Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Mixed Grains

This soup is sooo good. And so easy, particularly if you're starting from leftover, like when you buy that giant cauliflower from the farmer's market and you have a lot left.

Of course, you can steam or roast the cauliflower just for this soup.

But ... here's the other thing. You could make this with a different vegetable, or even a mix of vegetables, as long as you like them together. Which means this is great whenever you have leftovers. I'm all about finding good uses for leftovers.

The rice mix I used here was actually a new mixed grains medly from Minute Rice - they sent me samples and I've been having some fun with it. It has several types of rice along with quinoa, and is meant to be cooked as a side dish, either on the stove or in the microwave, but I figured it would be fine in this soup. And it cooks fast, which means that this soup was ready to eat really quickly.

Creamy Cauliflower Rice Soup

3-4 cups cooked cauliflower
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes, for thickening (if needed)
1 packet (about 3/4 cup uncooked) Minute Rice Multi-Grain Medly
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the cauliflower and chicken stick in a blender and puree until smooth, then transfer to a saucepan. You could also but both in a saucepan and use a stick blender to puree it.

Heat on medium heat. Add the minute rice, stir to combine, and cook until the rice is cooked through. If you prefer a thicker soup, add the instant potatoes and cook for a few more minutes.

Taste, and add salt and pepper to taste. I happen to like creamy soups with a generous amount of pepper.

If you like, garnish with some chopped herbs, or a complimentary vegetable, shredded or diced. I happened to have some brussels sprouts, so I used that.

I received samples of the Minute Rice Multi-Grain Medly at no cost to me. I wasn't required to use it in a recipe, but it worked really well here. And yes, I'd buy it again. It's handy to have on hand. And I'm kind of a fiend for rice.

Reuben Cabbage Rolls

For me, one of the best things about St. Patrick's Day is the leftovers. I love a good corned beef sandwich on rye with some grainy mustard. Or better yet, a reuben sandwich.

But when I was a kid, St. Patrick's Day also meant that mom was likely to make her stuffed cabbage rolls, otherwise known as golumbki. It had nothing to do with the holiday and everything to do with the fact that bigger cabbages were available at the stores at that time.

I don't know why I didn't think of it before - but why not combine the two - why not make cabbage rolls that taste like reuben sandwiches?

Once I had the idea stuck in my head, I couldn't get rid of it. I fiddled around with a few different ideas before I settled on one that thought made the most sense.

Like any recipe of this type, you can certainly change amounts and proportions to suit your own taste.

Reuben Cabbage Rolls

3 cups chopped or shredded cooked corned beef
1 pound sauerkraut, drained
8 ounces swiss cheese, grated (divided)
8 large cabbage leaves*
 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
Salt and pepper, to taste.
Rye bread, cut into small croutons and toasted in butter
Thousand Island dressing, for serving

*The easiest way to harvest the cabbage leaves is to steam a whole cabbage. The outer leaves will begin to cook and soften, making them easier to peel off and also makes it easier to make the rolls. Peel off as many leaves as you'll need, then peel off any leaves that are cooked, stopping when you reach a point where the rest of the cabbage is uncooked. Set that aside for other uses.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour. Cook for a minute or two, then add the milk. Bring to a boil and let ti cook for another minute to thicken. Turn the heat down to a simmer and add the cheese in hand fulls, stirring to melt the cheese into the sauce after each addition. Turn the heat off. Taste and add salt and pepper, as desired. Set aside.

Combine the corned beef, sauerkraut, and 4 ounces of swiss cheese in a bowl. Stir to combine.

One at a time, put a scoop of the corned beef mixture onto a cabbage leaf and roll up to make a neat package.

Cut up any additional par-cooked cabbage leaves into a medium dice and place them in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the finished cabbage rolls on top. Pour the cheese sauce over the top of the cabbage rolls.

Set the slow cooker to high and cook for 2 hours or until the mixture is bubbling, the inside of the rolls are hot.

Serve the cabbage rolls topped with rye croutons, with Thousand Island dressing on the side.

Spicy Pork and Mac Stew - Is it chili, or is it hot dish?

My mother was the queen of transforming leftovers into something that didn't look like leftovers. Sure, sometimes we had reheated reruns. But other times, it was alchemy.

Some might say it was her depression-era need to use every scrap of food. But really, I think it was everyday lack of funds that meant that dollars needed to be stretched.

I inherited some of that, I guess. I'm always looking at leftovers with an eye at making them something new and different. That's particularly true when it comes to roasts. As much as I like a perfectly-cooked pork or beef roast, they're usually a lot of food for two people. The price-per-pound is tempting, but the leftovers can be daunting.

A while back, I made a lovely pork roast ... but then what? After we'd eaten it sliced and as sandwiches, I knew it needed transformation. Mom's usual leftover pork dish was her chop suey, bolstered by canned Chinese vegetables and copious amounts of soy sauce. With rice on the side, that chop suey could stretch a humble pork roast for several days.

I actually considered chop suey, but decided to go with a spicier option. Some might call this chili, while others might be horrified at calling it chili. Some might call it hot dish (hello Minnesotans!) What it is, though, is a throwback to mom's chili mac - it's comfort food, pure and simple.

When I was done cutting up the roast, I had two pounds of diced meat in one pile, and some bones, bits, fat, and crusty parts that went into a saucepan with some water to make about a quart of pork stock that I used for soup.

See, nothing wasted!

You can make this as hot (or not) as you like by using mild, medium, or hot versions of the peppers and spices. Make it your way!

Spicy Pork and Mac Stew

2 pounds cooked pork shoulder roast, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-size cubes
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 15.5-ounce can red kidney beans, drained
1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 10-ounce can Hatch diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 4-ounce can diced Hatch chilies
1 can beer* (I suggest something mild, like Corona or similar)
2 tablespoons Penzey's Chili con Carne spice (or chili powder)
2 tablespoons dry masa (maseca)
1 tablespoon adobo seasoning
1 tablespoon** salt (or to taste)
4 ounces dry elbow macaroni, cooked al dente, drained

Put everything except the pasta into a slow cooker (yes, you can also cook this in a Dutch oven on the stove, if you like). Stir to combine and cook on high for 4 hours, or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if needed. If it's not spicy enough for you, add more chili powder.

Add the cooked pasta, and let the stew simmer for just a little longer, uncovered, to let the pasta soak up just a little of the sauce.

Serve hot.

You can garnish this with any of the things you like with chili - sour cream, shredded cheese, avocado, or diced avocado are all wonderful.

*If you're not a beer drinker and you have no urge to buy beer just for this recipe, use water. There's enough flavor here that the beer won't be horribly missed.

** If your chili powder and adobo seasoning are heavy on the salt, hold back a little bit on the salt until you taste - you can always add more if you need it.

Leftover Makeover: Jamaican Jerk Pork Stew

As a blogger, when a company named Buncha Jerks sends you an email, your ears perk up. No matter what the product is, the name lends itself to a whole buncha jokes when it comes to writing a post. And then the package arrives.

Buncha Jerks!
I mean, seriously... there must be a buncha them there. And then ...

They sent me their Jerk Seasoning Sampler, the hot version. They have three different jerk seasonings, Jamaican, Mexican, and Indian, in mild, medium, and hot versions.

Weird, right? When you think jerk, right after you think about that guy who stole your parking space, you probably think about Jamaican food. Not Mexican or Indian.

Since Jamaican jerk is traditional, I dove into that first, using the seasoning to reinvent a pork roast. I love making roasts, but since there are only two of us, a roast can last a little too long. So I'm always thinking ahead. Sandwiches? Tacos?

In this case, I decided to make a pork stew. Like this:

Jamaican Jerk Flavored Pork Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, cut in medium dice
1 small zucchini, cut in medium dice
Left over pork roast (about 1/2 of a 4-pound roast), cut in bite-size cubes
1/2 teaspoon Bunch Jerks Jamaican Jerk seasoning
1 bottle beer (I used Corona)

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or in a slow cooker that has a sear/bottom heat setting. I use a Ninja.

Add the onions and zucchini and cook, stirring as needed, until the onions soften a bit. Add the pork roast cubes, seasoning, and beer.

Cook on low until the vegetables are cooked through.

Taste for seasoning and add salt, if desired, or more Buncha Jerks seasoning.

I served these with cubed potatoes, but it would also be great over rice.

And now for a second opinion...

I had a few thinner slices of the pork that weren't suitable for the stew, so I cut them into thin strips and cooked them with a pinch of the Buncha Jerks Mexican seasoning.

I wasn't trying to create a recipe, I just wanted to try the seasoning. And the pork was perfect for tacos, so that's what I made.

The flavor was interesting. It wasn't completely Mexican, like an adobo or a taco seasoning or a salsa or a mole. It had definite Mexican flavors, but also hints of Jerk flavoring. It was really interesting. And tasty.

And just like the hot Jamaica Jerk Spice, it was pretty hot.

One great thing about these spices is that since the flavors are so strong, you really don't need a lot. And I don't just mean the heat - the spices are very flavorful.

Since I wrote this, I tried the Indian Jerk Spice on a pork tenderloin, and I really liked it. So that's three winners out of the three.

Have you tried these? Do you think you'd like them? What would you use them on.

Gadgets: Gourmet Minute Cooker

There are only a few things I cook in my microwave. Vegetables, primarily. But when I tried Alton Brown's recipe for fish en papilotte cooked in the microwave, it rocked my world. No need to heat up the oven, and it's done in a few minutes.

But then there's that fiddly parchment folding. Not exactly what I want to do when I'm contemplating fast and easy cooking.

So, when I got the Mastrad Gourmet Minute Cooker ($29.99) to test, the first thing I tested was a fish fillet.

The minute cooker is simple. A somewhat square (wider at the corners, gently curved in the center), somewhat flat bowl nestles into a silicone base with a silicone lid.

I was skeptical that the lid would hold in the required steam since it doesn't snap on, so I was pleasantly surprised when I lifted the lid and there was indeed a whole lot of steam inside. And the fish cooked evenly.

I was also gleefully surprised that the ceramic dish inside was attractive enough for serving, and it didn't get freakishly hot like some of my allegedly-microwavable dishes do.

After the fish, I tried several variations of vegetables, including fresh and frozen. And I reheated leftovers for lunch and dinner a number of times.

The benefit of using this contraption versus a plate or bowl with plastic wrap is that 1) I've melted plastic wrap in the microwave before when the plate has gotten too hot; 2) I'm getting tired of buying throwaway products like plastic wrap; 3) the silicone doesn't get hot, so I could remove this from the microwave without using pot holders; and 4) by leaving the food in the silicone holder while I attended to other things, it retained heat better than if it was a regular bowl covered with plastic wrap.

I'm not about to start cooking steaks in the microwave, but for my usual repertoire of vegetables and leftover lunches, along with the occasional fish dish, this is going to see a lot of use.

The only downside is the size - you're not going to be able to fit a buffet-sized portion of vegetables in there since the dish is just over 7 inches wide at the center.

But sometimes smaller is better. It's a perfect size for side dishes (I fit a full pound of frozen spinach into it) and it's a reasonable size for single meals. Meanwhile, the flat bowl shape makes it more versatile than a flat plate, and all the parts are dishwasher safe.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

Potato Bread - a perfect use for leftover mashed potatoes

Ah, mashed potatoes! I love them. And I always make too much, particularly when I'm serving guests. My theory is that you always want leftovers, because that means that everyone had enough.

My mom's theory of potatoes was one per person and one extra for the pot. Which is probably a reasonable amount. I'm not always that reasonable, so maybe it's two for the pot. Or ... mumble mumble ... maybe too many potatoes.

Luckily, there are a whole lot of wonderful uses for left over mashed potatoes. I already made potato soup from some of them (did I mention that I tend to make too many mashed potatoes?) and of course you can use them as a topping for a pot pie.

This time, I decided to make potato bread. It's soft and fluffy and perfect for sandwiches. And we all know that after Thanksgiving there are plenty of sandwiches that need to be made, right?

The amount of flour you need for this might vary a bit, depending on how wet your mashed potatoes were. And the resulting bread will be slightly different, depending on what added ingredients you had in those potatoes, like butter, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk. It all works, but it's all going to be just a little bit different.

Sesame seeds aren't typical on potato bread, but I like them a lot, so I added them. It's my baking, and I'll seed if I want to. By the way, I prefer toasted sesame seeds, but untoasted white seeds or brown seeds are fine, too. Or go seedless. it's all good.

Potato Bread

1 cup cooked mashed potatoes
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 egg
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)
Sesame seeds.

Combine the mashed potatoes, bread flour, egg, yeast, sugar, salt, milk, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or you can combine in a bowl, then turn it out and knead by hand). The dough should be soft - not dense or dry. If it's dense or dry, add a bit of water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed.

Knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic - because of the potatoes and any extra ingredients in the potatoes, the dough might not be completely silky, but it should be relatively smooth. If the dough is too soft to form a ball and hold its shape, add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a dough with some bounce and the ability to form a ball. It's fine if it sags a bit, but it shouldn't be flowy.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour (could be longer if you started with refrigerator-cold potatoes).

When the dough has doubled, spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray, flour your work surface lightly, and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Turn out the dough and knead briefly, then form the dough into a smooth log that will fit into the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap or place the whole pan in a large bag and tie the open end of the bag closed. Set aside until the dough has doubled in size and if you poke it with a fingertip, the indent remains or fills in very slowly. It should be cresting an inch or so over the top of the pan.

Remove the plastic wrap, brush the top of the loaf with the eggwash, and sprinkle it with sesame seeds. Make a slash lengthwise across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Bake the loaf at 350 degrees until it is golden brown, about 40 minutes.

Turn the loaf out and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Dilled Potato Soup

Got leftover mashed potatoes? What are you going to do with them?

How about a dilled potato soup?

Maybe it's the Polish in me, but I find it hard to resist anything pickled. When I was a kid, if I was going to sneak something out of the refrigerator as a little snack, there's a good chance it would be a dill pickle.

So, when I first "met" dill pickle soup, I was enthralled. It's not like drinking pickle juice, but the pickles add a nice tang to what might otherwise be a pretty ... um ... normal ... soup.

If you're freaked out by pickles in soup, you can skip 'em and you'd have a nice potato vegetable soup.

This soup is infinitely customizable. To begin with, you're using leftover mashed potatoes - with whatever you put in them. Garlic, butter, cheese, chives - it's all good. Then we have the leftover vegetables. I had broccoli and cauliflower, but peas, carrots, green beans, lima beans - just about anything would work.

And then there are the pickles. There are endless brands and varieties, but if you like to eat the pickle, you'll like it in the soup. Trust me. If you're squeamish but curious, start with less pickle and add more to taste.

Since everything is cooked, this soup can be ready to eat in about 5 minutes. It's better if it simmers for a while so the flavors mingle, but it's not necessary. And it's great the next day, too.

Dilled Potato Soup

2 cups left over mashed potatoes
2 cups liquid - water, stock, milk, cream - whatever you have on hand. A mix is fine.
1 cup left over cooked vegetables
1 teaspoon dill weed (more to taste)
1 dill pickle, diced (or about 3 baby dills, diced)

Combine the potatoes, liquid, vegetables (chop them roughly if the pieces are large), dill weed, and pickles in a medium saucepan.

Heat to a boil, stirring to break up the mashed potatoes. Lower to a simmer. Taste for seasoning.

Since you're starting with ingredients that should have already been seasoned and the pickles are salty, you might not need to add any extra salt or seasoning, but add more dill, salt, or ground pepper, to taste.

Do you like those pickle bits in the soup? You can add more, and a few bits of diced dill pickle make a nice garnish on the soup.

Serve hot.

Cranberry Bread

I had dough rising, and I was thinking about making some kind of cranberry bread ring or braid when someone posted a link to this Nutella bread in a Facebook group. I knew I had to try it with my
cranberry bread.

You can use whatever cranberry relish, jam, chutney, jelly, or whatever that you have on hand. Or, when cranberry season is over, use any other jam or similar product. Some might not work as well as others - it needs to be thick enough to stay in place in the bread and not ooze all over, but that's a trial-and-error sort of thing. The thinner the product is, the less you want to use, though.

If you're bound and determined to use a runny jam or jelly, you can mitigate the seepage by laying down a layer of cake or cookie crumbs that will absorb some of the liquid. It will change the texture of the filling, but at least you won't have a baking sheet full of oozy, burning, sugary goo.

I used a cran-raspberry jam that I made for Thanksgiving, and for this filling I added a little bit of instant pectin to thicken it even more.

Beware: if you make this once, you will make it again. Probably the next day. So make sure you've got plenty of extra jam on hand.

Cranberry Bread

For the dough:
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
3 cups (13 1/4 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
For the filling:
3/4 cup cranberry sauce (I used homemade cran-raspberry)
For finishing:
Egg wash (one egg beaten with one tablespoon water)

Combine all the dough ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled - about 1 1/2 hours.

Flour your work surface, heat the oven to 350 degrees, and have a baking pan and parchment sheet or silicone mat (preferred) on hand.

Divide the dough in half, form each half into a ball, and roll each ball into a circle about 9-10 inches in diameter. Place the first piece on the silicone mat and spread the cranberry sauce thinly and evenly over the surface of the dough, leaving about 1 inch covered all around the outside.

Top with the second piece of dough.

Cut four slits in the dough - cutting all the way through the dough (but being careful not to cut the baking mat) as though you are cutting the dough into quarters, but not cutting the center section - try to leave a 2-3 inch uncut section in the center.

Make another four slits in the same way, centering them between your original four. Now, make eight more slits, centering them between the eight you already have.

Now, grab two adjacent strips of dough and twist them - either inward or outward, whichever feels more natural to you, as long as you're not twisting both in the same direction. Count how many twists you're making, so that you twist all the pairs the same number of times. Then just continue around the circle twisting each pair of dough strips the same way.

There are a couple tricks to keep in mind. First, make sure you've cut all the way through both layers of dough. I had a couple pieces that weren't quite cut and when I tried to twist, it got a teeny bit messy. Second, try to make all the cuts to the center even, so you end up with a pretty star pattern in the middle. Third, don't worry about it. When it bakes, it will look amazing, even if it is a little messy.

I rushed through the twisting a bit because my timing was off. Dinner was ready to go on the table so I didn't take as much time as I could have, but I was still very happy with the result. And next time, I'll have a better idea what I'm doing.

When you're done, slide the mat onto the baking sheet. Straighten the dough so it's a nice even circle, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until it's doubled, about 45 minutes. If it doesn't seem like it's doubled, give it a poke it gently with your finger - if the indent remains, it's ready to bake.

Remove the plastic wrap, brush the dough with the egg wash, and bake until the bread is a deep golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Remove the dough from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Mushroom pasta (with liver and onions)

Around here, we love liver and onions. Love.

We also like leftovers a lot. Obviously, leftovers are good for me because I can make a really quick meal. But they're also a great way to make a completely different meal with less fuss than starting completely from scratch. A roast might come back as a cold sandwich. Or even a stew. Or fajitas. Or a soup.

Sometimes a main dish is re-worked to become an appetizer or a side dish. And sometimes the second-day meal is something we look forward to the most.

Unfortunately, leftover liver and onions aren't the easiest things do deal with. Overcooked liver isn't a good thing - it gets tough - and if you've cooked the liver once, reheating can be risky.

I've made liver pate with cooked liver, and that's fine. But there's only so much pate I want to eat.

So, what can be made from a slightly larger amount of liver and onions? When it's not enough for a full meal, but too much for a nibble?

A little brainstorming led me to pasta. Some time ago, I made a pasta dish that included chicken livers and onions, so I figured I could make my liver and onions work in a similar recipe.

Here's how I made it

It was pretty simple. I cooked some mushroom pasta until nicely al dente and cut the liver into bite-size pieces and set that aside on the counter while I did everything else. I wanted it to come up to

I lobbed a lump of butter into a skillet and cooked it until it started to brown. I added the cooked pasta along with some of the cooking water, which made sort of a sauce. I added salt, pepper, and some ground sage. I added a splash or two of white wine.

I tossed that around to coat the pasta, and then added the liver and onions and gave it one more stir and toss before I served it. The point was to get the liver warmed up without letting it cook any further.

If I was going to do this again, I'd start with some fresh mushrooms and saute those in the butter to add an extra flavor and texture to the dish. A bit of sour cream or creme fraiche to make a creamy sauce would be interesting, too.

Obviously, if you don't like liver to begin with, this won't be your thing. But then again, if you don't like liver, you're never going to have any leftover liver and onions, are you?

I've made similar dishes using leftover steak or roast beef, letting it cook just long enough to take the chill off, without cooking any further.

So tell me, what's YOUR most creative use for leftovers?

This recipe plus that recipe equals ... Candy!

First there were the chocolate covered oreos.

Then there were truffles.

I decided to melt the left over white and red chocolate together to get a pink coating.

And then I rolled up some of the extra ganache I had left from the previous batch of truffles.

I chilled the heck out of the truffles and then coated them with the pink chocolate.

And then I sprinkled just a little bit of kosher salt on top.

Done. Yum.

Flash Recipe: Turkey Tacos, Part 2

Not that long ago, I posted about the turkey tacos I'd made using turkey legs that I braised specifically to make the tacos. Shortly after that, I decided I wanted to roast a turkey breast in a more traditional way. Instead of the usual mashed potatoes, I roasted potatoes along with the turkey.

I guess that made up for the lack of stuffing.

After I had a few sandwiches, I was ready to get a little more creative.

This isn't much of a recipe - it's all about what you like, so the amount are up to you. Use more or less salsa, and whatever proportions of meat and potato you like. If you've got other left over vegetables that would make sense in a taco, add them.

The great thing about this meal was that it was incredibly fast to throw together, since I was working with leftovers. I just cubed the turkey and potatoes, tossed them with a salsa I had on hand, and quickly heated them.

I served this on tortillas, topped with my favorite lime-pickled red onions.

    

Turkey Noodle Nonsense

So, ya wanna see what kind of crazy stuff I put together when I'm not being creative for the blog?

This is a prime example. It's simple, it's filling and it used up left over turkey and some other odds and ends I had in the pantry and freezer.

Yes, I know it's only Thanksgiving now and I'm talking about leftover turkey, but since I'm not doing Thanksgiving at home this year, I cooked some turkey early, and this used up the last of it.

This stretched my leftovers into several more meals. Almost like free food. What else can a gal ask for?

This would work just as well with chicken. As for the spinach, other frozen vegetables would be great, too. I almost reached for peas, but decided the spinach would be more interesting just this one time.

And if you want something a little lighter than a bowl of noodles, there's an easy way around that - just add enough water to turn this into soup. There's enough concentrated stock here to make that work. You might want to add a pinch of salt, though.

Turkey Noodle Nonsense

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
6 not-huge carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 bag egg noodles (about 6 ounces)
1 quart turkey stock
Salt, as needed
2 cups cooked turkey, diced or shredded
2 cups frozen spinach
Lemon juice (optional)

Melt the butter in a large pan (I used a large saucier) and add the onion, potato, and carrots. Cook, stirring as needed, until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add the noodles and cook, stirring as needed, until the noodles are lightly toasted. Depending on the shape of the noodles, you might not get all the surfaces toasted. That doesn't matter.

Add the turkey stock and cook, stirring as needed, until the noodles and vegetables are cooked through. If you need more liquid, add water, as needed. The goal is to have some liquid without this being soupy.

Taste for seasoning when the liquid is about halfway absorbed. Whether you need salt or not is going to depend on how salty the stock was. And that depends on how salty the turkey was. Add salt, if needed.

When the noodles are fully cooked, add the turkey and spinach, and continue cooking, stirring, until the turkey and spinach are warmed through.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, if desired. I like lemon with spinach  so lemon made perfect sense to me.

    

Turkey Sandwich #Thanksgiving #Leftovers

On Thanksgiving, my husband will be celebrating 11 weeks in the hospital. Well, celebrating might not be the right word, but we continue to see gradual improvements, and that's something to be happy about. Despite that happiness, I'm really not in the mood for my usual Thanksgiving celebration this year.

Not only is my husband not going to be home for Thanksgiving, but he's also not able to eat anything yet, so it's not like I could bring him a meal - not even mashed potatoes and gravy. And there's no way I want to spend a lot of time prepping and cooking a huge meal that would keep me away from the hospital.

But that didn't stop me from buying a turkey. At this time of year, they're just about the cheapest meat you can buy. How could I pass that up? So I bought a turkey and disassembled it so I could make smaller meals from all the parts. A few days ago I roasted a breast half.

The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. The house is clean and all the usual chores are done, I'm looking forward to a few days off of work with no big obligations to do anything, and I have fantastic leftovers.

That's what I was most looking forward to with that turkey breast - turkey sandwiches.

Of course, there's the traditional turkey, mayo and tomato sandwich, but I decided to change things up a bit. And of course the bread was home made. Of course ...

The extras on this beauty were raspberry jam and Roth Horseradish & Chive Havarti cheese. Of course, if you've got cranberry sauce, you could use that instead of the raspberry jam. And then I pressed and warmed the sandwich in a sandwich press. Perfect!

What's your favorite Thanksgiving leftover? Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag in Twitter to share your thoughts and get ideas before the big day-after.