Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody! I'm very grateful to all of you who follow my culinary exploits, and I hope you're as lucky as we are this year, to be able to spend the day celebrating life with those you hold dearest.
Now, according to the National Turkey Federation (and who else would you ask?), nearly 88% of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving. They report that the average weight of a turkey purchased for Thanksgiving is 16 pounds, so that means that over 700 million pounds of turkey are consumed in the United States every year during the holiday!
The picture of the little boy gazing lustfully at the turkey is indeed This Old Chef. It was Thanksgiving at my parents' house in Detroit in... I'm guessing here... 1961 or '62... but my adoration of roast turkey hasn't changed a bit.
Of course, no one finishes the Thanksgiving meal. There are always containers of... remaining food.
What to do? Dump everything in a pot and call it soup? YUCK.
Instead of thinking of The L Word (left-overs!) as some "used" food you need to get rid of... I think of them as if I have a sous chef who's already started preparing things for me to use!
Meats and vegetables can go into sauces, stuffings, "cakes," or stews to top pastas or polenta...
Mashed potatoes can top Shepherd's Pie or thicken soups...
A salad can be added to cooked greens. A piece of cooked salmon is the base for a great salmon salad... a salmon cake... or hash. And though hash has a reputation as a dumping ground for "remains," with a little care it can be better than the original dish!
If you have a little bit of sauce left from a meat dish, add it to some day-old rice for a totally new side. All it takes is a little imagination, and these "pre-prepared" treasures are just advanced mise en place!
So... I'm continuing my campaign to remove the word "leftovers" from the language... Too Much Baggage.
For me, it's "THE L WORD," (with apologies to my dear friends in the Lesbian community)...
...Or, even better, The Remains of the Day!