Fending

Going to the beach for Thanksgiving is wonderful, but the slightest of downsides might be that there is only one day to eat leftovers before packing up to return home on Saturday. Historically, we have given it a valiant go, even consuming enough turkey and fixin's during the day to order pizza or go out for dinner on Friday night. 

But with the enormous turkey and all the other fabulous meals we've eaten this week, it made the most sense to stay in and eat leftovers for dinner. Even so, the foodies in us are tempted to do more than simply reheat. For example, this afternoon I made a pizza with a sourdough crust made from leftover cheese grits, topped with the rest of the ham we had for sandwiches, and strewn with roasted butternut squash, rosemary, and sage. 

Later, when I was reading an article called 53 Ways to Use Your Thanksgiving Leftovers, I proposed a competition where everyone prepares a new dish using only our leftovers and the limited vacation pantry we have cobbled together. "I'll be the judge," I graciously volunteered. 

And man! Did our group step up! We had turkey potato hash, homemade gnocchi with puttanesca, handmade wontons with butternut squash filling and chili oil, turkey cabbage salad with peanut dressing, spinach salad with black rice and warm bacon dressing, along with some good old-fashioned pepperoni pizza to round out the meal. 

As we planned and prepared our meal, I could tell that judging was more than a one-person job, so Treat and I put our teacher skills to use and created a Google form. After a ranked-choice voting ballot, the dumplings, a fusion of Julie and Victor's family recipes, won the evening decisively.

Now that's what I call leftovers!