Happy Thanksgiving!

We will be having the family over today for Thanksgiving.  Jessica, Pat and the boys will be here as well as Jeff's mom and Aunt Joy, and Jeff's dad and Robin.  Justin will be here but Sarah is still in Spain on her 5 week work/vacation.  She is due home on Saturday.  She's been to London, Spain, Portugal, Casablanca, Morocco among other places.  We'll be having the traditional menu of turkey, dressing (this year I'm making dressing with cranberries and apples,) mashed potatoes and gravy, my special yam casserole, Aunt Joy's Zesty Carrots, steamed French green beans with slivered almonds, a kale side dish with asiago cheese in a bechamel sauce, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls and a green salad.  Our dessert is never the traditional pumpkin pie as most of the family can really take it or leave it so I'm auditioning a White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake from Costco.  If we like it, we'll have it for our Christmas Party next month.  Here's a tiny photo of it from the Costco website.  You can see that it will make a nice Christmas dessert!

So what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers?  Can't beat a good turkey sandwich with cranberries on the side but if you have a lot of leftovers from all the dressing and side dishes, you can make what I call a "Pilgrim Pie!"  It's similar to the British Shepherd's Pie.  You basically line a casserole dish with leftover dressing, add turkey, top with some gravy, add leftover veggies and make a top "crust" with mashed potatoes.  Here's a more formal recipe but you can pretty much improvise and it'll turn out great!

~ Pilgrim's Pie ~

2 cups leftover stuffing

2 cups cooked turkey

1 cup gravy

2 cups leftover cooked vegetables

2 cups mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 350°F

Press stuffing into a greased casserole dish

Layer with turkey, chopped into bite sized pieces

Pour gravy over top

Top with leftover cooked vegetables

Finish with a crust of mashed potatoes

Bake in 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until warmed through

Serve with cranberry sauce