Quick - A Quiche!

Maybe it was the delicious lunch my grandmother and I had at The Tea Shoppe or maybe it was reading a book that's set in Paris (disclosure, there is no quiche in that book, crepes, mais oui, but not a quiche. I can't make crepes though, so you're stuck with the quiche). Either way, I found myself desperately wanting quiche. Usually a summer staple of mine, I can't even think of the last time I made one. Luckily I consider quiche fairly easy to throw together (hence it being a summer staple). This one is vegetarian because I resisted the urge to throw in bacon. Believe me, I had the urge but reason won out. Which is okay, because it was completely delicious without. I won't tell if you add it though.

QUICHE, NO BACON

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 recipe dough (I make a full recipe and freeze the other half for later!)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
3 C sliced mushrooms
1/4 C well minced yellow onion
2-3 C washed, dried, stem removed, fresh baby spinach
3-4 sprigs of thyme (leaves only)
1 C gruyere cheese
1 1/2 C milk
4 eggs
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 450 while you make the dough. Then place the dough in a 9" pie plate. Cover it with foil and your pie weights, pennies or dried beans, whatever you use for blind baking. Bake for 8 minutes, then remove weights and foil. Prick the bottom all over with a fork and return to the oven for 4-5 more minutes. When you remove it lower your oven to 325 F.

While the pie is baking, get your fillings going. In a large pan, pour your tablespoon of olive oil. Add the mushrooms and onions, a pinch of salt and a healthy grating of pepper. Cook for 6 minutes on medium high (you don't want crispy, you want soft and tasty). Add your thyme and spinach and cook for 3 minutes more.

In a separate bowl, give the eggs a nice little beating and then pour in the milk and mix well. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper and then the gruyere. Give it another stir or two.

When the crust is ready, put the mushroom/onion/spinach mixture in the bottom of the crust. Then pour over the egg/milk/cheese mixture. Pop it in the oven (now reduced to 325 F) for 40-45 minutes or until it has set up (meaning a knife is pretty clean when you stick it in the middle). Allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting in.

Mushy Quiche

I took a picture of it before I knew how mushy it was, but I can't say as I should post it. It would lead you to draw completely incorrect assumptions about how my night went. You would think that I sat down to a lovely dinner of quiche (perfect for a hot day) made with some very tasty chard from the farmer's market. Maybe you would even picture me out on the balcony I featured last time, thinking that the incredible heat may have faded by nightfall and that quiche would be a lovely meal for a summer's evening.

How very wrong you would be. My actual dinner? I ate a plate of mushy quiche. No thanks to the New York Times for throwing me under the bus with that recipe. I ate my quiche by myself, at 9:20 at night, sitting on the floor of my bedroom. You might wonder why I did this. Hell, I wonder why I did this. Basically, I spent a little over an hour, live chatting with some guy at Comcast about how to get our NEW! WIRELESS! ROUTER(or whatever the heck you call that thing)! to a)provide internet service and b)restore our phone line which it knocked out when it was installed. After the hour was over, I am relieved to say that we did have both internet and phone service. I also had a little bit of rug burn on my elbows from lying on the carpet in order to be able to plug my computer into the router thingy and into its charger simultaneously, because yes, the process took so long that my laptop's battery completely drained.

Good times. Tonight's dinner involves neither Comcast nor the New York Times, so things are looking up.

Getting Over Brunch

I hate going out to brunch. It's sort of awful, because it seems once you are an adult, you are expected to do this type of thing in order to socialize. I realize many people did this in college, but everyone I knew in college understood that one does NOT eat in the morning after a long night of going out. Anyone civilized slept late and ate later. My main problem with brunch is public eggs. I feel ridiculous even typing it, but there it is. I can't eat public eggs. Eggs at home? Certainly. Eggs at a friend's house? Why not? Eggs out? No thank you. I have tried, but it makes me invariably queasy. So brunch invitations often fill me with dread (unless I'm with my closest friends who know I'll order a grilled cheese from any diner at any hour of the morning rather than eat eggs out). So why not pancakes, you ask, they make them with chocolate chips now...? Or caramelized french toast? Or waffles? Because these are not breakfast foods, not really. THEY ARE DESSERT, masquerading as breakfast. And I simply can't get down that much sugar in the morning. Blame my mother and her rule about no cereal with sugar higher than the third ingredient, but sweet and breakfast do not work for me. So there it is. Happy social gathering, fraught with anxiety. And of course, later, when I get home, there's always that feeling of having missed out on ordering something wonderful. So, after my latest brunch outing, I decided to cheer myself up with a homemade quiche. This one is quite filling (I did make it for dinner) and very delicious.

BROCCOLI AND CHICKEN QUICHE
Better Homes and Gardens (I think?) by way of my friend Laurie

INGREDIENTS:
1 half recipe dough
1 1/2 C milk or cream (I used half milk and half cream - a do it yourself half and half)
4 eggs
1/4 C chopped onion (the onion cooks pretty well in the quiche, but if you are very sensitive to onion you may want to precook them)
3/4 C chopped cooked broccoli
3/4 C-1 C cooked chicken (you could chop it, I pulled mine apart into bite sized pieces)
1 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese
1 T flour

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 450 F. Put the dough in a 9" pie plate. I used an 8.5" tart pan with removable ring. Such a HUGE error in judgment. It was not quite big enough, and the removable ring aspect meant that the eggy part leaked and seeped and went everywhere. Cover the the dough with foil and weigh it down with pie weights. Put it in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove the foil, prick the bottom and return to the oven for 4-5 more minutes until browned and dry. Lower the oven temp to 325 F.

Beat the 4 eggs and add the milk. Then add the broccoli, onion and chicken. Toss the cheddar with the flour, until the cheese is coated. This will keep it from sticking and clumping in your quiche. Add the cheese to the egg and filling mixture. Mix well. Pour into the cooked shell. Bake at 325 F for 40-45 minutes. (Mine definitely took on the longer side). A knife inserted near the middle will come out clean when it's done. Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes before serving.

Where there's smoke, there's bacon.

If my senior year in college had been a soap opera it surely would have been entitled As the Smoke Detector Bleeps, because really, it was the soundtrack of our life. In the fall, the six of us girls quickly learned that the seemingly innocuous act of showering triggered the smoke alarm, bringing to our house a full complement of the city's finest firemen. All the while, we stood on the lawn in rather indecent states of undress waiting for the all clear. After a few weeks, the city doubtless informed the university that despite the increased job satisfaction ratings among fire fighters, they needed to fix the alarm. And so, by winter, we could shower without incident, but the smoke detectors would not be deterred. They went off frequently, interrupting all manner of hijinx, (most of which are best left to the imagination), but most importantly, they signaled the cooking of bacon. Remember that commercial for Beggin' Strips? The one where the dog runs around the house shouting, "bacon. BACON! BACONBACONBACON!!!" Oh, but we were not so very different. Cooking bacon meant that doors would slam, footsteps would echo down the hall, and all housemates would appear in the kitchen wiping drool and trying to look casual, like maybe they'd been on the way to the kitchen anyway. Bascially, all you really needed to make a meal in college was bacon. Tonight, in the spirit of a true college cook, I made quiche. With bacon. I know, I know, it doesn't sound collegiate, but truly, it is. College dinners tended to consist of anything you could scrounge up out of the fridge. Plus bacon. A quiche is no different. Gather leftover ingredients. Saute. Dump in crust. Cover with milk and eggs, and ooh, everyone thinks you're all gourmet. They don't need know that you're really the kind of person who has left the house on a crisp October morning in nothing but a towel.

QUICHE (with bacon)
all measurements are based on what I had in the house, not necessarily what I would have done, had I stocked pantry

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 recipe dough
2-4 pieces of bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1/2 can of artichokes, drained, squeezed and diced
1/2-3/4 C gruyere cheese
3 eggs
1 C milk
fresh thyme
salt, pepper, nutmeg


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375.
Make the dough and set it in the fridge. Saute up the bacon in a medium fry pan. Fend off any scavengers. Take it out and set aside (watch the bowl carefully). Reserve some of the grease. Saute up the onion along with the thyme. Allow the onions to get soft and sweet. Set aside. Saute up the artichokes. Set aside. Roll out the dough, and put in a pie plate. Grate the cheese and spread across the bottom of the dough. Add the artichokes, bacon and onion, spreading them out to cover. Mix up the eggs, milk, salt pepper and pinch of nutmeg. Pour this over the rest. Pop in the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting in.
Depending on the appetites of your husband/roommates/children/local fire company, this recipe can serve quite a few, or two. Consider making additional foods to supplement. At all costs, make sure the bacon makes it past the initial cooking phase.

Less Than Eloquent

About 12 hours ago, I left my house to go to work. I've spent about an hour and a half driving today (hey, that's my commute) and had over an hour of physical therapy. I sat down about 10 minutes ago. I am exhausted and my verbal abilities are currently at the fbbbt, fbbbt, fbbbt level. I fully intend to be asleep within the next two hours. Lest you think I'm superwoman and somehow managed to whip up this quiche in the midst of all that, allow me to disillusion you. I did not. This is something I made last week. Back when I had time to myself and energy and eloquence.

SAUSAGE AND BLUE CHEESE QUICHE

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 C thinly sliced sweet (Vidalia) onions
1 T extra virgin olive oil
3 links of sausage, casings removed (for me this was between a 1/2 and 3/4 of a pound)
1-2 oz blue cheese (get what you like) crumbled
1 half recipe dough
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C egg beaters + 1 egg (alternately, 3 eggs)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 F.
Place the thinly sliced onions in a pan with the tablespoon of olive oil. Cook on low heat, watching closely to make sure they don't burn. Cook for 15-20 minutes until they are soft and sweet. In the meantime, remove the casings from your sausage and add to another pan. Cook over medium heat using a spoon or spatula to break the sausage up into crumbles. They should be done in about 10 minutes. Drain and set on a paper towel covered plate to dry a bit. Roll out your dough and place it in a 9" pie plate. Place foil over the dough and then fill with pie weights. Bake for 8-9 minutes then remove the foil and weight, prick the dough with a fork and bake for 2 more minutes. Remove and let cool for a few minutes while you whip up the custard. In a large bowl, combine the milk and eggs and whip until frothy. In another bowl, mix together the sausages, the onions and the blue cheese. Evenly distribute the sausage mixture in the bottom of your pie crust. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the top. Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes or until the center is set. Let rest for 10 minutes before eating.

Scenes from the Kitchen

Tuesday, December 14 - time undetermined: Focaccia runs out.

Friday, December 17 - 10 pm: Last of four dozen gingerbread cookies leave the oven.

Saturday, December 18 - 7:30 am: The gingerbread army starts receiving their royal icing.

Saturday, December 18 - 2:40 pm: Tupperware full of gingerbread plumets from the car dash onto the seat. Casualties are reported.

Sunday, December 19 - 9:45 am: The first of almost 150 pizzelles comes off the pizzelle iron.

Sunday, December 19 - 1:10 pm: The last of nearly 150 pizzelles comes off the pizzelle iron. Celebratory quiche is consumed.

Tuesday, December 21 - 6:50 pm: Almond bark goes into the fridge to cool.

Tuesday, December 21 - 10:25 pm: Candy thermometer stops working while I'm melting the white chocolate for peppermint bark.

Tuesday, December 21 - 10:26 pm Meat thermometer pressed into service for emergency candy duty.

Tuesday, December 22 - 10:38 pmCandy cane dust encrusts hands, counters, rolling pin.

Tuesday, December 22 - 11:28pm Exhaustion wins.

What does it look like in your kitchen these days? Mayhem? A Merry Martha Christmas? Moderately Messy? Something else entirely devoid of "M"s?

Eggy Eviction

 

 Another fridge-forage-to-fantastic dinner is the frittata (or the tortilla, omelet, quiche, whatever your egg based pleasure.)  The one I made here was a minimal effort / maximum forgiveness model.  I started by rooting around for bits of things that needed to be used.  I came up with a corner of onion and some asparagus.

  

 There was also a very small chunk of pepper jack that didn't make the cut when I was making the odd lots macaroni and cheese.  I grabbed the cheddar while I was in there, because who doesn't like cheese? (That is not a sincere question.  I am sure there are cheese loathers out there, I just don't particularly want to associate with them.  So don't answer unless you have an interesting reasons for wanting to make me carry a grudge against someone. Then you can answer.)

And of course, I had an open package of bacon beckoning.  I don't think bacon knows how to do anything besides beckon.  It certainly doesn't retire to a corner of the fridge demurely waiting its turn.

Finally I collected some kitchen staples (eggs, potatoes, tomatoes) and got down to business.

INGREDIENTS:
Seriously, be free with the ingredients.
1 baking potato
6 eggs
1/2 C grated cheese
stuff to stick in it
I used, asparagus, onion, cherry tomatoes and bacon.  I've made it with crumbled sausage before, too which is super yummy.  Mushrooms are also tasty. 
olive oil
salt and pepper.

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium high pan, cook off any meat products.  Cook them thoroughly until done, set aside and then pour off any excess fat.  Then add your onion or garlic product. If you're using mushrooms or another veggie which can be sauteed in a pan, feel free to add it now too.  Use a smidge of oil and cook until the onions are translucent and whatever veggies you're using are mostly done.  (I roasted the tomatoes and asparagus in a toaster oven at 350 for about 20-25 minutes). 

Peel and slice a large baking potato.  I use a mandolin because I hate trying to make uniform slices.  Cover the bottom of the pan with potato slices as though you are making a pommes anna.  I layered this over the onion, but if you have a lot of chunky veggies you can pour all of it off into a bowl for now and then set down the potatoes.

Sprinkle the top of your potatoes liberally with salt and pepper.  Cover the pan and let cook for 12 minutes.  If your pan is too hot, turn it down, you do not want hard potatoes and if you put this over your onions, you don't want burnt onions.  While the potatoes are cooking, whisk your eggs together in a large bowl.  Right when the potatoes are finished, toss your veggies in with your eggs.  Then pour all of it over the potatoes.  Use a spatula to sort of mush it around so there's even coverage.  Then sprinkle on your meat.

Add the grated cheese evenly over the top and cover again.  Cook for 10 more minutes or until the eggs are set. Enjoy your delicious easy dinner and clean fridge!

Kindness

My absence has in large part been due to our new arrival.  Our son was born three weeks ago, and needless to say, my cooking has suffered greatly. After returning home from the hospital we've only succumbed to takeout once, mainly because Ryan has been a whiz and cooked us delicious dinners from scratch.  But also, due to the incredible kindness of a work colleague.

My mother used to work with a very wise, very kind woman named Louise who had an expression that really she often used, "People are interesting."  This was about as damning as Louise would ever get, because she was someone who was kind to the bottom of her heart.  And so it's been Louise I've thought about in the days after I've had my son and paid close attention to people's actions rather than their words.

Some of the people I worked with that I considered myself to be quite friendly with have not so much as texted congratulations after being told of our new addition, while others have sent lovely cards and gifts which warmed my heart and another showed just how big her heart is.

Throughout my pregnancy, one work colleague was beyond generous with her advice, time, unwanted baby clothes (tags still on) and prenatal yoga DVDs.  And so when she drove up to visit me the other day, I shouldn't have been surprised to see her kindness extended even further, to bringing us a delicious meal.

A quiche, a salad and a delectable blueberry pie.  Can you ask for anything more?

Okay, fine, you could ask for me to actually update this blog more frequently - which hopefully will start in late August.  And you could ask for a picture of the little one - which I shall respectfully decline at this point.  Maybe later.

Daredevil Baking

Many people feel comfortable modifying a recipe when cooking. Taking out this, adding a bit of that, putting the whole thing over rice instead of pasta. If you know flavors and basic cooking techniques, all you really need is an idea. But baking can be a little more tricky. "It's like chemistry!" They warn us. "Measure exactly!" They chide (never mind that most of the people here in the US use volume measures rather than weight measures which are inherently less accurate). Basically, the messages we get are that changing things in a baked goods recipe has dire consequences. But I've started thinking, why? How would you improve a cake recipe if you didn't play with it? Biscuits don't make themselves lighter on their own! I feel like we're condemned to trying every recipe ever written rather than messing with one on our own. Of course, you may be more of a daredevil than I am and play with your baking, if so I really want to hear about it, because I've had a block against doing this. Ideally, I'd love to take some type of class so that I really understood how it all worked, what makes a recipe lighter or denser or crumbier. But for right now, I'll confess, I messed with a recipe due to an utter lack of ingredients. We've been slowing heading for Mother Hubbard status over here at the Hippo and I officially ran out of flour after that last quiche. Really. I used the very last dregs of the container to roll out the dough. And then, I read Confections of a Closet Master Baker (yes I know the link is to a different book, it was retitled for the paperback version) and was struck by a desperate need to bake. A little bit tricky when there's no flour. So I hmmed and harumphed and stared at her scone recipe until I figured it out. I used milk and sour cream instead of heavy cream, and cherries instead of cranberries and no lemon extract, and then I had to use self-rising flour, which meant cutting out the baking powder and salt (luckily, I checked and the ratio was just about right). The result, totally not what the author had in mind, but pretty tasty nonetheless. But more importantly, I learned that maybe I should play with my baking recipes a little bit more often, just to see what happens. It's not nearly as likely to be a catastrophe as you may think.

CHERRY SCONES
crazily modified from Gesine Bullock-Prado's recipe
Makes about 12 scones

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup sour cream + 1/4 cup milk (original: 1/2 C heavy cream) plus additional for brushing the top
1 large egg
3 T sugar, plus additional for sprinkling on the top
2 1/4 C self-rising flour (original: 2 1/4 C all-purpose flour, 1 T baking powder, 1/2 t salt)
6 T cold unsalted butter
1/2 C dried cherries, chopped (original 1/2 C dried cranberries)
The original recipe also called for 1 t lemon extract, which I did not have

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Whisk together the milk and sour cream. Then whisk in the egg and the sugar until well combined. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and butter (I use the stand mixer, but everyone else seems to use a food processor). Blend until the flour and butter make a coarse meal. Add the milk/egg mixture alternately with the berries. Knead the dough with a bit of flour, then roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Gesine wants you to use a fluted scone cutter, but I use an upside down drinking glass- either way, cut out 1 1/2 inch rounds and place on a baking sheet. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 400 degrees until golden brown. Remove and place on cooling rack.

Staying Afloat

Almost every person I know in my current profession is seriously treading water right about now.  The ones with blogs are running up white flags of surrender with promises that they will return if you can just hang on a leeeetle bit longer.  Usually I start to feel more settled right now, but honestly micromanaging my life is the only thing that is getting me through with any of my sanity.  I wish I were kidding.  My planner currently tells me what I need to do, what temperature it is supposed to be and what I'm going to cook for dinner.  I cannot even get dressed in the morning without it as it also tells me what I will be wearing.  I left it in the wrong office last night and ended up missing a scheduled appointment this morning. It is my life preserver right now.

So how am I staying afloat at all?  In the cooking department at least, I have 3 current strategies:

1. PLAN - this is not an option for me at this point.  It is a requirement.  I must know what I'm making and where the ingredients are coming from or we are not going to eat.  Stealing a trick from my dear friend Stella Carolyn I look up the weather for the week and record it. Then I plan meals that make sense considering the weather, my schedule and of course, what we actually have in the pantry.

2. FREEZER - I am being freezer aggressive right now.  I cleaned the whole thing out a few weeks ago and have been carefully laying in supplies ever since.  But more important, I've been using up the supplies and replenishing them.  That's the way to really make the freezer work.  You have to actually take things out and eat them on night you don't want to cook.  And then you need to put things back.

So what's in my freezer and how did it get there?

I roasted a chicken for dinner one night. I served four people dinner from the chicken, but the leftovers went to:  

• another meal of individual pot pies.  We ate two of the four and two are in the freezer.
• On a Sunday morning I made and froze white turkey chili  in 2 batches, to make 2 meals.
• I used the broth it cooked in to make a butternut squash soup which is a side dish portion in the freezer.
• I made stock with the carcass, yielding 2 quarts for the freezer for future soups.

When I made cauliflower mac and cheese I doubled the pasta and held off on adding the cauliflower and "deviling" spices until the end.  I got two side dish portions for the freezer and a hearty dinner with leftovers for that night.

I made calzones on a Sunday and popped the two extra in the freezer for another day. 

The calzones bring me up to point three...

3. MAKE WHAT YOU KNOW AND RELY ON FORMULAS

When you are tired, crabby, under a lot of stress, is not the right time to try something new.  It's the time to make a recipe you don't need to look up or one you know will come together quickly.  Simply the thought of tackling something new can send me grumbling to the couch because I just can't take another thing.  There's been plenty of breaded chicken in these parts.  I feel no shame.  It's home cooked and it's done  That's all I'm responsible for.  

But when I do try something new?  Like the calzones?  I'm really just relying on a formula.

I didn't find a recipe for calzones and execute it.  I thought to myself, hey, what can  I throw in that thing?  The fridge offered up some pepperoni and sausage, we grabbed some ricotta and provolone and mozzarella when we went to the store and I mixed up some dough (no shame in buying the dough.  None.  It was a weekend.  I had the time).  Calzones don't require though.  I looked up the recipes I have for calzones and just faked it from there.  Make the dough, cut it in four, rolled them each out into a circle.  I laid down a piece or two of provolone on each, topped it with pepperoni and some browned sausage.  I mixed up some ricotta with salt and pepper and smoothed that on top.  Added a bit of mozzarella to the top.  Folded it all up and popped it in the oven for 15 minutes.  Done.  Not doing anything new, just using a tried and true recipe + the stuff I had on hand to come up with something new. 

Other formula friendly, requiring less brain input ideas:

Quiche.  If you have a crust + custard recipe, the filling is infinitely flexible.

Pizza.  Buy the dough if it's a week night.  Top it with stuff.  Done.

Big Salad.  If you have veggies, you have dinner.  Stove and oven optional.

Soup.  Oh this is for advanced users, but honestly, onion + carrot + stock + other stuff = dinner.

If all else fails you have my permission to order take out.  Some days are like that. Even in Australia.

Life After Turkey Sandwiches

So, it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without some type of cooking dilemma. This year, my generous mother-in-law was unable to purchase a bird that she felt was big enough to feed our crew (8 adults and 4 children). So she bought two, one 14.6 lb turkey and one 9.6 lb turkey breast. Of course, two rather large birds don't exactly fit in her single oven at the same time. I'm not going to go into any of the panic or research or soliciting of opinions that went into figuring out how to deal with the second bird, because in the end all you need to know is that I cooked it, it was ready in time and it was gorgeous. And...it was also completely unnecessary. The first turkey and its 14.6 lbs of poultry goodness was more than enough to feed us all and yield a heap of leftovers. Which means that we have currently over 9 pounds of leftover turkey. I like turkey sandwiches plenty but there's just no way I can dispatch that much turkey through lunch alone. Luckily my overage of turkey can be your good luck because this mishap sent me hunting through my archives in search of something, anything else we can do with turkey.

Before the guests even leave the house...
Whip up a brunch or luncheon broccoli and cheese quiche. The turkey will taste very different plus you'll make some room in the fridge before the weekend's even over.

Run with the Thanksgiving=Pie theme...
Turkey Pot Pie Turnovers will rescue even a dry bird.
Mushroom and Leek Pot Pie is an easy variant just substitute turkey for chicken.
This is the most traditional pot pie recipe I use, but sometimes classic is the way to go.
Go French Canadian and make a pork turkey pie. Drawback: You'll need a meat grinder. Bonus: You'll also use up a lot of leftover mashed potatoes.

Spice it up...
Add some cooked turkey to Portobello Quesadillas
White Turkey Chili - in the best news yet, this freezes like a dream. Stash some for when holiday shopping has you dreading dinner plans.
Enchiladas will mask the turkey nicely when you're feeling like you can't face it even one more time.

Soup...
There's nothing more classic than chicken soup, try my Nana Grenon's turkey ragout for a Thanksgiving twist (this will also freeze well, BEFORE the dumplings are added). Check back next week, I'm going to try a gluten-free version for my father.
I can already feel my throat getting raw and sore. I will also be really relieved to get away from traditional Thanksgiving flavors. This Asian Noodle Soup is definitely going on the menu.

Even more...
Use dark meat turkey and cream to whip up an easy pasta.
Try a different turkey sandwich by tucking some in to this Monte Cristo
Who doesn't like a nice baked pasta dish with tomato sauce? This is also a great make and freeze option, just use turkey in place of the chicken.