Leftovers are GREAT!

I LOVE turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I even love turkey leftovers for an entire week running. So far we've had

• Monday: turkey dinner with stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc.
• Tuesday: turkey quesadillas
• Wednesday: turkey pot pie

Doesn't the pot pie look cute?


Brian and Emily both liked the heart!

For my turkey pot pie, I just use leftover turkey, leftover gravy and some frozen veggies and any stray vegetables that may have been left over from the big day. In this case: broccoli. Quick & easy. Not even a recipe, really.


The big problem with making biscuit dough or pie crust, of course, is what to do with the leftover dough? When Steve is the chef, he always turns the leftover biscuit dough into ... biscuits. (How boring, say I.) When I'm at the culinary helm [OUCH! That metaphor HURTS! Um, but I'm still not deleting it, because of how well it just rolls off the tongue.]  Anyway, when I'm cooking, I use the leftover biscuit dough to make a cinnamon roll crescent.

Actually, I'm not even sure what these are really called. They aren't crescents, and they aren't rolls .... well, follow along.

First, roll your leftover biscuit or pastry dough into a rectangle (don't worry about getting it too thin) and spread it with butter:


Real butter makes it best!

Next, sprinkle generously with brown sugar and cinnamon:

Roll it up into a long snake:


Use your fingertip to daub a little water along the scraggly edge. Finish rolling the dough, then tamp down the ends to seal in all the buttery, sugary goodness:

Curl the "snake" into a crescent shape and place it cut-side-down in a non-stick pie plate, then slice vents across the roll.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Each little segment is a serving.

Cool before serving. The servings are small, but delightful; the pastry is flaky and tender, and the brown sugar crystallizes into succulent little gems. This little treat NEVER ends up being leftover for breakfast.

My mother in high school. What a beauty!

I've never seen this recipe written down. And I've only ever made it as a way of using up leftover pastry or dough -- never as an intentional cooking task. So it always seems very serendipitous.

I learned it from my mother, who learned it from her father. He supported his family through the Great Depression by baking. My mom used to deliver freshly baked bread on her bicycle. Consequently, my mother grew up to be an amazing pastry chef. She could flute a pastry crust faster than I could brush my teeth. [And that's saying something. As a kid, I was not the most diligent brusher.] She became known for her Chelsea Rolls, her pies, her cakes, her tarts ... It was one of the big ways she showed her love.

Sadly, I did NOT inherit her hand with breads and pie crusts, though I did inherit her sweet tooth. But this simple little thing, I can do.