Thanksgiving Leftovers: How To Do It Right
Thanksgiving dinner was a success. Bellies are full and merry. It's cold outside, so your guests are stretching their stay in the warm comforts of your home. The fireplace is crackling. Anecdotes and jokes (hopefully new ones, but not necessarily) are being tossed around while your guests share drink and cheer. A sudden realization catches up with you: each and every moment that is good is part of those which later make up "the good times". You smile because you know you're in them. You can't know for sure everyone is feeling grateful at this exact moment, but there's a feeling, and with it, Thanksgiving thanks are genuinely given. It's officially over.
Your guests say their goodbyes as they put on their coats and ready themselves for their journey home. You wish them a safe one. Honk, honk! The cab's arrived. They've gone. You turn to the sight of your dinner table, and all that's left in it: turkey, gravy, greens, mashed potatoes and cranberry jam. Maybe some bread. There isn't much of any of those, but a little of everything. Now you must store what's left for later. Here are two ways to do it:
1. The Repeat #boring
You save servings that contain a little of everything so that you and your family can enjoy the same Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow without giving thanks because you want to be ungrateful every once in a while. Or maybe you say thanks as well. No harm, no foul.
2. The Right Way
Put everything in Popit! containers, separating each dish so you can do with it as please later on. There are many ways to enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers. Try to give them a fun new spin so that you don't have the exact same thing you had yesterday!
Mashed potatoes
Mashed potatoes offer many possibilities.
a) You can make patties that don't exactly turn out like hash browns but still are a great breakfast side dish.
b) You can mix your mashed potatoes with jalapeños, bacon, and cream cheese, make little balls and fry them.
c) You can use your mashed potatoes as the crust and your greens as the filling of a not-so-conventional pie (make sure you add some cream and gravy, along with other things you come up with to the filling and just cover with cheese).
d) You can use your mashed potatoes to make a mean Spanish omelet.
What you make with it is your call. The possibilities are there.
Gravy
Gravy is just a killer flavor enhancer for any dish you decide to make, be it that mashed potato pie crust with greens as filling, that classic turkey sandwich, those wanna-be hash browns, anything you want. That's what's great about gravy. It's groovy.
Greens
Greens are great as a side-dish to anything. They're good for you, they taste amazing, and no one can deny that. They also make everything else look great; they add color to your plating, and that makes everything much more appealing.
- a) As we said, there's also the possibility of making that mashed potato crust pie with greens as filling if you're up for it.
- b) They're also great with rice.
- c) Toss em on a salad with some vinaigrette and see how flavor just bursts into being.
- d) They're also good for omelets.
They are actually pretty amazing. Do what you want with them.
Turkey
Turkey is the name of the game. No two ways about it, so let's get to it:
a) The Classic Turkey Sandwich: that's the leftover All-Star. Leftover Hall of Fame. Everybody likes it and with good reason. It's absolutely delicious.
b) The Turkey Quesadilla: this one's a special edition for those who (believe us, they exist) have grown tired of the classic turkey sandwich. Hey, it can happen.
c) The Ever-Controversial Turkey Nachos: some say this is heresy, but the kitchen is a free and safe space to explore, to have fun, to wander. So be it.
Don't let anything stop you. Enjoying your leftovers is as much part of Thanksgiving as anything else. If you're truly grateful for what you've been given, you won't let it go to waste and you won't let it bore your taste buds. You'll find ways to surprise yourself and enjoy every bite of it. Holding back is for the many, the fearful, the weak. Be brave.
Keep your leftovers fresh with Popit! and then make the most of them.
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