I believe that every family has their post holiday rituals of food and drink, and as far as I'm concerned its probably the most enjoyable parts of the holiday. There is nothing the makes me more happy after a holiday feast than to create another awesome feast with the left overs. In my opinion I think it takes a bit more skill to do an awesome left over meal. What I mean is, you have already cooked stuff that already taste great but how do you make it taste different and make something that is completely a new meal. For example, Turkey enchiladas make for a wonderful post holiday entree the next day or a couple days later. You can prep them up and freeze them or cook them up that night. I personally love the turkey enchiladas. My grandfather Buzz used this awesome recipe for years and we always had a left over turkey enchiladas party after Thanksgiving and Christmas. My dad always made turkey soup out of the left overs, he would spend all day cooking the bones and some other wonderful ingredients for the stock of the soup and it was just gallons of lovely soup. They would always plan to make more food for the holidays just so we could get those left over meal delights.
As for Julia and I, it was a wonderful Christmas dinner this year with friends and their families. Our friends Liz and Kristian invited us to have dinner with them and my job was to cook the awe-inspiring and heavenly turkey of the century. Everyone else was to create the other highlights of the meal. We were to have the occasion at the secret rustic location in the middle of the island that cannot be disclosed on the internet. It was quite and very beautiful there and if anyone was to know about it it would get ruined and destroyed by hotel zombies. Anyway, cocktail time supplied us with appetizers of calamari caprese, smoked salmon pate, and spicy artichoke dip. There was copious amounts of wine and beer before the real eating began and I was having to much fun, artichoke dip, and conversations around the fire to remind myself I was in Hawaii. The bell rang and it was time to put on the dinner jackets and sit down for the meal. Everything seemed to come together as though we were all cooking in the same kitchen all day. I could not have asked for anything better for a holiday meal. Turkey was great, the potatoes and gravy were fluffy and tasty, the veggies were so good, and homemade cranberry sauce hit the spot. The dessert time was nice as well, Mike(bouncer/master of the secret location) created some delightful cookies, and Kristian's mom made one of the most moist scrumptious cheese cakes of my life. The party ended too soon and as we all went are own ways, I thought in my mind, the next week will be more fun cooking left overs than cooking for the Christmas dinner itself. I quickly gathered some left over pieces and the carcass of the turkey to take home and begin the Dr. Victor Frankenstein "Turkey Leftover Experiment". Of course I don't want to make the turkey live again but rather be recreated again in another awesome meal. I awoke the next morning to begin the process of leftover holiday tastiness. I roasted an onion, bell peppers, habinaro pepper, and some carrots. I took the carcass and all of those roasted items and put them in water and let that simmer for a day or so. After it was ready I cleaned up the stock and put the rest of the turkey meat and potatoes, carrots, onion, celery and some awesome herbals. I can't believe how good it made my house smell. I was almost willing to go to the CEO of Febreeze and tell him to make a turkey soup smell. Yah awesome right, who would spray that all over your home everyday? Hell, I would spray myself too! After the initial taste I found out that for never making this before I am really good and it. I had never made left over turkey soup in my life and I wanted to attempt to recreate what I watch my father do my whole life. "I saw a guy do it once", I told myself, and now I am gonna make turkey soup like that every year. Im sure I will attempt something different in the years to come, but for the most part I loved it. I bottled up some, froze some more and I will be eating it for lunch for the next week. I wish that there was more turkey leftover for those Buzz enchiladas but maybe I'll just make a turkey so I can make leftover Buzz enchiladas anyway.
Well, I sure do hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and some leftover bliss this last week. I saw some pictures of my father's prime rib he did for the Christmas dinner in NJ, it looked very very good. And for all of you who love leftovers too, keep up with the Jones and make sure to create instead of just reheat.
Notes for the day:
- Turkey sandwiches are really good with stuffing too
- Don't use chicken stock for gravy if you just cooked a turkey
- Green velvet dinner jackets work best for Christmas
- Have a good New Year
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