What I Ate Wednesday Thanksgiving Recap

Oh man, oh man! Last week was such a great week. We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration. We were truly lucky to find such great friends that wanted to have a potluck and took a chance on being crowded in our apartment. Turns out our apartment is bigger than I ever could have imagined with 9 adults and 9 children in attendance no one ever felt crowded, too warm, or like it was stuffy.

The children enjoyed playing cards, playing games with each other on their phones and iPads. It truly was a great experience because even though most of our kids go to the same school none of them are in the same grade, but they quickly became acquainted and all got on famously! The ones that do not go to the same school still jumped right in there and made fast friends. It was such a joyous occasion.

If you haven't checked it out yet, go over and find out how I put together the centerpiece for our table.

Fall Bouquet in a Pumpkin.

But, on to the food!


In the morning, I did a fasting run. I got up "early", well, what I am calling early these days. It was a "sunrise" run meaning the sun now rises at 8:30 am or later so if I want to go on a run through the forest up the street I must go at sunrise since it is creepy when it is dark.

I love sunrise. It is so peaceful and serene. There were a lot of people out too. 

When I got home I concocted this for myself:

Spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes...absolute deliciousness to start off the day.

Lunch isn't pictured because it was lame-o. It was crackers, cheese, and sausage. Very dutchish but very boooor-ing. hehe

We had our guests arrive at 3pm. Due to traffic we held off eating until about 4:30pm which was ok because it took a while to reheat some of the dishes. We did the potluck style so everyone brought a dish or three.

I will start at the beginning.

This is what my walk home from the grocery store looked like Friday afternoon. I got some pretty funny looks, but cannot wait to show y'all what I am planning on doing with those branches! It did leave my left hand free to get extra toasty in my pocket though tucking all those flower bunches into the back of the basket there!

Here is a layout of our feast:

Desserts and meat: from left to right: poached pears in red wine and cinnamon, two pumpkin pies made with REAL cream, turkey and stuffing, a crockpot full of chicken. Turkey's are very expensive so we did turkey breasts and chicken. I bought the chickens rotisserie style from a local butcher. I cut them in half and put them in the crock pot, covered it with foil, and put it on warm, they were amazing when served. 

Here is the main table starting from bottom left: Not Your Mama's Green Bean casserole, corn, sweet potato fries, mashed potatoes, gravy, plates, bowls, etc, sweet potato casserole, and a rice krispie treat turkey. 

I don't have a ton of info on everyone else's dishes unfortunately. I can tell you how I made mine however!

Glühwein I used that recipe. Changes I made were I left out the lime and next time I would leave out the lemon as I prefer a sweeter taste. Otherwise it was perfect and seemed well enjoyed!

This is the rice Krispies Turkey. This was a hit! Everyone loved it. I found a link to just a picture years ago on Pinterest, but it had no instructions. 

• All I did was make a basic rice krispie treat recipe. 
• First, I put down saran wrap on a plate and buttered it with unsalted butter.
• Next, butter your hands...just trust me on this butter those bad boys and keep the butter handy-you'll need it!
•  I then took two large handfuls of the rice krispies mixture and formed the "legs", just use your imagination here.
• Butter your hands as needed.
• Next, I gathered the rest of the rice krispie mixture and just sort of treated it like play dough. I first formed a large oval shape. I then just sort of patted it down and formed what should be the "wings" up in the front. These don't have to be huge.
• Butter your hands as needed. Seriously, don't be shy here.
• Once I felt it was a nice turkey shape I dug some mixture out of the middle and added it to the wings area or the legs depending on what I felt needed more "meat" hehe
• I then threw in some chocolate covered pepernoten and peanut m&m's for the "stuffing".

If you decide to make this for a party though I would highly recommend making a double batch. This was gone in the blink of an eye!

I forgot to photo graph our chicken, but it comes from this great butcher in The Albert Cuypstraat Market. I often will go down there and grab chciken from this place because they are cheap, good for you, and easy. 

The last delicious bit is pears poached in red wine and cinnamon with whipped cream. These were amazing. Our Dutch friend brought them, her mother made them. She hasn't sent me the recipe, but I found this one I want to try for my next get together.

Leftovers

Now, what to do with all those leftovers?! 

I sadly did not take a picture, but I created what I call "thanksgiving in a box" for my daughter's lunch on Monday. What is Thanksgiving in a box? Why it is as many leftovers as you can stuff into the bento box she takes to school! She had a quarter chicken, oranges, sweet potato, green beans, and corn. She ate the whole thing, only brought home bones.

Second, I made what I am coining Leftover Pie.

(please forgive my food photography skillz aren't so amazing lol)

This is how I made it:

• I took the stuffing my friend made (it was done with bread, apples, and cranberries), I honestly don't know how much probably two cups worth or so and combined it with two eggs. Spread in the bottom of a greased pie plate.
• Top with shredded chicken or turkey. Add a little gravy on top. Throw on some leftover veggies (I had corn so in my case leftover starch misrepresenting as a veggie haha).
• Put in a 200 oven (roughly 375-400) for 20 min until the stuffing crust has solidified.
• Take out and top with shredded cheese and a little more gravy. Put back in the oven for about 10 minutes.
• Take out of the oven and serve! My teenager hates stuffing but really munched down on this concoction. 

How do you use up leftovers? Do you still have some to eat?