Turkey Cranberry Wreath

For a brief stint as I was growing up, my mom sold Pampered Chef products. She probably doesn't realize this, but I have a special place in my heart for many of their kitchen gadgets (I have 2 of these, for example), and several of their recipes. This is one of my favorites. It is perfect for using up leftover Thanksgiving turkey, and it looks so pretty in a wreath shape!

Notice the stovetop from 2 moves ago... I guess I should re-make and re-photograph

Turkey Cranberry Wreath
2, 8-oz packages refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups cooked turkey or chicken, chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
4 oz. (1 cup) Swiss cheese, shredded
1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)
1 egg white

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. 
2. Unroll crescent dough; separate (16 triangles). "Seal" the wide ends of 2 triangles together using fingers, 8 times, until you have 8 diamond shapes.
3. Arrange dough diamonds in a circle on a pizza pan/stone or baking sheet, matching seams together. Each diamond will have one point in the circle's center and one stretched outward like a sun ray.
4. Mix mayonnaise, mustard, and pepper in a bowl. Add turkey, celery, cranberries, and grated cheese.
5. Scoop filling over seams of dough, forming a circle. If using walnuts, sprinkle them over the filling at this point.
6. Alternatingly fold inner and outer triangles of dough across the filling, slightly overlapping to form wreath. Tuck last end under first. 
7. Lightly beat egg white and brush over dough. 
8. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy warm!

Macaroni salad

I like a good macaroni salad every so often. I am not a big fan of the deli kind that is super sweet, though. It is a disappointment EVERY time!

My mom always made a more savory macaroni salad, and it is what I prefer! Her standby recipe is the Best Foods recipe. I like it, and feel a few changes make it even tastier! I made this for a potluck tonight and didn't even get a full bite! So I'm relying on the compliments I received that it was, in fact, tasty.

Macaroni Salad

16-ounce package small shell pasta (or other shape, as preferred)
2 cups mayonnaise (I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I used Nalley’s mayo, which Thomas swears by… haha!)
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp mustard (just plain mustard, not dijon like the original recipe calls for)
1 to 1 1/2  tsp sugar
3/4 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped white onion
5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp paprika

1. Cook according to package & then cool the pasta. Add onion, celery, and hard boiled eggs.
2. Combine all of the sauce ingredients (mayo, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, paprika) and mix well.
3. Pour sauce onto pasta, celery, onion, and eggs, and stir to incorporate.
4. Serve cold. Probably a good idea to chill until ready to serve.

Turkey Tetrazzini/Casserole

As a continuation of my quest to find good recipes for leftover turkey, I made this.

Honestly, this was my first experience whatsoever with a "Tetrazzini" -- I just looked up the term, and even though I based this on a recipe called Turkey Tetrazzini, I don't think the name really applies here.

At any rate, this was a winner in our house! I had my doubts at first, but seriously, with pasta and cream of chicken soup, how bad could it really be?! Food snobs, please don't answer that.

Turkey "Tetrazzini" -- or we can just call it a Casserole

8 oz dry pasta of choice -- I used tri-colored rotini & I would do it again!
1 cup broccoli, steamed/boiled until tender but several minutes from mushy (or frozen broccoli, thawed)
1 cup cubed cooked turkey
1, 10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 cup water
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup shredded cheese of choice (I used a "fiesta mix" with cheddar, jack, ...? anyway, it worked.)
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cook pasta per package instructions. Drain and place into 9x9 glass baking dish.
3. Arrange broccoli on top of pasta in baking dish. Add turkey on top of broccoli.
4. In a medium saucepan, combine cream of chicken soup, water, bouillon (alternately, use chicken broth in place of water & bouillon), celery, and garlic powder. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour as evenly as possible over pasta/broccoli/turkey.
5. Sprinkle cheese evenly on top. Lastly, sprinkle bread crumbs over the cheese.
6. Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F. Serve hot with a glass of cold milk!

Turkey Soup

We cooked a turkey over the weekend, mainly to get it out of our freezer, but also because we had family in town and figured it would be best to cook it with a few extra eaters on hand. Even though it was "only" a 13-pounder, we have lots of leftovers.

I thrive on variety, so I've been attempting to find some good recipes for leftover turkey. I just can't handle the same thing more than about 2 days in a row! Also, thanks to a suggestion from the man of the house, I've started trying new recipes in manageable portions (due to some disappointing flops on a large scale...). This has been very helpful to me. I hate throwing food out, and I really hate throwing food out because I can't stomach it even though the recipe seemed promising!

Anyway, a friend gave me some homemade bread & recommended having it with soup, so I took her up on it! I found a recipe that suggested adding beef broth to turkey soup, so I tried that out, too.

I'm not a huge soup person, but I thought this was AMAZING!

I used some OLD cannery soup mix, mainly to try using it up, but you could alternately use rice or pasta (just decrease the cooking time by a lot!). In fact, with pasta, I would probably omit the first hour of simmering (below) and add noodles a few minutes after everything else.

Turkey Soup

1/2 cup LDS cannery soup mix (contains alphabet macaroni, rice, split peas, lentils, dehydrated onions) (Do they even sell this anymore? I can't find any information online.)
5 cups water
2 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp beef soup base
**Alternately, use chicken stock and beef stock and decrease water proportionately**
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 cup cubed cooked turkey
1/2 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dehydrated onions
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine soup mix, water, chicken bouillon and beef soup base in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until boiling.
2. Cover and reduce heat to maintain a simmer for about one hour.
3. Add celery, carrots, turkey, and spices. Cover and continue to simmer for 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Add additional water as needed if too much is boiling off, or if flavor of broth is too strong.
4. Remove bay leaf and serve with heavily buttered, warm homemade bread.

Chop Suey

Almost two years ago, when I met Thomas' sister Elizabeth and her family for the first time, she and her husband, Saki, prepared a meal of chop suey for us to enjoy. It was delicious! We tried the recipe they shared recently, and although I didn't make it as well as they did, it is worth sharing!

Chop Suey
garlic
ginger
oil
meat (optional)
various vegetables, sliced/shredded: shredded carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, peppers, celery, or broccoli slaw, for example. We also used zucchini.
soy sauce
rice, ramen noodles, or rice noodles (hard to find... but inexpensive at WinCo)

1. Sautée some garlic and ginger in some oil. Add meat if using meat, and a bit of soy sauce.
2. Add in vegetables and more soy sauce, oil, garlic, and ginger to taste.
3. Cook until veggies are heated but still crunch.
4. Serve with/over prepared rice, ramen noodles (sans seasoning), or rice noodles. The rice noodles we used were very thin and stringy; Elizabeth and Saki had some fatter-looking noodles that I liked better when we had them... Use what suits you!