The time is coming when you will have to deal with it. The feast is over. The family from out of town has gone home. The Christmas shopping season has begun. And you are looking at a refrigerator full of leftovers.

What to do with those Thanksgiving dishes that are left? You have got a bit of this and a smidgen of that. How to make it appealing all over again?

You will want to get a bit imaginative with the leftovers so that your family will gobble them up. Keep your family’s food habits in mind as you get creative, though. If somebody in your family refuses to eat foods that touch each other on the plate, then a casserole or combination dish may not be for them.

In that case, I suggest you fall back on the traditional turkey sandwich. Slice some of the leftover turkey, spread some mayonnaise on two slices of bread and layer the turkey on the bread. Add a slice of cheese or some pickles if you please. If you have a basket of rolls left over, use them in place of bread. Slice the rolls in half and make mini turkey sandwiches. You’ll be surprised how many mini sandwiches are devoured by people who are hungry.

Another way to use up leftovers is to make soup. Dice up ham and turkey, collect the various vegetables you have tucked in the fridge. Place all of the goodies in a pot with a few cans of chicken stock and heat. Add the buttered noodles your sister brought to dinner and you’ve got a hearty soup.

My children’s favorite way to eat Thanksgiving dinner a second time around is to make what they call mashed potato bowls. They scoop a serving of mashed potatoes into a bowl, top it with turkey, gravy, corn, dressing and warm it up in the microwave for a minute.

A popular recipe to reuse the Thanksgiving bounty is a casserole. You’ll want to fix this if your family eats casseroles. My children were not fans of anything named casserole so I invented a new name, like Turkey Delight and they loved the dish.

I diced the turkey into bite sized pieces and spread it in the bottom of a baking dish. I then layered in the other leftovers: green bean casserole, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, and dressing. I topped it all with a layer of shredded cheese and heated it until it was warmed through. I served it with gravy and cranberry relish on the side.

Of course, if you have a large family and everybody brings a dish to share at the big dinner, an easy way to deal with the leftovers is to divide them up amongst the gang. Send everybody home with a bit of each dish and you will be lucky if you have enough leftovers for a single meal.

Remember to clip this column and save it on the front of your refrigerator. Christmas and New Years are coming and you are bound to have leftovers from those meals that need dealt with too!

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