What to do with Leftover "Turkey" & Recipe Post: "Turkey" Sliders

Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving! Anybody actually go out and shop for Black Friday? I only know a few people who actually brave the stores instead of just going online to get more deals with less hassle. (Did that sound like an infomercial? Sorry.) I can't judge, we actually went out for it this year, although the only things we bought were Taco Bell and Brad's Cookie Nook.

One thing that almost every family has in common the next few days after Thanksgiving, whether you participate in Black Friday or not, is a lot of leftover turkey or "turkey." My brother is a vegetarian, too, and my mom can't eat Quorn Turk'y (allergies) but also doesn't like real turkey, so my dad decides each year to not buy a real turkey just for himself since it'd be too many leftovers. My family always leftovers of the fake kind, the trickery of science and magic that is "Quorn Turk'y Roast."

I have a few of recommendations for turkey leftovers, of the real or fake variety. First, a new one that hasn't appeared on the blog before, and one of my favorite things to do with leftovers: "Turkey" Sliders.

This one uses up three of the main leftovers and is extremely easy. I made dinner in 5 minutes when I did these, and that was after deciding to make myself a second helping like Hubby.

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: Whatever time it takes to make the original meal! Leftovers only.

Cook Time: Less than 5 minutes

Serves: 4 sliders (2 per person)

Ingredients:

4 slices Quorn Turk'y Roast
4 left-over dinner rolls
~1/2 cup leftover gravy

Directions:

1) Heat up your turkey and gravy (duh). We used mushroom gravy, but whatever kind you have is fine.

Take your rolls, slice them in half and toast them. This year we had Panera rolls with dinner.

2) Spoon a small amount of gravy onto the bottom of your rolls.

Place a slice of turkey on top and add a little more gravy.

Top with the second half of the roll. And just like that, you have a turkey slider.

Rinse and repeat for the other three, and you've got dinner for two! (*Pictured before I decided on having seconds.)

We also had leftover Berry Crumble.

Even better the second day!

Now, there are a couple of other recipes that have been on the blog already that would also be great uses for leftover turkey or "turkey":

"Turkey" Noodle Soup:

"Turkey" Pot Pie:

Whatever you do with it, enjoy! Hubby and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Recipe Post: Berry Crumble

Oh, my, it's a recipe post!

We had a very busy weekend. I'll be posting about the rest of it later in the week, but Sunday we had my family's Thanksgiving celebration early since my dad will be out of the country on actual Thanksgiving. I made this as a dessert. This was done in Mom's kitchen--hence all the pretty, colorful bowls I don't usually have.

The first time I made a blackberry crumble, it was based on a recipe out of my Kitchen Seasons cookbook (I think!) and I went into my backyard and picked enough blackberries for it, and it was marvelous. I had tons of scratches on my legs because I dove into those blackberry bushes like I was wearing pants and not wearing shorts and did not have delicate skin, and none of those things were true. The crumble was still delicious. Worth it.

I no longer live in that house and unfortunately neither do my parents, so I can't go pick them at their house, anymore.

One of the first things I am going to do once Hubby and I have a house and not an apartment is plant blackberry bushes if our new house does not already have them.

The original blackberry crumble of mine is modified from the cookbook, and this one further so because I decided to add strawberries this time around. Yum!

This is one of those recipes where my mouth is watering as I write this, and I wish I had some on hand at this very moment. Alas, it is at home in my fridge.

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30-35 minutes

Serves: ~9

Ingredients:

For the filling:
1 bag frozen blackberries
1 bag frozen strawberries
2/3-1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp flour
1/4 tsp-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 stick butter (or 1/4 cup)

Directions:

For the filling:

1) If you're using frozen berries, thaw them in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes on medium power. If you're using fresh, ignore that step!

Slice the strawberries that are too large. For frozen berries, this actually isn't too many.

Add the blackberries. Sometimes an enormous blackberry will slip in there and will need to be cut in half, so just keep an eye out. Mostly they're an okay size.

Stir those up.

P.S., Feel free to use a mix with more types of berries. These are just what I had on hand.

2) Add in the sugar.

And the flour (for thickening) and the vanilla.

Enjoy the extra little bit of dog butt I added in that shot for you.

Here's another one (face this time!):

My pup, miss Stella Artois--2-year-old female half Australian cattle dog, half miniature pinscher. She likes long walks on the beach (or would if we had beaches) and only the finest of Blue Buffalo brand dog-food (or anything else that she can get in her mouth).

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog!

You just mixed the berries, remember?

Set aside.

For the topping:

1) Start with your flour.

Add in your brown sugar.

And the cinnamon.

Slice up a stick of butter (or half a stick if you don't need the rest of the butter for rolls like we did.)

With your fingers, gently press the flour and the butter together. This is the longest part of the recipe. You are more than welcome to use some newfangled kitchen appliance of some kind instead.

By the end, you should have a very crumbly crust.

2) Pour your berries into a baking dish. I used 9x9 I believe.

Top with the flour mixture.

Feel free to halve the topping mixture if you want it to be thinner. This layer of crumble was a tad thicker than the berries!

3) Bake for 30-35 minutes in a 375-degree oven, until the top is getting crispy.

It may or may not boil over like mine did.

Still tasty!

Here we have a berry crumble in its natural habitat. See the broken crumble on the top, a signature quality that inspired its namesake?

(I'm feeling weird today, can you tell?)

Enjoy!

Too Soon?

Howdy, y'all.

I do not have a recipe today. (Sorry.) I do have a few very important questions to ask, though:

Question #1: How early is too early to put up your Christmas tree?

Hubby and I decided to get our Christmas tree early this year. It's our first Christmas as a married couple in our own apartment, so we were excited to pick out the tree. I was feeling festive, anyway. How can I not, when this is what it looks like outside my window at work?

November? Pssh.

We can't have real trees in our apartment and the fake tree that I loved was well over $130. (Blegh.) As much as I wanted to get a really nice fake tree to make up that we couldn't get a real tree like Hubby wanted,  I couldn't bring myself to spend that much.

So! We bought a plain little 6-foot tree at Walmart for $20. In a way, it kind of fits our simple apartment better, too. We're considering going back for the 75% off+ sale after Christmas to get that nicer fake tree. We'll see!

That's all fine. But when we got home, we couldn't not break out our new tree. So we did. About two weeks before Thanksgiving.

Is that too early?

I kind of thought it was a tad too early, but my family usually puts up their tree the day after Thanksgiving so it wasn't too early. They're a fake-tree family, too, FYI.

Which leads me to Question #2: Fake tree or real tree?

Oh, and we also got a little penguin ornament that I found misplaced on a shelf elsewhere in the store, as our first ornament to go on our tree. It was $0.97 so I didn't feel bad getting something a little extra in our trip.

And a star for the top, because I'm pretty sure the $20 tree could not handle a full-weight angel.

#3 Angel or star (or something else?) for the top of your tree?

And 2 Christmas CDs to listen to while we were decorating.

Question #4: Does anybody else know who Bing Crosby is? Hubby had never heard of him. He was one of the main voices of my Christmases as a kid. In Hubby's defense, he recognized a couple of Bing Crosby's songs as the versions of classic carols that he'd grown up with also.

This weekend or next week we will add the rest of the ornaments to our tree, too. ...Or maybe tonight. We'll see!

Hopefully more recipe posts again soon. It is about to be the most food-centric holiday of the year, after all!

Recipe Post: Semi-Homemade Mocha

This is the story of a mocha.

Why? Because if it looks like it does here where you are, you probably need a hot drink.

My sentiment on snow is that it's pretty, but it's cold. I like pretty, but I don't like cold. I have a love-hate relationship with the stuff.

Now, that may not look like much snow, especially not for upstate New York (and it's not), but it was cold enough to snap off one of my windshield wipers today. Sigh.

Our pilot light also went out in our heater. It was that kind of morning.

So I made myself a mocha!

...Okay, so that's not much of a story. But you still get a mocha recipe out of it.

Now, this is not a Starbucks mocha, or a café mocha, or any other kind of fancy mocha. This is my country bumpkin easy-peasy make-it-in-the-morning-getting-ready-for-work mocha. If you are looking for the fancy mocha, I apologize. If you are looking for the easy and semi-homemade kind, welcome! Come and sit a spell.

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 2-3 minutes (+ the time it takes to make coffee)

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of coffee
1/2 packet of instant hot chocolate
2-1/2 tsp soy milk
1 tsp French Vanilla creamer

Directions:

1. Select your vegetarian-est mug, if you have one.

(Thanks, Aunt Lori!)

2. Pour in your soy milk and creamer.

Microwave for 2+ minutes, until the mix is nice and hot.

3. Grab your cocoa powder. Non-fancy brand is fine. This is what I used:

Open a packet.

Pour half into the warm soy milk.

Stir.

4. Add in your coffee and stir again. Top with a little shaved chocolate or espresso powder, if you're fancier than me and are not making this with very little time before you leave for work.

And welcome a warm and delicious mocha to your cold day.

Unless you live in Key Largo or something. And then I'm not talking to you anymore. Take your palm trees and go.

(And take me with you!)

Enjoy!

Kitchen hacks for less time/money:

-Substitute cow's milk for the soy milk

-Use regular creamer or half 'n half with a splash of vanilla extract if you don't have flavored creamer

Recipe Post: Simple Wrap

I love wraps. I know a lot of people hear or see "wrap" and immediately go, "Ugh, health food. No one would eat one unless they were one of those health nuts." And to some extent it's true, because usually more health-conscious people will choose a wrap...but I also just like them and sometimes prefer them to a "real" sandwich. Is that weird?

Wraps to me are kind of like tacos. You start with stock ingredients and make whatever the heck you want out of it. I will probably add "fancier" recipes later on with more complicated or refined wraps, but this one may always be my favorite--especially because it's easy! They also remind me of tacos in the sense that you may say "Do you really need a recipe for this?" Oh, well!

This specific combination reminds me fondly of college. At my college, we had a fast food joint that we were allowed to eat 15 meals at per semester in lieu of eating at our dining hall, and I always got this combination of a wrap with onion rings and Oreos. I never got sick of it!

I didn't have any onion rings or Oreos in the house, and I didn't feel like trying to make either, but I did do the wrap last night.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: Zero!

Serves: 1 (or 2 if you feel like sharing)

Ingredients:

1 large tortilla
2 slices provolone cheese
Shredded lettuce
Sliced tomato
Sliced green pepper
Quartered black olives
Sliced onions
Mayonnaise

1. Start with your tortilla.

Rocket science, I know.

2. Mayonnaise.

Or miracle whip, if you're of the devil. ...I mean, you're entitled to your opinion. Go ahead and use the devil whip if you like.

...Okay, it's not that bad. I've just always strongly preferred mayonnaise.

Slather on the mayonnaise or miracle whip as thickly as you like. I like a lot. If you couldn't tell.

3. Slice up all of your veggies in whatever size chunks you want. The wraps that I had in college always diced up the stuff, but I find less of it falls out if you slice.

Somehow I missed getting a photo of the cheese. It's there, I promise. P.S., if you don't like provolone/like another cheese better, use something else! I won't tell.

3. Lay out your cheese slices down the center, slightly overlapping. Sprinkle the lettuce slices in a horizontal line, leaving a little bit of space at the ends for folding.

See the cheese under there? Told you it was there.

Tomato slices.

Green peppers.

Kinda looks like the top of a football to me, now.

Then onion.

Then black olives. You can leave them off if you hate them like half the people I know.

I only had this much stuff left so I just snacked on the rest of the green pepper slices and unceremoniously threw the rest of the onions and lettuce on.

4. Now to make it an actual wrap!

Fold over the ends of the wrap, on the horizontal where you left a little space earlier. This only shows one side, but I don't have three hands to fold both sides and take a picture, so that's all you get!

Then fold up the bottom lengthwise.

Then wrap the other side around.

Roll until it's more tightly closed, and promptly flip it over so it doesn't come undone!

Slice it in half so it's all pretty.

And there you have a wrap.

And the meal that got me through college the years that our dining hall didn't have very many vegetarian options.

Enjoy!