How to Resurrect Thanksgiving Leftovers

It’s been a while since I wrote a “Thrifty Friday” post, so I thought I’d post this as something relevant I recently learned…

Feeding people good food makes me abnormally happy. (I seriously have to will myself not to don a 50s apron and wear a stupid grin and hum show tunes under my breath.) And so, I was very pleased after prepping/enjoying a “Squad Pre-Thanksgiving” with these ladies here:

Food and fellowship was sweet. But THEN it was time to pack it all up to take leftovers to my brother-in-law’s the following day. I needed the food to still be edible . What’s a girl to do?

Here are some straight forward tips to recreate Thanksgiving dinner a day or two later WITHOUT making Thanksgiving casserole. (Does anyone actually look forward to that?)

1. Don’t use the microwave if you can help it. It’s tempting, but it does the weirdest things to food texture and in all likelihood won’t heat it all the way through.
2. Turkey reheats very well on the stove top in a pan. Put just a little chicken or turkey broth in the bottom, cover with a lid, and heat on low for 10-15 minutes. Gloriously moist and tender as it was coming off the bone.
3. Mashed potatoes are the best in a double boiler, either of your making or otherwise. This magic was something new to me, but your potatoes actually taste fresh. Bonus points if you add a little more butter, because when has that made anything worse? Depending on how much mashed potato you’re reheating, it’ll take between 20-30 minutes.
4. Stuffing is tricky. If you don’t want it to wind up soggy, I’d definitely recommend putting it in a baking dish and covering it with foil. Pop it in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes and viola, stuffing is good as new. (Full disclosure, as per popular vote I did not use the stuffing that we brought because there weren’t that many of us and we had rolls and sweet potato casserole and pie.)
5. Sweet potato casserole/candied yams should get the same treatment as the stuffing. However, this is also one of the few dishes I wouldn’t freak out about putting into the microwave with a wet paper towel draped over the container to keep things moist.
6. Gravy can be reheated on a small pan in the stove top or in the microwave without serious damage to the molecular structure thereof.
7. Pie is best served cold for breakfast, with whipped cream. No need to complicate things.

If nothing else, consider freezing your leftovers in Ziploc bags until you can stand the sight of them again, but don’t waste that food! Anyone else have any tips for breathing new life into Thanksgiving fixings?

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