A fridge bursting with leftovers - who could ask for anything more!

Thanksgiving, 2025

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. This week - my annual Thanksgiving Dinner and Leftovers round-up. In which I visit old favorites, add new dishes and deaccession old friends who just aren’t keeping up with my increasingly sophisticated palate (just kidding, but really).

Thanksgiving shopping began the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Ginevra and I took the bus to Trader Joe’s for a big shop. We were buying basics (butter, cream, maple syrup), Thanksgiving related items (organic cranberries, organic pumpkin purée, Brussels sprouts on a stalk), as well as more general baking items (puff pastry, vanilla extract). Before we moved into the house near the Pacific Ocean, that I now call home in San Francisco, we lived within walking distance of this TJs. Which is not surprising. When Nicolas was in art school studying glass, he also did research papers. One of which was on Trader Joe’s. Turns out, TJs decides where to open a store based upon this criteria: where overeducated and underemployed people live. Which is the perfect description of moi as it was for my Harvard educated architect husband.

Ginevra and I knew before we left home that we were not going to be returning from TJs by bus. Obviously. Too many heavy bags. But how to get home? Taxis were out, we don’t take taxis in San Francisco. The drivers don’t share our goal - they are never in as much of a hurry as we are to arrive at our destination. Ginevra hates Ubers, the drivers are not necessarily good drivers and too many of them show up with their trunks full of their own junk. Where would we put our shopping bags? Ginevra had been eager to try Waymo for a while. You know, the driverless cars that pay much more attention to the traffic conditions than cars with drivers do. And unlike actual drivers, they aren’t always looking at the GPS or worse, Instagram or Tiktok (as happened to us when we got into a faux G-7 taxi in Paris for Ginevra’s trip to the airport).

Here are the worries we had as we contemplated taking a Waymo from Trader Joe’s: When the car arrived - would we be able to figure out how to open the trunk. Did it even open. Would the car wait for us to put all our bags into the trunk? Would we have time to get into the back seat. When we got home - would we be able to figure out how to open the trunk again. Would the car wait until we got all of our bags out of the trunk before driving off? The answer to everything was yes. The ride took a little longer since this driverless car actually did take stop signs and traffic lights and yield to pedestrians regulations seriously. We knew before we got in that the trip would cost $20. So, no driving around driving up the meter. No driver with a dirty car, filled with his/her own ‘stuff’ asking for a tip and a five star rating. Waymo was indeed a 5 star experience!

Ginevra happy to finally be finally getting into a Waymo and going somewhere

A couple days later, we had reason to take a Waymo again. We went to a movie theatre to see an evening preview of the film, Hamnet. It’s about Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet. Well, it’s mostly about Anne Hathaway, who is called Agnes in the film and the three children she shared with her husband, William. It’s based upon the book by the same name, which I will be reading soon. As we prepared to see the film, we learned that a male historian, misreading and then misinterpreting what he had misread, had fabricated things about Shakespeare’s life/wife. And we learned how those fabricated ‘facts’ got incorporated into the very few actual ‘facts’ we think we know about Shakespeare’s personal life. It’s a good film, see it.

We took a bus to the theatre but it was too late to take a bus home. So, we called a Waymo. By then, I had an introductory 30% discount on my next 3 rides. The price was $11 (instead of $16). It was dark so seeing my initials on the thing that rotates on the roof of a Waymo reassured us that we were getting into the right car. Once inside, it was lovely to be greeted with ‘Hello Beverly’ on the screen in front of us. It must have said Hello Ginevra on our first Waymo ride, but we can’t remember.

The following day, we were in the same part of town again, this time to get the turkey we ordered from Bryan’s in Laurel Village. We’re not going to Gus’s anymore. There seems to be some sort of scheme at that store to overcharge customers for as many items as possible as the items are being rung up. It can only be the store owners who profit since almost everybody pays by credit card. It definitely wasn’t a mistake, it happened way too often for that. Keeping a vigilant eye on the person ringing up my purchases is just not what I’m prepared to do anymore. I mean, really, Gus’s isn’t a Seven-Eleven and this isn’t the 1980s (or is it?).

I wasn’t worried about being overcharged at Bryan’s, the posted prices are high enough. Here’s how they price turkeys. If the weight is between 10-12 pounds, it’s $63; between 12-14 pounds, it’s $73, etc. When we picked up our turkey, it didn’t have the weight on it. So I don’t know if I paid $6.30 or $5.70 or $5.25 per pound. But I did know that when I asked for the turkey to be spatchcocked, it would be done correctly since real butchers work at Bryan’s, unlike Gus’s and Whole Foods. We planned to take a Waymo home from Bryan’s which is closer to our house than both TJs and the theatre. But they obviously practice ‘dynamic pricing.’ The price I was quoted was $20, even with my 30% discount. Paying $20 for a ride back to my house when I’ve spent over $300 in groceries makes sense. But $20 for transportation when I am only carrying a $63 turkey, seems excessive. So, cradling the turkey like a newborn, we took the bus home.

Over the years, making Thanksgiving dinner has gotten a lot easier, especially roasting the turkey. For what seems like a very long time, we just roasted it the way we always had, although I can’t remember exactly what that was. And it seemed to take a long time for the turkey to get done. Then for a few years we followed Jacques Pepin’s method of steaming the turkey before roasting it. After that, we followed Samin Nosrat’s spatchcocked turkey method - soaking it in buttermilk for 48 hours. That was messy and sloppy and also a lot of buttermilk. For the past two years, we have followed Kenji Lopez Alt’s method, which also calls for spatchcocking but only calls for dry brining with kosher salt for 24 hours. Then right before popping it into the oven, slathering 3/4 cup of herbed mayonnaise onto the bird. Which keeps it moist and gives it a lovely color. It is so easy and so quick. Roasting time is only about 70 minutes for a 10-12 pound turkey.

If you follow the recipe exactly, there is a bit of fussiness. You put chopped onions, carrots and celery under the turkey to catch the drippings while it roasts. Also while it roasts, you sauté the backbone, neck, giblets, etc. with more chopped onions, carrots and celery. After that all browns, you add broth and simmer while the turkey roasts. But what do you use for broth, if the turkey is roasting and you haven’t yet made broth from the carcass? That’s easy, you use Better than Bullion, which may not be better than bouillon but it sure is good. Kenji wants you to make gravy. But we don’t like gravy. So, I added the broth to the drippings that were under the turkey when it finished roasting and the liquid that seeped out of the turkey as it rested. I combined all that deliciousness with the broth I made from the carcass a few days later But I’m getting ahead of myself….

As soon as the turkey was done, it was time to put in the Brussels sprouts with bacon and shallots, the spears of sweet potatoes with red onion and harissa paste and the bread stuffing that had already been partially cooked. The cranberry sauce (cranberries, orange juice and sugar) and cranberry relish (cranberries, an orange, fresh ginger and a bit of sugar) were already done. It was a delicious meal. We barely made a dent in any of it. Leftovers are my happy place, especially at Thanksgiving.

Ginevra had decided to make the apple pie she watched Sue Li make (NYT Cooking). It’s an amazing pie - lofty and elegant and rustic! The apples are sliced and then sautéed in butter. Once they are cooled, cream and sugar and nutmeg and cinnamon are added. The bottom crust is without fuss and the top crust is brilliant. Instead of trying to drape it over the apples and fasten it securely to the bottom crust, you roll out the top crust, cut it into 16, 3” squares and ‘shingle it’ onto the apples. It sort of adheres to both the apples and the bottom crust as it cooks. The overlapping squares get nice and brown because of the egg and cream wash you spread over it just before you bake it. My only complaint is that Ginevra seemed to spend a lot of her time with that pie - making the dough, chilling the dough and then rolling it for most of the day. (Figs 1-6)

Figure 1. Sweet.potato, red onion and harissa paste waiting for their turn in the oven

Figure 2. Sweet potatoes et al waiting for plating

Figure 3. Brussels sprouts, bacon and shallots patiently waiting their turn

Figure 4. We’re now convinced that the best way to cook bacon is in the oven on a sheet pan

Figure 5. The turkey a perfect color, ditto the vegetables all waiting for the stuffing to be done.

5a. Alison Roman celery and leek stuffing

Figure 6. Ginevra’s amazing apple pie, which we ate sparingly for a week

Leftovers officially began on Friday at lunchtime. We should have started like everyone else does - with slices of turkey on sliced white bread with lots of mayonnaise and a sprinkling of salt. Maybe some cranberry sauce. But Ginevra insists that we buy bread made with unbleached, not enriched flour. With the one bakery near our house closed and the supermarket shelves bare of any real choices, we had Turkey Tacos.

No recipe, just a riff on an Eric Kim (NYTCooking) recipe for quesadillas. You lightly grease a sheet pan and put the tortillas on it. You grate some cheese over the tortillas and put the pan in the oven. In 10 minutes, the dry heat of the oven makes for crisp tortillas and melted cheese. To which we added shredded turkey, raw onion, cilantro, avocado and cranberry sauce. Delicious, and we were just getting started.

Dinner was a Kenji recipe which we began making 2 years ago, as soon as the recipe hit the NYT. You take a pound of pizza dough and cut it into 6 balls. Then you roll each ball into a 7” disk. Into which you put a log shaped mélange of leftover vegetables, shredded turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. You pull the sides over and the ends up to make a tight log, like an egg roll. You put the pockets seam side down on a baking sheet, brush with heavy cream, sprinkle with grated parmesan or cheddar cheese and then bake until golden brown. Delicious and filling! We ate two and froze the other four, for leftover dinners long after this turkey is gone.

On Saturday, with the bakery near us open, I bought a loaf of (I hope) unbleached (not enriched) sour dough bread. And we finally had turkey sandwiches. Which were even better because we used the leftover herbed mayonnaise that we made to baste the Thanksgiving turkey. For dinner we were going to make Turkey Pho soup from Samin Nasrat’s recipe but one taste of the broth that had been simmering all day and I knew it was too good to camouflage with fish sauce and charred ginger and onion. Besides, I’ve made Pho too many times this past year using rotisserie chicken. It isn’t a Thanksgiving leftover dish for me anymore. Instead, I used another NYT recipe for soup which started with the same trio of chopped onion, carrots and celery sautéed in butter. To which we added shredded turkey, of course. Rather than follow the recipe and add noodles, we added cubes of roasted potatoes and croutons we made from leftover stuffing. With parmesan grated over the whole, it was a soup worthy of the gods.

Did I mention that each morning we stay true to our Thanksgiving ethos by eating a Sweet Potato Muffin? From a Tartine Bakery recipe for loaf bread, which when made in a loaf pan never seemed to bake completely. The muffins have been perfected baked. And, heated each morning, they have been our Thanksgiving way to start the day. (Figs 7-10)

Figure 7. Turkey tacos based upon a recipe by Eric Kim, NYTCooking. Ginevra’s Make-A-Plate homage to Mondrian

Figure 8. Hot pockets, recipe by Kenje Lopez-Alt, plate (like previous one) Make-A-Plate by Nicolas, rockets?

Figure 9. Turkey soup with cubed roasted potatoes and sautéed stuffing squares instead of noodles

Figure 10. Sweet potato muffins (recipe Tartine Bakery), in homemade parchment baking cups

From Sunday through Thursday, we have made lunch and dinner using one or more (usually more) of our Thanksgiving leftovers. Sandwiches or pita pockets for lunch, like barbecue turkey sandwich one day, with homemade barbecue sauce; turkey stuffed pita pockets another from a recipe by David Tanis in which freshly pickled cabbage and radishes and cucumbers are nestled in a warm pita pocket with seasoned shredded turkey and then slathered with a tahini yogurt sauce. Another day we made club sandwiches - they were brilliant - sliced turkey, bacon, tomato, avocado and hardboiled eggs. The only thing we skipped was the third slice of bread. Our last Thanksgiving lunch was another NYT Cooking recipe - Stuffing Panzanella with Cranberry Vinaigrette by Sohla El-Waylly. What’s not to like, flavorful stuffing squares sautéed in butter and then added to a salad which is a mix of tender lettuces and crunchy raw vegetables, and a brilliant vinaigrette. (Figures 11-16)

Figure 11. Turkey Barbecue Sandwich (recipe by Melissa Clark, NYT) Make-A-Plate by Nicolas

Figure 12. Pita pocket (recipe David Tanis, NYT) stuffed with cabbage, radishes and cucumbers

Figure 13. Club sandwich fixings, note only 2 slices of bread, not 3.

Figure 14. Piling it on and using up the last of the herbed mayonnaise which was NOT used to slather the turkey

Figure 15. In all modesty one of the best club sandwiches I have ever eaten (let alone made!)

Figure 16. Stuffing Panzanella (recipe by Sohla El-Waylly, NYT)

The only real disappointment was the Reubens sandwich from a Martha Stewart recipe that we’ve been making for what seems like forever. I think we will be retiring that recipe. Although it may not be Martha’s fault. We couldn’t find any rye bread without enriched flour, so we bought caraway seeds and sprinkled them on our sour dough bread. (Figure 17)

17. Reubens Sandwich - photo from last year when we had rye bread and also remembered to take a photo!

If lunches were mostly sandwiches, dinners were mostly hot. Like Margaux Laskey’s enchilada pie that we have been making for a few years now. Tortillas soaked in enchilada sauce layered with whatever leftovers are still in the fridge and grated cheddar cheese, to which I added a tin of organic black beans to up the enchilada vibe. The recipe serves eight or 2 people four times. So now we have leftover leftovers in the freezer.

We decided to skip the elaborate steps of Samin Nosrat’s Tiki Masala that I made last year. Instead, we followed a 2009 Mark Bittman recipe the Turkey That Went to India. A tomato and coconut milk based stew to which I added all the turkey that was left which I didn’t think was enough, so I tossed in a tin of chickpeas. We deaccessioned another old favorite, Nigella Lawson’s 2015 Bang Bang Turkey for a more sophisticated version by Brendon Pang which Ginevra found on the internet, which uses rotisserie chicken and a which I’ve been making with some regularity in Paris. (Figs 18-20)

Figure 18. Enchilada pie (recipe by Margaux Laskey, NYT) brimming full of turkey leftovers and black peans

Figure 19. The Turkey that Went to India (recipe by Mark Bittman, NYT)

As I look over the roster of meals we prepared using Thanksgiving leftovers, two things are clear - leftovers justify making the meal in the first place. And most of these leftovers can be made all year long, substituting chicken or tofu or beans for the turkey. You might have noticed that our meals were ‘dessert light’. We managed to nibble on slivers of Ginevra’s amazing apple pie all week long. We’ll be making it again, it’s also definitely NOT holiday specific. As for the next few weeks, I think we’ll be eating vegetarian as we prepare our palates for Christmas. Gros bisous, Dr. B.

Figure 20. The theme of our Christmas this year is Art Deco based upon this advent calendar from Pierre Marcolini enhanced by hand blown glass objects that just happen to be orange and green.

Thanks so much to those of you who had time to Comment on last week’s post. Sharon reports that Transatlantic, the series about Varian Frye and the people who helped him help people escape the devastation of Nazi concentration camps, is well worth watching.

New comment on Americans Saving Lives, one life at a time:

Thank you for writing this and calling attention to this amazing man. Lest we forget – and the western world seems very forgetful lately of the need to defend our freedoms (see the recent New York Times articles on a rise in Franco’s popularity by the young in Spain who never lived under his regime). Lorraine, Worcester Mass.

Another insightful post thank you Beverly. Perfectly timed for me after reading Jonathan Freedman's 'The Traitors Circle' about the bravery and fate of the non Jewish German elite who defied Hitler, to their cost. They proved that there were humans who had deep integrity and believed old German values were far higher than those of nazism. Katherine, Oxford, England

New comment on Old Things through New Eyes:

Hi Dr. B,

Thank you for a well-researched post, titled Old Things through New Eyes, which is so detailed and beautifully written. I have just completed reading Proust’s In Search of Lost Time with Fereshteh Priou’s Greenwich-based Proust book club and am planning a trip to Paris and Illiers-Combray next spring, so your post comes in real handy. I would love to follow your eyes and visit art galleries and museums in Paris and the rest of France with you. If ever you are conducting a tour, please let your fans know! Warm regards, Shiao-Ping from Australia.