Thanksgiving Leftovers: Turkey and Cranberry Crostini

Every year after Thanksgiving (or for me Canadian Thanksgiving) we end up with a ton of leftover turkey and cranberry sauce. Of course, I make turkey soup and that uses up a good bit of the turkey, and Nathan and I will eat a couple of turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches every year. But every year, I end up tossing a lot of cranberry sauce and usually a good amount of turkey as well.

So this year I decided to make a tasty snack of Turkey and Cranberry Sauce Crostini--literally the easiest crostini ever and it used up a fair bit of both turkey and cranberry sauce leftovers.

Baked Turkey Eggrolls

Crispy and Delicious!

Chinese take out is one of those things that I get cravings for, but even if you know that it's MSG free, it's probably still pretty unhealthy. Plus, if you're getting delivery, there's always a $10 minimum... and $10 of Chinese food is a lot.

Personally, I think if I had deep fried these egg rolls, they would have been vastly superior to anything I get at a local Chinese spot (Delaware is not known for it's Chinese population). Baked, they were still extremely delicious. Given my general dislike of frying things (it uses too much oil and I inevitably burn myself) I will choose the baked version every time!

Stromboli Two Ways

This past weekend Nathan and I headed down to southern Delaware for Punkin Chunkin  which is an annual event in which a variety of engineering marvels compete to see which can fling a pumpkin the furthest. Last year we were not 100% prepared for the tailgating style of the event and were somewhat lacking in foodstuffs. This year we decided to rectify the situation to the extreme.

Between the group, we brought two crock pots of chili, 4 bags of chips, a bowl of pumpkin dip with a box of ginger snaps, and a mass of sandwich making stuff.

I guess sandwiches were the most boring of the options, so we ended up with a pack of salami, turkey, provolone, pepperjack... overall way more sandwich stuff than Nathan and I would ever eat. And I thought: what could I make these things + other stuff I already have?

Answer: Stromboli.

Stromboli is a hybrid calzone and pizza. I made one that I would consider "traditional" flavors and one that was less so.

Stromboli

Ingredients
Frozen bread dough (two loaves)
Jarred spaghetti sauce
1 egg
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder

For Traditional Stromboli
About half a package of hillshire farms thin sliced salami
5 oz provolone cheese (mine was pre-sliced... about 1 oz per slice)
1 green bell pepper chopped
1/2 onion chopped

mmmm traditional tastes

For Turkey Cheese Stromboli
1/2 lb thin sliced turkey
5 oz pepper jack cheese (mine was pre-sliced... about 1 oz per slice)
1 package mushrooms sliced
1/8 cup sliced black olives

yet another use for turkey lunch meat!

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Let dough defrost according to package directions. Roll into a long strip about 6 inches wide. Spread about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce to within half an inch of the edge. Top with sliced meat.

Pre-cook vegetables (peppers, onions, mushrooms) in a pan until crisp tender. Spread lengthwise along half the dough along with cheese. I recommend tearing your cheese slices into smaller pieces . If you have a block, then grating is the easiest way to go.

Fold dough in half lengthwise and pinch dough together to seal. Move stromboli to a baking sheet. Brush the outside with the beaten egg and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Cut three slits in the down for steam release (your stromboli will explode if you do not do this)

my stromboli were really long... so they are crescent shaped

Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool about 5 minutes before slicing into 2" wide slices.

golden brown deliciousness...

These were easy and delicious. Plus they are versatile. Easy to make into a full blown meal or serve as an appetizer. They taste good at room temperature. I would recommend having some bowls of warmed tomato sauce for dipping to accompany these regardless.

Canadian Thanksgiving

This past weekend there were no snacks. I know, I was disappointed too.

Saturday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving at our place with our friends. This is becoming our event that we do every year. And every year it gets bigger! We actually had 16 people total, and our apartment is not super large. Luckily, we had beautiful weather and were able to utilize our porch area as well as the kitchen/living/dining area.
Sunday was Thanksgiving leftovers followed by a wedding where we were also fed a LOT. I swear I gained 5 lbs over the weekend... but it was sort of worth it by a factor of deliciousness.

So I am going to share my stuffing recipe and turkey recipes. Unfortunately before I could take pictures of my turkey and stuffing they were DEVOURED by my guests (I have Nathan trained not to eat the snacks until I've taken pictures). Trust me, they looked and tasted delicious.

This is from a cookbook... but we can assume my turkey looked the same.

Cornbread Sausage Stuffing

I never thought that I liked stuffing growing up because it got a weird texture and flavor. Then I discovered that you can put sausage in stuffing and my world was blown. Now I love stuffing. Also, you can make this up the point you put it in the turkey the night before which is really nice.

Ingredients
1 lb sweet italian sausage removed from casings
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 onions chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 boxes cornbread stuffing mix

Directions
Brown the sausage in a large skillet. When cooked, remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside, leave drippings in the pan. Add olive oil and butter to sausage drippings and heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Cook in drippings until onion is translucent.

Meanwhile, put your cornbread stuffing in a large bowl and add poultry seasoning. Add cooked sausage and vegetables with all drippings to the cornbread stuffing and mix. You can stuff your turkey (recommended) or add some stock and bake.

Turkey

Ingredients
1 turkey (mine was 19.5lb) In general, you should purchase a lb of turkey per person... more if you like to have lots of leftovers.
half stick of butter
salt and pepper
garlic powder
cheese cloth (cheese cloth bags that you can find around thanksgiving are the best!)


Directions
Mix salt, pepper, and garlic powder with butter. I didn't measure the seasonings, you just want to flavor the butter a little. You could use other seasonings if you want.

Remove the neck and giblets from the turkey cavities. Rinse the turkey off and pat dry with paper towels.

You're going to be buttering your turkey now. The key to having a delicious, crispy, moist, flavorful turkey is to butter over the skin AND under the skin. At the openings to the cavities you can kind of get your hand between the skin and meat and if you need to you can cut some small slits in the skin to get your hand through. Butter your turkey!

Fill your cheesecloth bag (made or bought) with stuffing. Shove it inside the main cavity. Fill a smaller bag with more stuffing. Shove it inside the neck cavity.

Side note: It is easier to stuff a turkey without the cheesecloth bag, but it is really, really difficult to get all of your stuffing out of the turkey. By putting your stuffing inside of a cheescloth bag you have the benefit of having it cook inside your turkey (which makes it and your turkey more delicious) without try to scoop it out of your turkey when it molten lava hot. Turkey grease will burn you.

Preheat your oven to 350. Place your turkey BREAST SIDE DOWN in your roasting pan. Don't have a roasting pan? Well you should invest because it makes life easier and better. Plus if you try to use a foil one when you are lifting your enormous turkey out of the oven later it will be flexible and you will burn yourself with drippings when they spill out onto your semi-protected arm.

Oh, breast side down. Why? It looks upside down you say. The white meat of the breast will dry out long before the dark meat between the leg and body is cooked. By turning it upside down, instead of the moisture from the breast dripping down into the stuffing, all the juice from the stuffing and the dark meat is flowing down into the breast meat and keeping it moist and making it delicous.

Tent your turkey with tinfoil and bake 20mins per lb until meat thermometer reads a little below 170 (meat will continue to cook while resting). Let your turkey rest 15 minutes before carving.

Remove your stuffing and serve in a bowl.