Thanksgiving Manhattan

This is a turkey manhattan with a Thanksgiving twist. Manhattans are comfort food for me from my childhood. School lunch served beef manhattan or turkey manhattan about once a month. It consisted of 1-2 slices of white bread, deli meat of either roast beef or turkey, mash potatoes, and gravy. Chicken gravy for turkey and beef gravy for the beef. It was either made as an open faced sandwich with only a slice of bread on the bottom, the meat on top of it, then a scoop of mash potatoes before the gravy or make a sandwich, then cover it with mash potatoes and gravy. That's a basic manhattan.

Here's my Thanksgiving manhattan.
1) place one slice of bread on the plate.
2) place shredded or cubed turkey from Thanksgiving on the bread.
3) add a scoop of stuffing on top of the turkey.
4) pour some chicken or turkey gravy over the stuffing.

Some of you may have already had this before, but called it a different name, such as leftovers. :-D

This is another way to use those leftovers. Happy Cooking.

Your Cooking Goddess,
Ellen Tevault

How to Use Thanksgiving Turkey Leftovers

Are you looking forward to a week of cold turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving? I didn't think so. That's why I have come up with several alternative uses for those turkey leftovers.

Things You'll Need
• Turkey
• Imagination

1) Turkey Salad - Cut up turkey, onion, celery. Mix with mayonnaise. Serve on crackers or bread.

2) BBQ - Cut up turkey. Mix with your favorite BBQ sauce. Serve on hamburger bun.

3) Casserole - Replace the meat in your favorite recipe with turkey chucks, such as Tuna Noodle Casserole made with turkey instead.

4) Tacos - Mix turkey with taco seasoning. In a taco shell, layer turkey, cheese, salsa, and lettuce.

5) Turkey Noodle Soup - In a sauce pan, mix turkey, celery, onion, and seasoning in broth. Add egg noodles about 10 minutes before the vegetables are tender.

6) Stir Fry - In lightly oiled skillet or wok, stir fry vegetables with turkey chunks with an Oriental sauce packet. Serve over rice or Asian noodles.

7) Hash - Finely chop up turkey, onion, and potatoes. Cook in skillet. (I know, you thought hash only came in a can.)

8) For more ideas, look through a cookbook with the idea that turkey can replace the meat in a lot of recipes, especially chicken. Think of it as an adventure.

Tips & Warnings: Your family may not realize that they are eating leftovers.

Previously published on eHow.com.

New: Since publishing this article a few years ago, I have found out that some people love leftover turkey sandwiches because they combine turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing on a dinner roll or whatever bread is leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. My grandma's idea of a leftover turkey sandwich was white bread with mayonaise and turkey. That was it. Nothing fancy. Mel taught me the pleasure of a Thanksgiving sandwich described previously with all the fixings.

Try it in an omelet. I bet it is delicious.

Have fun experimenting with a new way to have the turkey leftovers.
Your Cooking Goddess,
Ellen Tevault

Rub that Bird the Right Way

This delicious rub only has three ingredients. I made this for the first time around November. People keep asking for it. So many people have asked for it in the last few months, that I have had it once a week for the past three weeks.

Spicy Bird Rub Recipe:
The first time I made it for Mel I used a 3 lb. whole chicken. I stirred 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon chili powder, and 1 tablespoon cumin powder. I basted it on the chicken and slow cooked it covered for three hours on 325 degrees in my favortie stone bowl. I uncovered it and cooked it for a half and hour. The skin looked black. The chicken melted off the bones as Mel carved it.

For Christmas, I doubled the rub for a 6 lb turkey breast. My family loved it. Usually, they ask Mel to cook the turkey. I expected them to be disappointed that I had cook the turkey this year, but they weren't.

In the past three weeks, I have made it three more time. My cousin invited us over for dinner and asked me to bring that recipe, so I made it with a whole chicken again. Due to a snow storm, we couldn't go, so Mel transformed my chicken into tacos. This recipe makes the chicken so tasty that the tacos didn't need any other seasonings. I had to buy another whole chicken for when we rescheduled the cancelled dinner and my cousin and her husband ate almost the whole chicken. Tonight, I made it for the recipe party (mentioned in the previous post). Everyone loved it.

It's so simple that people are shocked when I tell them what goes into the rub.

When I'm ready to eat this again, I think I'm going to change it up and baste it onto fish or tofu.

Happy Cooking,
Ellen