Musings from Graceland

ANYONE ELSE DREAMING ABOUT THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS?

As I was perusing a newly-discovered food blog yesterday, CLOSET COOKING, I came across a post that was all about creative ways to use Thanksgiving leftovers. Just the sight of those scrumptious turkey sammies and other dishes got me to dreaming of my own Thanksgiving leftovers. After all, it doesn't really seem like Thanksgiving if you're not munching on turkey sandwiches and other season delectables for at least a few days afterwards. I always make sure that when I make my turkey, I make one enormous enough to ensure lots of meat for many meals to come.

You can check out Kevin's suggestions at his blog, http://www.closetcooking.com/2009/11/thanksgving-leftovers-ideas.html , and also try one of my favorite leftover recipes. I got the idea from Rachael Ray on one of her tv shows while down at my mom's house one year. All of my family liked it and this has become an after-Thanksgiving tradition in our household. I liked it not just because it tasted good, but because I was able to make it with items I already had on hand and it was super duper quick to fix --- EASILY under 20 minutes from start to finish.

Originally, I tried to find it online but couldn't locate it, so I just made it using what I remembered from her show. Here's my "fly by the seat of your skirt" recipe version:

Put a good heavy skillet on a medium burner and heat it up.

Add just enough of your favorite cooking oil to lightly cover the bottom. I used
safflower oil, a "good for you" oil.

Crumble up your leftover dressing or stuffing in the bottom of the skillet after the oil heats up. Allow the dressing to heating up. I stirred mine up a couple of times so that it wouldn't get too brown on the bottom.

Then sprinkle enough shredded cheese over the stuffing to cover it in a thin layer.

Pour raw scrambled eggs (add salt and pepper first) over the stuffing. You want there to be enough scrambled eggs to cover the cheese and seep down thru the cracks in the dressing layer but not so thick it'll take forever to cook.

Then sprinkle Parmesan cheese (fresh or from the green can) over the eggs.

Put in an oven preheated to 375 and cook just til the eggs are firm.

Since my stuffing was already pretty warm when I poured the eggs, they cooked and firmed up pretty quickly.

If you're a big cheese eater, you can add more on each individual serving.

This tastes a lot like the traditional breakfast casseroles using bread and eggs so it can be served as a breakfast dish or with a meal like you would a frittata or quiche.

BTW, in your family, is it stuffing or dressing? Around these parts, dressing seems to dominate as the preferred name and it's usually a cornbread based dish. I'd love to hear about yours.