Thanksgiving is easily my most favorite holiday of the year. Why? Because we get to see friends and family and stuff ourselves with some delicious food!
I have so much to be thankful for that I attend at LEAST two Thanksgivings...yes. Full Thanksgivings. One on actual Thanksgiving and one the Saturday after. I'm just blessed like that.
If your cup runneth over like mine does, you probably have a fridge full of leftovers. After a day or two, the thought of another turkey sandwich or reheated Thanksgiving meal probably has you singing the blues....
So do what I do....Thanksgiving Redoux!
Usually, I take this recipe and I make fried croquettes. This year, I did both waffles and fried croquettes. The beauty is that it's the same "recipe". Why am I putting quotes around recipe? Because it's kind of hard to call something a recipe when all your doing is throwing everything into a bowl and mushing it together with egg and cheese, but that's really all we're doing here.
Grab yourself the following leftovers:
stuffing
mashed potatoes
turkey
And grab:
1-2 eggs
shredded cheese (optional)
chopped green onion (optional)
panko bread crumbs (if making croquettes)
Plug in your waffle iron so it can heat up while you're mixing up your ingredients.
I eyeballed the amounts. Just use as much or as little as you like. You really just want to make sure it's not too much mashed potato or your batter is really soft. Not unusable, you just have to be more careful with it.
In this bowl, I probably have about 1 cup leftover, cold mashed potatoes, 1 cup of stuffing, and about a cup of shredded turkey. You can feel free to leave out any of these leftover ingredients. I've done just stuffing and mashed potatoes and also just stuffing and turkey. You can use just mashed potatoes, but they won't crisp up in the waffle maker. If you want to just kick up your mashed potatoes, I would follow this recipe.
To this, I added 2 eggs. I say use 1-2 depending on how much you're making.
Grab a large mixing spoon or use your hands and mix it all up into one incorporated mass of Thanksgiving leftover goo.
I decided to add some shredded cheddar cheese because...well, just because. Did you know you can keep chopped green onions in the freezer to use whenever you need them? You can! And I happened to have some so I added some in too. The cheese and green onions are optional.
Now it looks like a party!
By now, my waffle maker is nice and hot so I add in about a cup and a half of Thanksgiving goop. It smells good IMMEDIATELY. Spread around and close the waffle maker.
Cooking time will depend on your waffle maker. This only took about 7 minutes.
You can top with gravy and cranberry sauce. It even tastes amazing with maple syrup! I chose to eat mine with some leftover collard greens I had. But I drank cranberry juice while I was eating it.
I made two good sized waffles and still had enough to make croquettes. Can we ever get enough fried foods? To make croquettes, simply form your mixture into patties, dredge in egg wash and roll in seasoned bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs. If your mixture is mashed potato heavy and kind of soft, let it sit in the fridge for about an hour. Having them be cold keeps them firm and makes them easier to fry. Then I just give them a quick fry in olive oil.
Hopefully this will inspire you to try something different with your Thanksgiving leftovers.
Here's to good eatin'!
No comments:
Post a Comment