Thanksgiving leftovers 3: Thanksgiving Braid

In my family, I am the queen of braids. I'm referring to the edible kind of braids, made with crescent rolls and stuffed with all sorts of deliciousness. My husband would eat the chicken and broccoli braid three times a week if I'd make it for him.

Last year I created the Thanksgiving braid. I made it before Thanksgiving, using ingredients that reminded me of Thanksgiving rather than leftovers. This year, I reworked it to use some leftovers and some readily available ingredients with similar results.

Thanksgiving Braid
Ingredients:
1 package crescent roll
2 cups diced turkey
1 cup diced brie, divided
3/4 cup craisins
1 cup frozen green beans, thawed
1/3 cup fried onions
1/3 cup low-fat mayo

1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp marjarom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Substitutions:
- If you have poultry seasoning, substitute about 2 tsp poultry seasoning for all the spices, but still add lemon pepper or lemon zest
- If you have leftover green bean casserole, use that for the green beans and onions and reduce the mayo to 1/4 cup.
- If you don't have leftover turkey, substitute chicken or pork or cook a few turkey cutlets or tenderloins. I recommend seasoning them with the poultry seasoning or all the spices for even more flavor.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix together the turkey, 1/2 cup brie, craisins, green beans, and onions (or green bean casserole).
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the mayo and all the spices.
4. Unroll the crescent roll on a baking stone or cookie sheet, press together the seams, and press into a single rectangle.
5. Spread about 2 tbsp of the mayo mixture lengthwise down the center of the braid.
6. Mix the remaining mayo with the turkey mixture.
7. Dot the mayo on the crescent roll with the remaining chunks of brie.
8. Evenly spread the turkey mixture over the mayo and the brie.
9. Cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch wide strips on each side, leaving about 3/4 inch from end of the cut to the filling. Lift each strip to the center of the filling, twist once, and tuck the ends under the filling. (This describes the braiding process pretty well).


10. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. The top may brown before the bottom is cooked completely. If this happens, put some aluminum foil over the top and bake a few minutes more, until the bottom of the braid is cooked through.

I don't have an after picture because my husband cut into and devoured half of it before I got the camera out again.

With all the spices, the mixture tasted a lot like stuffing, but the green beans and craisins sweetened it up and kept it from being too savory. I considered substituting cream of mushroom soup for the mayo, and I bet that would provide even more flavor and amp up the green bean casserole element of the dish. Overall, I liked it and would probably make it again. It's definitely a good use of leftovers, or in my case, a good use of ingredients that are available cheaply this time of year.

Thanksgiving leftovers 2: Macaroni and cheese

Butternut squash is a staple at my family's Thanksgiving dinner. I am not a fan.

I like butternut squash when it's cut into chunks and roasted with something sweet, like brown sugar or maple syrup, but this is not how butternut squash is served at our Thanksgiving dinner. Instead, my mom cuts the squash in half and roasts it in the oven with a little butter (or butter spray), and then mashes into a baby food consistency. Yes, baby food. I remember my mom defrosting boxes of frozen squash and using them as baby food, and that is exactly what our Thanksgiving butternut squash looks like. As my husband says, it looks exactly like it sounds - squashed.

However, I discovered that this preparation of squash or those boxes of frozen squash are great for making some awesome macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and cheese is a traditional Thanksgiving side dish in the South, so combining squash with mac and cheese is doubly festive. Plus, the 10-ounce boxes are on sale for $1 this week at my grocery store, so they're definitely a good bargain this time of year.

The recipe I use is Rachael Ray's Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese (FYI - Boo is her dog). She uses the frozen squash in a box, but if you have Thanksgiving squash like my family (or the fresh is on a great sale), you could substitute the mashed fresh stuff instead. If you're a fan of baked macaroni and cheese, I recommend the Harvest Moon Macaroni. It's almost the same recipe, but finishes with a few minutes under the broiler to get that nice brown top on it.

The squash really makes the sauce creamy and adds great depth of flavor without really changing the taste of macaroni and cheese. These recipes use ingredients that are already inexpensive, but also takes advantage of some Thanksgiving ingredients that can be picked up for a bargain this time of year - squash, chicken stock, and fresh thyme.

And who doesn't love macaroni and cheese?

Thanksgiving leftovers: Chicken and sweet potatoes

The Food Network has been highlighting Thanksgiving recipes for the last couple of weeks, and I have been completely into it. I now know how to brine, deep fry, roast, smoke, and grill a turkey. Of course, I'm having my Thanksgiving dinner at the country club so I'm not sure how useful any of this information will be, but I'm available in case you have a Thanksgiving-food related question.

My favorite shows are related to what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers. I love watching food morph into different food with a completely different flavor. This is the essence of Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals and Sandra Lee's Round Two Recipes. Who hasn't had leftover chicken and thought, "What should I do with this?" These types of recipes are really helpful for me because my husband is not a fan of leftovers. I can freeze something and he'll eat it weeks later, but he's not interested in having last night's dinner for lunch tomorrow.

The leftover segments got me thinking about my own leftover situation this year. Because we're eating at a buffet, we sadly won't have any Thanksgiving leftovers. We're also eating at 1pm so I fully expect to be hungry again by 8pm. I might actually have to cook something... but what? It seems like this would be the perfect time for Thanksgiving leftovers, but I don't want to make Thanksgiving dinner just to have leftovers! Hmm.

I'm also being fairly budget conscious, especially as we head into the holidays. Even though I'm not making Thanksgiving dinner, I'm still taking advantage of the great sales on Thanksgiving foods - cans of pumpkin, crescent rolls, sweet potatoes, chicken stock, cranberries, etc. These are foods I either already use frequently or like but don't usually make because of availability/cost. But now is a great time to stock up or plan menus around these items.

This is what I offer to you. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to post some ideas and recipes for using "Thanksgiving ingredients" in different ways. I'll also post a few leftover recipes for good measure (I may finally share my Thanksgiving braid recipe).

I'll start with what we had for dinner tonight. These recipes highlight sweet potatoes, which I've been eating a lot lately, and those French's Fried Onions that I've only ever used for green bean casserole.

French's Crunchy Onion Chicken
I linked the recipe from the French's website (it was also on the back of the can) because it is pretty close to what I made. I made the three-serving (read: 3 chicken breasts) Dream Dinners version tonight, and I don't remember exactly what was in it. The major variation is that instead of an egg dip, I melted minced garlic (1 tsp maybe?) and worcestershire sauce (1 tsp maybe?) in a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a small sauce pan and dipped the chicken in that before rolling it in the crushed onions (I didn't use flour). I baked at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes and then broiled for 2 minutes. It was absolutely delicious - very moist and full of flavor. It was a great way to use those onions so buy the big canister when you're making the green bean casserole!

Candied Carrots and Sweet Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 carrots, sliced
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
salt to taste - I used about 1/2 tsp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Steam the sweet potatoes and carrots until tender. Put vegetables in a baking dish (probably a 9x13 - I used an 8x8). Melt the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until the brown sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble. Pour the brown sugar mixtures over the vegetables and bake for 45min-1 hour. I stirred up the vegetables a couple of times to make sure the brown sugar and butter continued to coat the vegetables.

These vegetables are definitely sweet - they are called candied afterall - but I thought they were a great balance to the savory and somewhat salty flavor of the chicken. Sweet potatoes are full of Vitamin A and inexpensive right now so I am a huge fan of playing with different preparations, flavors, and textures right now. Stock up!