The day after turkey.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was yummy. Jimmy brought home little pies (apple and pumpkin) and I tried out Paula Deen's recipe for Pumpkin Pecan pie. It was yummy, a combo of my two favs, but I think I still prefer the classic pecan pie...I am a southern girl after all. I roasted a turkey breast stuffed with cranberry-apple stuffing. Made my praline sweet potatoes, Jimmy's A-B- Alls or abios (no one knows how to spell it, but it's mashed potatoes and rutabaga), and tried a new thing with the green beans. I like the green bean casserole with the canned mushroom soup, but it's too rich and Jimmy doesn't really care for it. So I made up a lighter green bean side. I kept the fried onions as a garnish but made it from scratch. It's basically green beans stir fried with bacon, a little sesame oil and a splash of apple balsamic vinegar...yummy and light.
I burned my first batch of cranberry sauce, I didn't know it was possible but I guess cooking at 5 in the morning is not something I can do. I went back to bed and woke up at my normal time and made the sauce again. It came out great. I portioned some for dinner and added maple syrup to the little sauce I had left for Kai's waffles. If you've never made fresh cranberry sauce, you should give it a try. There are so many ways to flavor it. My classic cranberry sauce is 1 bag of cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup of orange juice, zest of 1 orange, and half a vanilla bean. Put everything in a saucepan, turn on the heat, bring to a boil and then simmer on low until all berries pop. Then turn of the heat and let sauce cool before transferring it to serving dish.

Since I didn't make a whole turkey we don't have alot of leftovers to make new dishes with but I can give you a few ideas. Turkey gumbo was something we always made when we had leftover turkey. This year I thought of Turkey and stuffing balls (a take on chicken and dumplings). Chop up the leftover crudite vegetables and a small onion saute until soft, add chicken or turkey stock and shredded turkey, bring to a boil. Ball up leftover stuffing and add to soup....mmm, great for a cold night. If you made mashed sweet potatoes, make sweet potato pancakes the next morning.

Shopping.....nope did not wake up to join the crowd. Not only is my shopping almost done but I realized that the sales are not all that great. Besides, if you watch the sales flyers for your favorite stores you know that they have sales all the time. Sure you might not be able to grab those DVD's for $2.50, but really is that worth waking up at 4 am for? I say no and if I really wanted a movie I wouldn't mind paying the $10 non-holiday sale price.