The Braley Blog

“Pete’s Daily Connection”

“Hey Hon? Any Turkey Left?”

It never fails… especially if you’re the one who hosted….Turkey for days!

I remember when the kids were younger and still living at home. They would come down for dinner and you’d hear it: “Turkey again?”

I’ve found that my tastes have changed over the years. My favorite used to be the turkey sandwich with turkey, stuffing and maybe a little cranberry sauce. Put some warm gravy over that and ummm…I was in heaven! My favorite now is when you take everything back out of the fridge, set it up buffet style and make yourself another plate then warm it up in the microwave. It never fails: you either don’t put it in long enough so the stuffing is still cold, or you put it in too long and burn your mouth on the green bean casserole. I do love me some leftovers though.

My wife pointed out the other day that when she spends all day cooking, by the time it’s ready you don’t want to eat. She really enjoyed it the next day. I even saw somebody on the Macy’s parade who said his favorite part of Thanksgiving was the leftovers. He joked that you could prepare the meal, put it all in the fridge, and take it out two hours later. I might have to give that a try next year.

Does anyone have a creative way that you deal with leftovers? As I said, I like the meal rewarmed. I also like a good turkey sandwich and one year I made a turkey pizza.


You just spread out some leftover Turkey, stuffing and maybe mashed potatoes. There’s no pizza sauce, leftover gravy does the trick. It was actually quite tasty. My daughter, Sarah, is going to make turkey soup this weekend. She’s decided to try to recreate Nana’s recipe. I haven’t had that in years.

I still remember the year we went away for Thanksgiving. That year we were having our kitchen remodeled and, you guessed it, it wasn’t ready for Turkey Day. We took the kids to Santa’s Village that year. We drove up to New Hampshire on Thanksgiving and stayed at a nice hotel we had found years ago. That night we had our turkey dinner in the dining room, got a good nights sleep and then went to Santa’s Village the next day. They open on weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was cool to walk around and hear the Christmas music. Of course they play it in the summer too but it seemed to fit a lot better. And that year it snowed while we were were there. So cool! The only problem that year was… no leftovers!

I’m surprised that stores haven’t taken advantage of this love for leftovers. Why not offer a plate of all the fixings that you can throw in the microwave or oven? Some people might prefer that more than the fresh meal. It will certainly be easier to cook. It seems we have platters for everything else. Somebody figured out you could throw a bunch of things on a platter and sell it just by calling it a Charcuterie Board. Why not a leftover board? A little modified veggie tray? A turkey tray? I might be on to something here. Get your orders in now for next year!

Yes it is a yearly treat to enjoy the Thanksgiving leftovers. The food only lasts a few days which is probably good. You have to make room for the Christmas cookies!


Miss any previous Sunday Columns? Click here!


One response to ““Hey Hon? Any Turkey Left?””

  1. Peg Britton Avatar
    Peg Britton

    I agree with you Pete …love the leftovers … plate of everything again or maybe a sandwich on a small dinner roll ??? maybe that is a turkey slider ??? ;>)
    I do all the cooking so I enjoy leftovers more also …so glad someone invented the microwave !

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *