauce. Very tasty on a bitter greens salad with goat cheese, pecans and mandarins.
That sounds splendid!

[Gardenarian]

We went to a potluck. Everyone took a little bit of what they wanted home.
My dh called next day to get the turkey carcase, but they'd already thrown it out :-/

[SteveinMN]

pinkytoe, we don't always take the carcass, but we got it this time just for the asking. That is the only Thanksgiving leftover we got out of two dinners. But that's okay. There are more opportunities to eat turkey in coming weeks!

[MaryHu]

I'm sure everyone here already knows this trick but just in case... when you throw that turkey carcass in the soup pot or pressure cooker to make broth add 2 TB of vinegar. This will leach much more calcium out of those bones and you WILL NOT taste it in the final product. (maybe the calcium (a base) counteracts the vinegar (an acid)?) You'll get a lovely stock full of extra calcium for your bones.

[Blackdog Lin]

Thanks for the tip Mary. I always forget to do that.

Fun hearing about everyone's dinners/aftermaths.

[Gregg]

We have one nephew who has become a true foodie so had to split the booty - one carcass each. Should have never clued that boy in about stock making...

[happystuff]

Late to this, but I finally used the last of the refrigerator turkey yesterday. We went to my sister's for Thanksgiving, so I ended up still having my "free" turkey from the grocery store to cook. I did that the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I am counting leftovers as the turkey from Sunday's dinner. As it turns out, I was able to save both breast in the freezer for future meals. The last of the remainder was just used yesterday to make two broccoli, turkey, cheese casseroles - one for Monday's dinner (busy work day) and the other in the freezer for future use. Monday will be used over rice.

I'm actually pretty pleased. For some reason it seems like this year's leftovers stretched really far!!

[JaneV2.0]

I'm sure everyone here already knows this trick but just in case... when you throw that turkey carcass in the soup pot or pressure cooker to make broth add 2 TB of vinegar. This will leach much more calcium out of those bones and you WILL NOT taste it in the final product. (maybe the calcium (a base) counteracts the vinegar (an acid)?) You'll get a lovely stock full of extra calcium for your bones.

But don't overdo it--I ended up having to make hot and sour soup once. I read that you can add eggshells, too.