Thanksgiving Leftovers

Even before Thanksgiving, I saw an article in the New York Times: A Radical Rethinking of Thanksgiving Leftovers, unsurprisingly written by Mark Bittman.  Good ideas, and I was excited about them, but I came across a few more that were a little more appealing to me, and ended up with a few of my own, too.  First we made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a spicy mustard (pictured above).  I made ham stock and turkey broth from the leftover bones.  I adapted a White Bean and Ham Stew recipe from Food & Wine magazine to use that ham stock.  My favorite so far has been the Turkey Soup with Lime and Chile from the New York Times, which turned out to be super simple and tasty, just what we needed after a stuffed weekend (the avocado and crispy tortilla strips helped with the transition from heavy to light).  I circled back to the original article and made some exceptional cranberry yogurt parfaits (pictured below).

Broccoli-Basil Mac & Cheese

Ever since this recipe for Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese was posted, I was looking forward to it.  I love broccoli and I love mac and cheese.  Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed in the outcome.  I used manchego as called for in the original recipe, and I don't think I like it very much.  The basil flavor didn't come through at all, nor did the out-of-season yellow cherry tomatoes.  The broccoli wasn't pronounced.  The squash seemed out of place.  I probably should have used a half-and-half pasta instead of whole wheat.

I want to go through this recipe and rewrite it to be more appealing to me.  I know I can use it as a starting point to make something great.  I'll likely keep the broccoli bread crumbs, but I'm considering trying a cauliflower bread crumb, maybe sauteed to crisp it up a little.

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

I saw this Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash recipe a long time ago.  At the time, it looked interesting, but not appealing enough to try.  Now that I have so much winter squash, it came up again and I decided to try it.

I didn't find it particularly exciting.  It could be adapted to be so.  The recipe notes suggest a variation with coconut milk and curry - that's what I should have done instead.  The aniseed was not for me - I should have known when I opened it and smelled it.  That being said, I found the pudding kind of bland.  The only thing that really made it worth eating was the melted cheese on top!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Andrea came over and we made the Loaded Baked Potato Soup from the Pampered Chef Season's Best book. I had intended to make this for my next show, but good thing I tried it at home first - it's not a recipe well suited to a presentation. In fact, one of my customers who tried to make it actually threw it away before it was finished because it looked so gross! But it is a fun recipe to make using the Deep Covered Baker - and it is done entirely in the microwave. (If you don't have a Deep Covered Baker, order one from me, right now. You might not think you need it, but you do. If you don't believe me now, within a few months you will, when I am making fancy stuff in my microwave, and you are sitting at your computer with your mouth watering over it, about to go make it, when suddenly you remember that you didn't order one when I told you to. Just wait and see.)

Luckily, it tasted good. Ken even said it was better than Panera's soup. Salt and pepper make all the difference, though. I also used mild cheddar because I wanted it to taste like potato, not cheddar. Typically I like extra sharp, but I thought it might overwhelm the soup. I barely tasted it, so this worked. Optional add-ins listed are steamed broccoli florets and bacon. I steamed the broccoli by just wetting it and microwaving it for about 20 seconds. I like my broccoli to be much more crisp than tender, and it was a nice contrast to soup. We didn't use bacon, but that is what is in the Panera baked potato soup, so I would like to try it next time. I am not a big soup person, but I like chunky soups. This would be interesting pureed if that is something that you are interested in.