The Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich: A Cross-Section of Dinner

The Thanksgiving Sandwich

It seemed like a tall order to attempt to describe every dish that went into our Thanksgiving dinner. So what I decided to do was describe our dishes through the cross-section of my Thanksgiving leftovers, sandwiched between two slices of delicious home-made bread by my Aunt Cindy.

Perhaps the following can serve as inspiration for your next Thanksgiving. Recipes for most of these can be tracked down, and I'll give you the main ingredients that give them their signature flavors.

From the top:

The mustard: Spread across one slice, Trader Joe's Garlic Aioli Mustard. I'm a big proponent; no sandwich, Thanksgiving or not, is the same without it.

The turkey: A standard recipe, stuffed with celery, carrots, and onions. That grossly understates how much goes into wrestling a turkey into the perfect final product but for the purposes of this description will do.

The cranberry sauce: A sweet sauce made from fresh cranberries, Aunt Cindy's recipe.

The mashed sweet potatoes: That's right, two types of mashed potatoes. This one is based on a Julia Child recipe that includes butter, grated fresh ginger, and ground white pepper. We also added a dash of cinnamon sugar.

The swiss chard and kale: Based on my favorite way to prepare these two greens, I sauteed a head each of kale and swiss chard with garlic, red onion, and olive oil. Squeeze juice of lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Add cranberries and blue cheese and it's a dish.

Sauerkraut dressing: A staple of the Thanksgiving meal for my family, in honor of our Lithuanian heritage. Essentially pork sausage, sauerkraut, onion, and celery.

The Ingredients
Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Mashed Potatoes, Sauerkraut Dressing, Kale/Swiss Chard Greens, Turkey with Cranberry Sauce and Mustard, Mashed Sweet Potatoes

The End

A few other aspects of our dinner didn't make it to leftovers, but included of course the gravy and a salad with red onions, goat cheese, and an orange vinaigrette that I concocted.

Roasted Lemon-Thyme Potatoes and Sausage with Braised Swiss Chard and Goat Cheese

This was a combination of a few recipes and ingredients that I had on hand including red potatoes and swiss chard from The Bethlehem Farmer's Market that just so happened to turn out mouth-watering together. Love it when that happens.

Prep: Set oven to 425*

Find an oven-proof pan (I used the griddle pan again) and combine the following:

Red potatoes (I had about 10, which made 3-4 servings) diced into little bite-sized pieces, erring on the side of too small 

Sliced sausages (in my recipe, 2 AlFresco Roasted Garlic Chicken sausages) 

3-4 cloves of garlic chopped, but don't mince

Squeeze half of a lemon's juice over potatoes and sausage
Add about a tablespoon of olive oil
Sprinkle with a handful of fresh thyme leaves (no stems) if possible, only about a teaspoon if using the dried spice (the dried spice is generally more potent than fresh)
Salt and pepper
Mix ingredients in the pan and place in the oven until the potatoes are cooked. Turn the heat down to 325*.

Meanwhile, wash and chop swiss chard- trimming the ends and cutting the rest into 2" segments.
Put swiss chard in a bowl with:
1/4 cup of scallions (trim the root end and chop the scallion up to the point where it turns from lime to dark green)
1/4 cup of crumbled or diced goat cheese
Juice from the remaining lemon half
Salt, pepper
A pinch of brown sugar

When the potatoes appear done, pour the contents of the bowl with swiss chard, etc. over the potatoes and sausage and distribute evenly across the top, forming a layer.
Close the oven and cook for another 3-5 minutes until the swiss chard is braised (see picture). At first, it will appear as though it has nearly dried up and on the verge of browning, but fear not, it will still retain good flavor.

Remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula to mix the ingredients. The goat cheese will have melted and will make a nice flavoring over the other components. Enjoy!