LOCATION: Back in our tiny house in Mission, Texas

WEATHER: Mostly sunny. High 80

We dropped off our daughter and her friend at the Harlingen airport on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving). I think they had a good time, in spite of a few days of yucky weather.

While daughter Alexis was here, she was our technical support for new computer devices. I have a new tablet and George has a new laptop. This was a typical scene while she was here….

We felt a need to “de-tox” from the restaurant eating and drinking we did with them, but alas, it was Thanksgiving. We decided to forego the Retama Village community Thanksgiving pot-luck get-together and just had our own celebration. The menu was the usual suspects….

Turkey breast (I didn’t want to do a whole turkey due to the leftovers)

Stuffing with Italian sausage

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Green beans (served with lime juice and slivered almonds, not the fattening traditional recipe)

Cranberry sauce

Acorn squash

Pumpkin pie

We ate at about 3:00, so didn’t need any dinner.

Friday, for a change of pace, I made a tasty flatbread pizza. Using a store-bought crust, I spread a bit of cream cheese and olive oil on for the base. Onto that, I topped it with artichoke hearts, a leftover grilled portobello, and fresh basil from my basil plant.

I made a menu for the next few days, trying to use the Thanksgiving leftovers creatively, such as….

Since we had cheated on the pumpkin pie by buying frozen pie crusts, we ended up with an extra crust. So, I made a “topless” turkey pot pie. I made the filling by sautéing onion and garlic, and from that made a roux. To that, I added the leftover green beans, some diced potatoes, a bit of the leftover Thanksgiving gravy, some frozen vegetables, leftover diced turkey, and spices such as sage and black pepper. I cooked all of that in the pie shell. It turned out pretty well.

Watch for more Thanksgiving leftover recipes to come —- I found recipes to use 1) the second half of the Thanksgiving acorn squash, 2) turkey chili for leftover turkey, and 3) sausage/portobello toasts using Thanksgiving sausage from the sausage in the stuffing.