Hope you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! Ours was perfect – relaxed, happy and filled with good new memories. My kids and I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, a favorite tradition of mine. Later, Shawn and I took to the kitchen to prep our meal – Shawn does the turkey and I do the rest (FYI, the table above is last year’s spread, check out this year’s recap here). Then, our company came and we all stuffed ourselves.

Perfect.

Now that it’s the ubiquitous day after, you probably have a fridge full of leftovers just begging to be used. I sure do! But seriously, there are only so many meals that you can eat reheated turkey and mashed potatoes for. Instead of zapping everything back to life, give the turkey, stuffing and cranberries a new life. Here’s how.

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When we were driving to my cousin’s house this afternoon, Will pointed out the brilliant blue sky (“I really like the color of that blue sky.”), and he was right, it was spectacular. It was one of those skies that takes on a breathtaking sapphire hue that makes you want to drink it in while sipping something cold and refreshing on the front porch.

That’s the kind of day it was too – relaxed, brilliant, spectacular. We had brunch at my house (you will be hearing lots about that meal this week. Mmmm!) before heading to my cousin’s for an Easter egg hunt and dessert. Between cooking (and that last-minute batch of cookies I whipped up … wait to you hear why later this week), and visiting, it was a jam-packed day, but in the best way. I love seeing all of our kids together – there is something magical about a group of cousins who enjoy each other’s company like that.

Brunch yielded a serious amount of leftovers at my house … including a great stash of ham. I’ve been clicking around trying to decide what to do with it all … Here are five of my favorite ham recipe finds.

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I love – LOVE – the ease of food that can do double duty. For instance, a roasted chicken like the one mentioned on the Everyday Food blog today can be Sunday dinner, Monday chicken tacos, Tuesday chicken and rice and Wednesday chicken salad. Talk about a blessing for a busy, harried mom — or any uber busy person.

That’s why I love this beef recipe. It doesn’t take long to throw together and it can feed a family of four for three meals. It’s adapted from a cookbook that I’ve had for several years, but rarely used, called Better Food for Kids. My version makes it a bit fresher and more to my style/taste.

Since you use it in different dishes, we didn’t get bored eating ground beef three times in a week. Will and Paige gobbled up the shepherd’s pie and devoured the beefy calzone that I made with this (see below for directions). And the bolognese was a huge hit too. Read the rest of this entry…

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I held a mini-tasting in my kitchen for some family members this weekend. I test cooked about seven recipes for the book and several were clear winners, getting instant cheers. Meanwhile a few others are going back to the drawing board because they are just missing something. Obviously, it was productive. I wouldn’t want to include recipes that only make my taste buds tingle and no one elses.

Honestly, the tasting was so much fun that I would consider doing it every week. That sure would speed the process along too.

One thing I have discovered since I started writing less than a week ago is that if I think too much about what I am doing, I lose sight of it and have difficulty – writers block, kitchen errors, etc. But if I just do it, and forget why I am doing it, the whole writing and cooking process goes very smoothly. I guess when I am trying to write a cookbook, I put too much pressure on myself. But when I am just trying to write things are just normal. Am I making any sense here?

This recipe is from early February – don’t worry I haven’t broken my Lent. It was borne of the desire to fully utilize a roasted chicken I had made without any waste. From that 3 lb chicken, I made these chicken tacos, a chicken basil soup(that was a weeks worth of lunches for my husband), and ate the chicken itself for dinner. Talk about waste not, want not. Did I mention that the soup was made from stock from the chicken carcass?

Anyway, the taco recipe all started with this:

And a careful portion of Penzey’s Original Taco seasoning. This is less meat than would normally be used to make tacos (1 lb) so I used a lighter portion of seasoning.

I definitely recommend this taco seasoning. The flavor was excellent.

2 cups cubed roasted chicken
1.5 tbsp taco seasoning (such as Penzey’s Original)
3/4 cup water
shredded cheddar
4 fajita sized soft tortillas

In a medium skillet, combined the chicken, taco seasoning, and water. Cook on medium for 5-8 minutes, until the water evaporates leaving a thick sauce.

Spoon chicken onto tortillas, top with cheddar.

Serve these with salsa and low-fat sour cream, as well as a salad for a quick and easy meal.

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Will is a cheese-a-holic. He asks for it all the time in that cute little voice (“chhhheeeeesssssse”) and it’s always followed with a bit of gratitude (“dank you”) for his favorite food item . . . next to chocolate, of course. Fresh mozzarella is his favorite, but he’s not picky . . . he will eat whatever cheese you want to share. Then again, it’s no wonder that he’s a cheese-lover with the excess of cheese I ate while I was pregnant with him (the same justification applies to the chocolate too . . . geez, and I wonder why I was a whale when I gave birth).

Anyway, knowing that he has a penchant for cheesiness, I had him in mind when I created this dish on the fly this week. Originally, I had planned to make a lasagna with the wonderful, fresh flat sheets of egg noodles I purchased at Costco last week. But lasagna takes a while to cook and it was late. Besides, I was hungry and knew Will would love to eat this for lunch the next day.

So instead I made this lovely tray of manicotti. I love manicotti, particularly when the ricotta is smooth (instead of grainy, like it gets when you overcook it). There’s a great little restaurant in Danbury, Conn., that does it just right called The New Sorrento. Their manicotti is to die for. My husband and I actually had our rehearsal dinner for our wedding there since we loved their manicotti (and chicken parm, too) so much. We still drop by for take out once in a while. In any case, it holds a special place in our hearts.

I modeled this after the manicotti at The New Sorrento, with smooth ricotta and a homemade marinara. You don’t have to make your own marinara, but I do recommend it. (Check back tomorrow for my marinara recipe.)

Homemade Manicotti
serves 4-6

3 cups ricotta cheese
1 cup Romano cheese, freshly grated
4 eggs
4 cups marinara sauce (divided)
6 sheets of fresh pasta dough (or 6 manicotti shells, cooked according to package directions)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, 1 cup of Romano, and eggs. Mix well until smooth.

Spread 2 cups of marinara sauce in the bottom of a baking pan.

If you are using fresh pasta dough, use a pastry brush to brush the sheets with water on both sides. Spread a generous amount of the ricotta mixture on one end of the pasta sheet. Roll up and place in the baking pan. Repeat with the remainder of pasta sheets.

If you are using manicotti shells, fill each prepared shell with an equal amount of the ricotta mixture and place in the pan.

Top the manicotti with 2 cups of marinara sauce. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of Romano on top.

Cook for 20-25 minutes, until mozzarella is fully melted.

Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

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