Nom, nom, nom, leftovers

[melchar]

Thanksgiving day food is good, but the leftovers are even better. I love cooking it all up, and make a great turkey, gravy, trimmings, etc. But having a few vats of leftovers around for the next few days is a step beyond comfort food.

Boojum refereed a Dragonstorm game today and it was very tough. My gal got about 40% of the spells that were cast, cast at her way [with 4 characters [present] but dice rolls - and the kindness of the other characters in a couple of cases - kept her from becoming road kill. Wow. One heckuva game.

Then we all went out for sushi and that was a great topper for a very pleasant day. [No 'black Friday' shopping here.]

Comments

[vrghr.livejournal.com]

Sounds delightful, and this wuff totally agrees about the leftovers part.

Had all the bits and bones and some extra turkey necks, a carrot and some celery, etc. So just put those into a big stock pot and simmered it all day. Made some fantastic stock, as well as becoming the world's best 'air freshener'. Better than those plug in models by far. *grins*

But for the edible parts that were left - just warming up a lovely plate of turdukhen, stuffing and the rest, is absolutely lovely. Next to no work, and all those nice flavors again. One good thing of wuff making so many dishes - can have two totally different meals by just mix and matching different options. Turkey and dressing and green beans, or ham and potatoes and roast asparagus. MMmm!

Found out it also make great "take to work" plates with just a bit of creativity and some plastic wrap. *grins* Going to cut back on lunch costs for a while.

Vargr avoided that 'black friday' stuff too! Bleh! My time standing in line is worth more than any savings they might have offered, not to mention the savings in frustration by not venturing out.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

[nods] You are so right about the wonderful aroma of cooking turkey. BEST food smell, 'evar'! ^_^ Makes me drool to think of it. Mmmmmmmm

Glad to have read that your dinner was splendiferous. And you had many more - and varied - leftovers than we did. [and they sound so yummy! ... especially the artichokes. Am I mistaken, or by your description did they taste like the ones we had at the Cheesecake Factory? If so, O wow!]

...and you -nailed- it about the day of 'shopping for crowds sake'. Too little return for too much exposure to frustration.

[vrghr.livejournal.com]

I'd have loved to do the artichokes like Cheesecake Factory, but those are fire grilled. I went a bit simpler - got some canned artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed lightly to clear some of the brine. Then I added a bit of virgin olive oil, a touch of garlic powder, and a dash of Mrs Dash seasoning. Then pan-roasted those until they were a little charred around the edges (smoked the house up nicely! *chuckles*)

While those were roasting, I took the asparagus spears that I'd cut back to the tender parts and pealed earlier, added the same touch of olive oil and spices, and put them in a sheet pan under the broiler to oven roast.

They took about 8 minutes. Added the artichokes with the roasted asparagus and sort of 'tossed' them a little to mix. That was it, except for a dash of kosher salt.

The combination of the pan roasted artichokes (a bit smokey from the char, and salty since they were canned) with the sweeter asparagus was really nice.

Next time, I'd love to do a fire-grilled version. I think those would be lovely! And I definitely need to try that balsamic glaze a couple more times to get it closer to "cheese cake factory" style. The flavor is nearly there, with this version, but I definitely boiled it too long - was closer to 'candy apple' than glaze. :) Thankfully, the combo of asparagus and artichokes was quite good all alone.