Post-Thanksgiving Leftovers, Day 3

Well, friends, Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close...we've been pretty busy over here, what with hosting the meal, doing holiday shopping, and going on a few family outings (including the Tucson Children's Museum...more on that tomorrow, I hope!). I hope all of you had a wonderful, meaningful experience this weekend with your family and/or friends. I'm running on fumes a bit tonight, so bear with me...this (obligatory) blog post is just to keep me on track to post daily this month!

In other news, Christmas season has "officially" begun in the Barrett household--yay!! Pandora is already streaming Christmas carols, and I'm already planning the holiday goodies to be baked over the next couple of weeks. I'll be getting out the decorations in a day or two, and hopefully we'll have our tree by the weekend. Maybe I'll even blog about it, even though it won't be November anymore, hee hee! We also inherited a bunch of icicle lights for the outside of our home from my parents; however, we don't have a ladder tall enough to put them up! Plus, Nathan & I are kind of intimidated by the prospect of putting up all these lights. We'll see if that comes to pass or not.

In the meantime though, I've got more immediate concerns--like finishing off all our Thanksgiving leftovers. We had six adults over, and four kids, and for that group I bought a 21-pound turkey. Overkill much? Anyway, our fridge is jam-packed with Thanksgiving leftovers, including several that I may have to finish off all by myself!

Like cranberry sauce, for instance. I still can't figure out why no one in my family is very interested in cranberry sauce (at least I got Celeste & Aurora to eat a little), but Nathan & Lorelai won't touch the stuff. I can't say I'm sad about having to finish it off, though...mmm.

Another dish that wasn't a huge hit was this squash gratin vegetable medley. Maybe it was just one more fancy dish that was easy to skip over; maybe the flavor of leeks was too strong, as one of my guests implied. Either way, I've been the only one eating it for three days now; and although I really love zucchini & summer squash, I'm not sure I can finish it off!

There's also the famous green bean casserole...I'm not going to lie, I love this stuff. I'm not sure why, since I'm only lukewarm about green beans the rest of the year. But some combination of the beans, the cream of mushroom soup, and those yummy French-fried onions just keep me eating & eating!! Again, I'm the only one in my family who is really into this, but I don't care; I just make myself a double batch and eat it all myself!!

Here's another dish, but my family actually enjoys this one--it's a sweet potato souffle. I am not a fan of the candied yams with marshmallows on top; it's just sooo sticky and fake-tasting. This souffle is made from fresh sweet potatoes, and has a crunchy sugary nut topping. Yum!! However, it's not the healthiest meal in the world; it uses evaporated milk and lots of butter; still, it's darn tasty. The only drawback is that my recipe makes so much! As a result, we're always eating it for days afterwards, and it gradually loses its "fresh out of the oven" flavor. However, it reheats pretty well; plus, it's so sweet, you could almost use it as a dessert for future meals!

I haven't even included the usual suspects: turkey; dressing; mashed potatoes; gravy; and rolls, rolls, rolls. All of these things are chilling in my fridge as well. So yeah...I made too much food, as I always do. But I like it because it saves me having to cook for days afterwards!! Plus, I have a couple of recipes in my collection that make good use of Thanksgiving leftovers (including a turkey pot pie that uses up turkey AND mashed potatoes!).

Another post-Thanksgiving tradition at our house is to take our leftover turkey and make it into mole (pronounced "MOLE-ay"). It's a popular dish in Mexico, where Nathan developed a taste for it, and it's traditionally made with either turkey or chicken. So, since I am not a Mexican abuela, I go to my friendly neighborhood grocery store and pick up the handy jar of mole shown above. From there, it's pretty easy to make; pour the contents of the jar into a large pot, add your turkey and a cup or two of water, and bring it all up to a boil, until the mole sauce is bubbling & warm. You scoop it up with tortillas and it's so good!! It is an acquired taste (there is cocoa in the mole sauce, which gives it an almost chocolate-y taste, but it's spicy and not sweet at all), but I have grown to absolutely love it over the years. Our mouths are always watering the day we cook mole at Casa Barrett.

So what about you, gentle readers? What Thanksgiving dish hangs around your house the longest? And what meals do you like to make with the leftovers?