Thanksgiving Leftovers Are Great

Across the Fence #368

Now it begins, that month of anticipation between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As I write this, I’m still as stuffed as the huge turkey our family met up with on Thanksgiving. We were at our daughter and son-in-law’s home near Ixonia, and we certainly didn’t starve. Now we’ve entered the second phase of Thanksgiving—enjoying all the leftovers.

I’ve never been accused of being a great cook, or even a mediocre one. My cooking ability is heating up the charcoal grill, throwing on some hamburger patties or brats, and making sure they don’t get burned to a crisp. I’m not the second coming of Julia Childs.

However, I do have a great recipe for all those leftovers from the big Thanksgiving meal. Dig through your cupboards and find a large microwavable bowl with a cover. Take some of the leftover potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, chunks of turkey, a large helping of stuffing, and grab anything else that looks appetizing. Throw everything into the bowl. Don’t worry about stuff getting mixed together. As you can see, I’m not a picky eater. You might want to leave the cranberry relish and herring out for the time being. They don’t mix very well with the other ingredients. The cranberries tend to turn to juice when heated.

Put a cover on the bowl and shove it into the microwave. The microwave is my preferred method of heating stuff up. The amount of time you heat the concoction is up to you, depending how hot you like your food. When you think it’s hot enough, take it out of the microwave. Remove the cover and sample the mix to see if it’s heated to your satisfaction. If it is, dump the cranberries, herring, and some pickles into the mix, grab a fork, and eat right out of the bowl. That’s if you’re eating it all by yourself. If you have to share, it’s best to scoop some onto a plate. If you get to eat right out of the bowl, you’ll have a lot less dishes to wash up after you’re done. Why use a bunch of bowls when you can get by with one? Next, find a football game to watch on TV, take that bowl you heated everything in, grab some lefse, a beverage of your choice, sit back in your favorite recliner, put your feet up, and enjoy your great meal of leftovers! I hope you had a little pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie left over like we did. As they say at Borgen’s Café in Westby, “Don’t forget the pie!”

I know all this probably sounds like a mess to you. Granted, it’s all mushed together, but it tastes great, and it’s all going to the same place anyway. OK, I told you I wasn’t the next Julia Childs. It’s not for everyone.

Even before the leftovers had cooled down, Black Friday arrived. I hope none of you were part of those frenzied mob scenes I saw on TV, as shoppers stormed the doors, trampling each other in their hurry for a bargain. You couldn’t drag me to a store with a team of horses on Black Friday. I’m enjoying my leftovers as people are fighting with each other and pepper spraying other shoppers in order to snag that coveted item. I keep hearing how bad shape the economy is in, but you’d never know it by the way people were spending money.

Then just when you think the buying frenzy is over, along comes Cyber Monday. In case you missed out on the bargains on Black Friday because you got trampled or pepper sprayed, you can now sit in the comfort of your home and shop online. No traffic jams, no parking problems, no masses of people to contend with. I wonder if they ever had this kind of buying frenzy in my parent’s generation? I suspect not. I know they always shopped locally in Westby and Viroqua for our Christmas presents. There was a “Dime Store” in Viroqua. I can still remember how awe-struck I was when I saw all the toys on their shelves during Christmas. Looking back, it amounted to one small section of the store, but we thought it was wonderful. We’d probably have died of shock if we could have walked into a huge Toys-R-Us store like they have today.

Another of the happenings after Thanksgiving is over, is the hanging of the Christmas lights and decorations. I know the stores have been decorated since Halloween, but that’s just too early.

Now I’m about to begin an early phase of Christmas—the untangling of the strings of lights. It’s a yearly tradition in most homes. No matter how carefully you put them away, they manage to get all tangled up. Then after I manage to get them untangled, I find out the lights won’t light up. You’d think I’d learn to test them before spending all that time untangling them.

Soon the first Christmas card will arrive. Then I’ll start feeling guilty about not having my cards all picked out, addressed, and ready to send.

There’s only one solution to all this holiday stress. Round up another helping of Thanksgiving leftovers, throw them in the microwave, find a station airing White Christmas with Bing Crosby, then sit back and enjoy those leftovers while watching the movie. Christmas will come soon enough!

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