Traffic pro

Thanksgiving is over and you still have a ton of leftovers. That is the problem many families have this time of year. Everyone loves the Thanksgiving dinner and most people like the sandwiches later in the night. Once it gets to the next day people tend to have no interest in the leftovers.

My family HATES leftovers and I HATE wasting things. This means that I am very good at looking at a fridge full of leftovers and creating something that they will eat.

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my families favorite dishes made out of Thanksgiving leftovers. The list is in the order that I would normally make them in. The Thanksgiving Casserole uses most of the leftovers. The other two I do when I just have turkey to use up.

• Thanksgiving Casserole
• Turkey Pot Pie
• Turkey Asparagus Bake

I love finding different ways to use up leftovers but these are my families favorites. Does your family have a favorite way to use up your leftovers?

Here is a cute little project for kids. This cute little craft stick basket can be easily made by kids. It could even be used as a bread basket on the table this Thanksgiving. Your kids will love showing off their basket at dinner time. All you need is craft sticks and glue. For a basket that lasts longer you can use wood glue. You could also get creative with the shape and design. When you are done simply add a cloth on the inside and you are ready to add bread.



Place three sticks down in a pattern so it looks like a hexagon with three missing sides. Put a dot of glue on the ends of the sticks. Then put three more sticks down in the openings so that they over lap and glue to the original sticks.


Continue adding sticks in the same three at a time back and forth pattern. When you are at the height you want stop. If you are unsure stop because you can always add more after the bottom is made.



Starting The Bottom

What you are going to want to do is, add the next three sticks a bit more "inside" than the other ones. You want to make it so that the sticks aren't overlapping. The first one will barely fit but all the others will have plenty of space.

Keep doing that until you can't without overlapping sticks. At this point you can just cover up the opening with a row of sticks.

Every year millions of people make turkey and stuffing. Most just make the normal sage stuffing. Now that we live in the day and age of instant everything even our stuffing is instant. I am willing to bet that most people just grab a box or a bag of stuffing each year.

I will admit that I use stuffing mix. One of my little known secrets is that I cheat at cooking often by adding extra things to prepared mixes. It speeds things up and still tastes homemade.

For stuffing I add onions, celery, and real broth to the prepared mix. This year I wanted to do something a bit different. As I thought about it I realized that I have never made my mother's sweet stuffing. When I was growing up my mother always made two pans of stuffing. One was normal sage and one was sweet. This year I will try to make her sweet stuffing.

This will be more of a guideline than a recipe. When I called my mother for the recipe she laughed and said that she has never wrote it down so she has no clue. She gave me her best guess at amounts though. I will just try it and see what happens.

Sweet Stuffing is made with sage stuffing mix to make it easy right from the start. Yes my mother cheated while in the kitchen just like I do now.

Sweet Stuffing
(this recipe is all estimates... change amounts according to taste)


Dry Mixture

Stuffing Mix (already seasoned "sage stuffing mix")
Diced Onion
Diced Celery
Raisins
Peanuts or Walnuts (unsalted)

Wet Mixture

3 cups of warm broth
1/2 cup brown sugar


Bake

Combine wet and dry mixtures without breaking apart the bread cubes. It is good to have a little extra broth on hand just in case. Place the stuffing mixture in a buttered baking dish and bake covered for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Making a Thankful Tree could become a wonderful tradition for years. It is a wonderful project that keeps kids giving thanks all November long. This Thankful Tree is made using a branch and regular paper. The paper is cut into leaf shapes and then painted. You can make your Thankful Tree out of anything. All that matters is that you make it together and give thanks.

First you make your tree and then you can start adding your leaves or hands. Everyday the members of your family get to write something that they are thankful for and then add it to the tree. By the time Thanksgiving comes along you have a big full tree.

This one is made from construction paper and displayed on a window. You can get creative and make your Thankful Tree out of anything. You can cut out hand prints or leaves for your tree. It is all up to you.

If you have a small family you may want to add more than one a day. Make sure that you all discuss the things you are thankful for as you do it. That is the best part.

Okay, here is another recipe to use up your turkey leftovers just like I promised. This is another big favorite in my house. Everyone is happy when I make a pot pie. I seldom make just a small one in a pie pan I usually make more pie crust and make a big one in a 9x13 baking dish. A small pie size would never be enough for all the turkey pot pie lovers in my house. You can also opt to use a store bought ready to bake pie crust.

Okay, I promised you more Thanksgiving leftover recipes so here is another one. This one is possibly my favorite one. Do not forget to keep checking for more.


The Sauce

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion diced
  
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup turkey broth
• 2 cups milk
• 5 tablespoons Dijon mustard

In a medium sauce pan heat butter and onions until the onions are translucent. Add the flour and continue to cook until the flour is well blended and bubbly. Then add in the broth, milk, and mustard. Continue to cook the mixture until it thickens a little and is bubbly. The mixture can then be taken off the heat and set aside.


Turkey Asparagus Bake

Now you can assemble the dish. If you want to be fancy you can wrap the leftover turkey breast around bundles on asparagus. I could care less about that so I just layer it all. In a 9x13 baking dish layer asparagus and then turkey at the bottom of the pan. You can then pour the sauce over the top and bake in the oven with foil over the top at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Sometimes I change the recipe around and add a layer of mushrooms before the turkey. I have also been known to sprinkle some swiss cheese over the top at the end and bake another few minutes uncovered until the cheese gets bubbly. I am sure that you could come up with some new ideas too.

I love Thanksgiving but I love the leftovers more. For years I have been coming up with new ways to use the leftovers. I decided that for the next couple of posts I will do some of my leftover recipes. The first day after Thanksgiving there are the most leftovers so I do a kind of Thanksgiving Shepherds Pie.

The recipe is quite simple. First I butter a 9x13 baking dish. Then I make a layer of leftover stuffing at the bottom. If we happen to have those cranberry raisins laying around I add some in the stuffing. This time of year we usually do because James loves them in Oatmeal Cookies. Next I layer some dark meat turkey. I have many other recipes that call for any white meat that is leftover so for this one I only use the dark meat.

I always make corn for Thanksgiving so I add some leftover corn next. Now you add some leftover gravy to the top of the meat. There are times that I have ran out of gravy but I always boil the carcass to make broth so worse case scenario I have to make a little gravy. The top then gets covered with mashed potatoes. You bake this dish at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the top browns. You can sprinkle some paprika or other spices to the top if you would like it to have a pretty look.

All Thanksgivings are different so some years I will run out of stuffing or mashed potatoes. The beauty of this dish is that you can change it any way you like. If you are out of potatoes just put the stuffing at the top. You will then still have a pretty topping.

My family loves this dish and it is a nice and easy meal which is nice after all of the cooking and cleaning of Thanksgiving.

So what will your family be doing on Thanksgiving? For most families Thanksgiving means lots and lots of football. Some kids love football and others have no interest in it. A great holiday gathering can turn very bad, very fast if kids get bored. A great holiday with family is when you keep kids occupied so there are less chances for them to get bored and get into trouble. I would like to share with you some ideas of how to keep kids busy this Thanksgiving.

Pin the Football in the Goal Post

This first game is a Thanksgiving / Football version of playing pin the tail on the donkey. Kids can have a blast and stay occupied for quite a while with this one. Even the smallest and least athletic child can score in this game. The kids can take turns being blindfolded and sticking the football up. Remember to turn the kids around a few times after they are blindfolded so they are not sure where the goal post is. This is what makes it harder to score and the game even funnier.


Find The Turkey Egg

Eggs are not just for Easter. Turkeys lay eggs so why not have an egg game for Thanksgiving? In this game one person leaves the room while a hard boiled egg is hidden. When the person comes back in the room they have to find the egg. To make it more fun the people in the room will gobble when the person gets closer to the egg. The gobbles get louder as the person gets closer. What could be more fun than a room full of friends and family gobbling?

Turkey day is getting closer and closer. I can not wait to eat me some turkey. We still are not too sure what we will be doing that day but I know we will be making a turkey even if we do not have Thanksgiving here.

Moving all the time means that we never really live very close to family members. James' dad is the only one that will be around for Thanksgiving so it is up in the air. Some holidays we go there and some he comes here. It all depends on weather and health. He was just here for a turkey and ham dinner a few weeks ago so we shall see.

Yes we just had a big turkey dinner but we have them more often than most families. We usually have turkey several times a year. We like having big dinners all together. The grocery store had buy a ham get a turkey free that week so that was all we needed to inspire us to have a big dinner.

I do not do a normal rosemary and sage turkey but what really is a normal turkey? Everyone has their own "style". I do a simple turkey with very few steps. I mix butter with Cajun seasoning mix and pack that under the skin. I also use a bit to butter up the outside of the turkey. Other than that I just stick an onion cut in half up the birds butt. I do not think it adds too much flavor to the bird but it makes the drippings taste better.

I do not stuff my turkey ever. My mom always said it would dry out the bird if you cooked it long enough to kill the poultry germs that get into the stuffing. I rarely listened to my mom but that is one thing that I followed. My mom always baked stuffing in separate baking dishes.

I do roast my turkey a bit differently though. I like making a big breakfast on holidays since that is the only time we are all home and not in a hurry. This means that I always start the turkey later than I would hope. I speed up the roasting process by starting the turkey at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then dropping the temperature to 350 degrees.

I learned this method from Alton Brown on Good Eats. I love his show. He always has these big scientific reasons things work and why you should do things that way. When it comes to making turkey this way all I care about is that it takes about an hour off of the cooking time. This means that I do not have starving people wondering why I did not start the turkey sooner.

These cute placemats can be made out of construction paper or foam sheets in fall colors. All you need to do is cut the foam sheets or paper into strips and then let them start weaving them together. You can also cut shapes out to add if you want them more fancy.

Kids love making things that can be enjoyed and admired by everyone at family gatherings. Placemats are the perfect thing for kids. Everyone will be able to see what they made and even the most crowded table has room for placemats.

This cute idea can be done by young kids or older ones. The idea is to take raw corn and break them into small pieces. They can then be rolled in paper plates full of paint. Younger kids can use normal paints and plain paper or construction paper. Older kids can use fabric paints and real fabric or ready made placemats. Then the placemats can be saved for many years to come.

Fall colors would be great for Thanksgiving. You can even make stripes in two different directions to make it look like a woven design.

Remember being in school and making pinecone turkeys?

They are still a great craft for kids to make at Thanksgiving time. They are cheap to make and kids get to have fun and be creative. I think that I would still have fun making them.

You can make some as decorations or you can make them into placecard holders for your Thanksgiving dinner too. Kids will love making this craft even more when they learn that everyone will see them and they will be used for the dinner table.

For an added treat the kids can write on the back of each one. Just a few things about the person who is on the card that they are thankful for. What a great way to start a dinner of thanks!