Intentional Leftovers

[magnusfide]

Sounds high falutin' doesn't it? I think I'll have to copyright that name before a tv chef makes off with it.

By intentional leftovers I'm referring to our practice of deliberately making vast quantities of a dish that we eat at both Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we only have to prep once at Thanksgiving then freeze the extra and reheat for Christmas. It makes for less stress in the middle of the Christmas marathon shopping and decorating.

Some of our ILs are

• collard greens with gratuitous amounts of bacon drippings
• stuffing (we make at least 7 lbs of it at Thanksgiving and freeze/reheat the extra for Christmas - tastes even better at Christmas because the flavor steeps)
• several pumpkin pies
• smoked hams
• lasagnes
• kale dishes, also with gratuitous amounts of bacon drippings

What kind of ILs do you make?

[moonstone]

I do it all the time, at home and camping. I call them 'planned-overs'!

[fchammer1]

Scalloped oysters! Good reheated, or right from the fridge.

[coolmom42]

That's great planning!

[dons2346]

They are not left overs. They are known as "encore presentations""

[nineoaks2004]

Only 2 of us, we go to Golden Corral, from the looks of it there are a lot of people /families that do this too. No mess to clean up and a varied menu.

[Stim]

Not just the holidays!
I always make about a 5 lb meatloaf (2 loaves) then portion it out and freeze about 4 lbs.
When I want a meatloaf sandwich or dinner I am a couple minutes from it, just add veggies.

[Old-Biscuit]

Just 2 of us so we only roast a turkey breast.....never really cared for drumsticks etc

Then we slice the turkey breasts for Thanksgiving Dinner, sandwiches next day and then one more dinner meal
Enough stuffing for the three meals

Same with deviled eggs, mashed taters and fresh green beans.
Pumpkin pie for 3 nights of desert

After that...shouldn't be any thing leftover


Christmas...that's when we do HAM
Due to size of ham we do have enough to split and freeze some for different meals later on.
Ham & beans, ham sandwiches, ham steaks and diced ham in egg casserole

[K_Charles]

My mother in her nineties, has 15 or 20 for thanksgiving and then on Sat supper time we have a bunch of us Viet Nam vets go to her house for "pie night" and eat some of the left overs. We all seem to get to our home town just this once a year and it's a good time to get togather. She goes to bed cause she doesn't want to know what we did in high school.

[old_guy]

are you kidding? left overs? oh yes we do have left overs. I think we like the left overs more than the thanksgiving dinner. I always cook two turkeys in the treager and we love to make left over dishes. skis the limit on turkey left overs LOL