Thankful for Leftovers with a Refreshed Flavor

Each Thanksgiving, it's a challenge to discover new recipes that will make the most of your leftovers. Many take a different form but use the existing flavors of Thanksgiving, for example, a turkey pot pie with a gravy or gravy-like sauce.

This may sound sacrilege to those who know me best and my unnatural love of gravy, but I really only want that flavor a couple days in a row before wanting some variety. So I was super excited to try a turkey pot pie recipe that has a creamy/cheesy sauce. Mmmm, flaky crust.

This recipe calls for: 

• Roast turkey - I used the smaller pieces that came from processing the carcass. (Read here to learn how to do this in your crockpot.)
• Roasted or frozen vegetables - I had some frozen, but you may have some leftover from a veggie tray? 
  
• Cheese sauce - I had cheese leftover from the appetizer charcuterie tray, and milk remaining from the mashed potatoes. 
• Sour cream - I had leftover from my ambrosia salad. 
• Puff pastry - These come in a two pack, so I always have an extra one hanging out from prior recipes. 
• Egg - Whenever I need to brush an egg on pastry crust, there is inevitably plenty leftover. Throw it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, and my dog Meeko is happy to eat the "scrambled" egg. 

I'm pretty excited that this will do a good cleaning of my fridge. 

Start with 3-4 cups of turkey and 2-3 cups of veggies. 

Add in 1 cup of cheese sauce and 1 cup of sour cream.

Mix well and spread into a pie pan. 

Cover with the puff pastry and brush with egg. 

Bake about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden and flaky, and the filling is bubbling.I needed to add foil around the edges for the last 10 minutes.

Eat a large helping, and when you're done, let your cat lick the bowl. Toby approves of the cream sauce!

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, and may your leftovers be tasty.

Kintsugi - The Golden Repair

Kintsugi is a Japanese method of repair, typically for pottery, where you fill chips, cracks, or even rejoin full breaks with gold. Not only does this allow the piece to be in service for years to come, but rather than trying to hide the repair, it is highlighted and celebrated as a part of the history of the piece. Here is an example:

The Japanese have multiple methods of visible mending in their culture; in addition to kintsugi for pottery, they also have sashiko (embroidery) and boro (patching) for textiles. I love this concept to extend the life of my items, while adding character and color. 

Having learned about kintsugi years ago, I was just waiting for an opportunity to try it out myself. Despite my reputation for klutziness, I surprisingly break few dishes! However, I do have a large wooden salad bowl that has a crack through the side of it. It's a fairly small crack that will be easy to experiment with. The offender:

I'm starting with a food-safe silicone. You can choose a product that matches the material you're working with. There are plenty of choices out there, from silicones to epoxies to resins. Just make sure if you're working on dishes that you choose something labeled as food-safe, and that you work in a good space. Most of these products will have an odor and require ventilation. If you're working on something that is just decorative, you could even use a nail polish.

Next, you'll need pigments. I had these leftover from previous craft projects - you should be able to get them where you get your medium. I have a few different shades of gold, so I'm mixing a shade.

I mix the pigments with the silicone, and then apply to the crack with a small paintbrush. This crack goes all the way through the bowl, so I work from both the inside and outside to make sure it's entirely filled. Remove any extra that lands on the surface of the bowl with a clean paper towel.

Here's how the outside now looks:

And the inside:

Now it looks more like a scratch, and when it hits the light right, you can see the gold. The main benefit here is that now I don't need to worry about food or moisture getting inside there and damaging the bowl more, or being hard to get clean.

What are some of your favorite methods for visible mending?

Second-Hand Socialite

It's time for the annual second-hand/DIY Halloween costume post. A few years ago, I aspired to be something glamorous and epic for Halloween. And at the last minute, I made a fatal mistake in my DIY-ing, and had to change direction entirely. 

This year, I was out thrifting with my friend T, and kid you not, the Goodwill gods directed me to 2 identical ballgowns, new-with-tags, and in my size and the adjacent size. 

It was meant to be that I should revisit the idea from years ago.  Introducing, painter Gustav Klimt's muse, the socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer. She was the subject of several of his paintings, and the 2015 film "Woman in Gold". 

This is the pre-altered dress. About 6" too long for me, but otherwise a perfect fit and very comfortable. My goal is to not damage the dress with my costume embellishments, so I still end up with an evening gown. 

Beyond this being a generally great gown, the price was fantastic. As mentioned, it was new with tags, so I know the original retail price was $357. The Goodwill price was $50, which was already a great deal. However, I noticed the other size was marked $10 less. ALWAYS ask the question. So I bring both dresses to the register and ask if I can pay the lower price, and they agree! So this gown came home with me for $40 (89% off).

First, I start with hemming the dress for my bitty 5'3" stature. I'm finally trying a zig zag stitch, because it's a stretchy fabric.

If you can learn some of these basic stitches, you can save some major cash. I had a formal dress hemmed last year for a wedding and the alterations cost $70 at Nordstrom. Halloween costumes are a great low-risk project to practice on, because worst case scenario is I only wear it for Halloween. 

Next, I use that 6 inches I cut from the hem, and reuse it to make a wrap that will serve as a faux ruffled "cold-shoulder" neckline. Adele's ruffle is patterned, so I'm painting on a design before sewing. The paint? Craft acrylics from Buy Nothing (free!) mixed with a little textile medium.

Onto the body of the dress, the painting is decorated with what I describe as eyeball shapes. For those, I started with an old bed sheet that  contained a similar pattern, and embellished with acrylic paint.

Now, when I went to attach these appliqués to the dress, I wanted to make sure I could remove them without residue, so I could rewear the dress in the future. I tried 2 products: a basting spray adhesive (did not work to adhere the eyeballs), and a double sided fabric tape, which worked phenomenally. (Cost $9)

Finally, I completed the look with this gold and pearl collar. I had found the collar at an estate sale for $5 years ago, with no purpose in mind, but knowing I'd eventually put it to good use. This collar emulates the stunning bejeweled heirloom necklace that Adele wears.

Here is the completed look! For just $54 (dress, collar, and tape), I was able to create a one-of-a-kind look:

This price is competitive with the average pre-packaged adult costume cost at Spirit Halloween, and is a $320 savings on the leftover strapless formal gown.

Now... time to start thinking of ideas for next year. :)