The Thanksgiving Leftovers Everyone Forgets

[elleng]

'What to do with the extra ingredients we stuff into our refrigerators before Thanksgiving.

Even if my shopping is planned with military precision, the days leading up to Thanksgiving always require emergency trips to the store. Once I’m there, the single bunch of sage I came for somehow turns into yet another full bag of groceries.

Surrounded by ingredients, I am seized by both anxiety and ambition. Did those Georgia pecans I ordered back in September ever arrive? Do I really have enough squash now that I’m tripling the recipe? Shouldn’t I make a third pie this year?

The answer to these questions is always the same: Better buy more. And that’s how I end up with masses of leftovers. Not the celebrity Thanksgiving leftovers like turkey and stuffing. After all, you can just eat those.

But leftover bags of raw cranberries, extra squash that have served their purpose as centerpieces and the bunches of parsley and bags of onions I find stashed all over the house are harder to get rid of. No one wants to eat cranberry sauce once the turkey runs out. Everyone is sick of pumpkin, sweet potatoes and all things sweet and starchy.

So at this time of year, I go on the hunt for recipes that show off those ingredients, but without repeating the tastes of Thanksgiving.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/dining/thanksgiving-leftovers-recipes.html?

[irisblue]

1. Cranberry sauce

Cover pork chop/roast, chicken boneless thighs/breasts bake or in a crockpot = easy meal.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Cranberry orange walnut bread...

And curry squash soup.
And Turkey tortilla soup. ( that's tonight's dinner!)

[flotsam]

3. Cocktail meatball or sausage sauce

1 eight-ounce can jellied cranberry sauce
¾ cup chili sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1½ tsp lemon juice
Hot sauce, optional

Just mix and heat. Much more info here:https://delishably.com/appetizers-snacks/Cocktail-Meatballs-Cocktails-Weenies-Cocktail-Sausage

[csziggy]

4. As a test recipe I made a sweet potato cranberry bake

Cranberries, sugar, spices, orange slices, pecans and chunks of sweet potatoes, baked together. The original recipe used canned Bruce's yams (which are really sweet potatoes). I used fresh raw ones. I forgot to get an orange but had some snack cups of mandarin orange segments so I used them. It is great. I will make that to take to a holiday dinner next year!

Original recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230825/sweet-potato-cranberry-bake/

As per the comments I cut the sugar in half and used double the spices.

Here's the thing - I don't even like cranberries.

I could see making this with extra sweet potatoes and leftover cranberry sauce.

ETA - since I was using raw sweet potatoes I simply mixed everything together and baked it for 45 minutes.

[Retrograde]

5. Onions are not a leftover in my house

Just about everything I make starts with "chop an onion". Whole cranberries freeze well in the bag, and wasn't cranberry juiced stuff a fad a while back? Roasted squash is great in raviolis and gnocchi (although I have yet to make the latter successfully), which also freeze well.

It's the turkey that I get tired of first. This year I'm going for a big pot of turkey chili verde.

[912gdm]

6. I make candied cranberries for holiday parties in December.

they store up to a week in an airtight container. Don't refrigerate tho, they will eek out moisture and clump together.

[yellowdogintexas]

7. cranberry orange relish freezes really well.

I always made it for Thanksgiving and froze half for Christmas. You can make muffins with it too