The Vinaigrette that Saved the Week!

I'm sure you know the feeling, a fridge so full of leftovers- you can't hardly find anything you need!

Every time you open the door, you are waiting for a cascade of tupperware to bury you on the kitchen floor and you just hope someone else will be around to help dig you out!!

Well, it has officially been one week since Thanksgiving and we are down to just a bit of the dark meat now, but earlier this week we still had mashed potatoes, string beans, carrots, pie, and a huge tupperware of turkey to abscond with!

We could freeze the leftovers, but we don't have much freezer space right now and I was up for the challenge of using them all up before they went bad!

There's nothing like a cleaned out fridge to help you feel the victory of a week's-worth of creative re-cooking.

Here are a couple of favorites from our procession of Thanksgiving left-overs reincarnations this past week:

Turkey Tetrazzini- This is a favorite of Chris's. I think he looks forward to this dish more than he looks forward to any of the actual components of a Thanksgiving Meal!

• 1 (8 ounce) package egg noodles
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 1, 8 oz package cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large heavy skillet. Drain mushrooms, add to skillet, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in turkey, cream cheese, sour cream, salt, and pepper.
4. Drain noodles and place in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Pour turkey mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until sauce is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

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Turkey Salad with Cranberry Sauce Vinaigrette- Have you noticed how hard it is to find salad dressing at the store without Canola/Vegetable Oil in it! It is crazy, almost ALL brands have it in the first couple ingredients among other scary ingredients like gums and syllable preservatives... I have been making my own dressings for a while now and my favorite is this super simple vinaigrette.

Here is the basic formula, this is for a single serving. You can just multiply this up if you are making salad for more than one person. This dressing keeps well in the fridge, but you will want to bring it to room temp and emulsify it- just give the jar a good shake- before putting it on your salad from the fridge:

1Tbs Fruit- ideally blended or mashed with a bit of honey (or you can use jam/jelly)- for the cranberry vinaigrette I used cranberry sauce

2Tbs Olive oil

1Tbs vinegar- I like red wine or apple cider vinegar for most dressings I make

Put all the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously until the dressing is all one consistency- no separation of oil and vinegar is visible.

The salad was simple. Middle Fork Farm in Centennial had me out last week to help butcher their thanksgiving turkeys and as a thank you they gave me fresh lettuce and basil from their hyrdroponic towers. I shredded some turkey and sliced up some veggies, added my cranberry sauce vinnaigrette and salt and pepper and tossed away.

So good!!!!

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Turkey Spaghetti- Spaghetti is a staple in our house. Such a great way to get your veggies in! Adding turkey is so simple. I started my noodles boiling. I like to infuse the turkey with a little bit more flavor before I throw it into dishes so we don't get tired of it. I dumped some shredded turkey into a skillet with about 2 Tbs olive oil, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp oregano, a dash of salt, and pepper. Once the turkey was sizzling I added a jar of home-made spaghetti sauce and brought it all up to temp. I drained the noodles and we dished up!

Fun fact: Chris won't eat his spaghetti sauce on his noodles... he always eats the noodles with butter and then the sauce on the side after... I have no idea why, (neither does he) but he has always enoyed his spaghetti this way- so who am I to try to change that. Haha!

Turkey Burritos- Burritos are a great late-night dinner I throw together when we get done with a long day and we just want to go to sleep! The other night we got done with everything we needed to do around 10pm and Chris and I didn't feel like waiting a whole lot longer for dinner to be ready. I always keep double-serving-sized containers of beans and rice I have pre-cooked, in the freezer so I can quickly thaw them out and whip up a meal. Adding turkey to this mix was super easy!

I dumped some shredded turkey into a skillet with about 2 Tbs olive oil, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika, a dash of oregano, and a pinch of salt. I stirred that for a couple minutes, then added the beans and rice and sauteed everything until it was all warm and a bit crispy. Then I dished it up into some home-made tortillas- my favorite recipe is below, it's super quick and simple.

​My favorite home-made tortilla recipe.​

Oh yes we eat like kings, even in a hurry!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Are you still working through those Thanksgiving leftovers???

What recipes do you like to use up leftovers with?

Speaking of Thanksgiving, several of our CSA Members got a locally raised turkey and a Turkey Brining Kit in their CSA Share in November!

Everyone was pretty excited and I have gotten a lot of great feedback!

We offered these turkeys through a partnership with another local farm- Schadey's Acres just outside of Laramie. They did such a great job rasing beautiful free-range heritage breed turkeys. I'm excited to be able to offer more Local Turkeys next thanksgiving through this partnership, to our growing CSA membership next year!

Have you signed up for the 2023 CSA yet?

You only have 1 more day to do so and qualify to recieve a Holiday Box from Taste of the Wind!!!!

Sign up HERE.

CSA shares close December 15th for the year of 2023, but Holiday Boxes need to ship before then!

So make sure to sign up before midnight tonight!!!

Place your deposit HERE, and get your holiday box sent to your door before the holidays are here!

This year's holiday boxes include a variety of products including a locally-raised grass-finished Prime Rib Roast,

some beef jerky and snack-stick stocking stuffers, a farm-themed oven mit, a farm-themed basting brush, a Christmas Card and letter from Your Farmers, some Farm-Favorite Recipes and more!!!

I hope you are enjoying Winter and are looking forward to the holidays. Until next week!

-BJ , Pip, Peter, and the Taste of the Wind Crew

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