the LAST Turkey Leftover Post - AND I POACH an EGG!!!

god's country (Kansas) got cold last night (wind chill below 10 degrees). I have seen a couple of other bloggers showing pictures of frost and even thermometer closeups to show how cold it got. I went out in the yard and took a shot of frost on blades of grass, took a shot of a frozen puddle with some twigs sticking up, even considered showing a nude picture of my ex-wife to illustrate what we Midwesterners used to call, "witch tit cold", but that would be tacky, and I am many things, but rarely tacky...

But, in the end, I thought this picture shows cold to me (and probably any cat owner), here's my two cats, Chang and Eng laying in the sunshine that streams through our bathroom window in the mornings. They only do this when it is cold outside. This says COLD!

And now... THE LAST OF MY TURKEY LEFTOVER IDEAS! I got the idea for this from watching an episode of GOOD EATS on the Food Network. Good Eats is by far my favorite of the shows on the Network. Show creator and host describes his show as a combination of Julia Child, Mr. Wizard and Monty Python... But I digress...

I give you TURKEY HASH POTATOES WITH POACHED EGGS COVERED IN HOLLANDAISE SAUCE!

Imagine, me poaching an egg... Stranger things have happened in the world, but not many...

Here's what I did...

Slice up some taters, sprinkle a tablespoon of paprika and a tablespoon of chipotle spice. Coat them with a little canola oil, and start to fry em up.

While that's going, check out your fridge and pantry... What do you have left in small quantities that you can toss in the pot...

I had...

Garlic (of course) and parsley
Red Onion
Yellow Bell Peppers
Mushrooms

Coarsley chopped the Garlic and parsley....

Added the chopped items, and slices of peppers, mushrooms and larger slices of onions. This recipe is a mixture of what you have left. If you have lots of peppers, it becomes a pepper and potato hash. If you have a pound of mushrooms that are about to go bad, add the mushrooms (instead of small pieces, do LARGE slices)towards the end of the cooking time (so they are not over cooked), and it becomes Potatoes and Mushrooms. You get the idea.

Next, I added the turkey. You can add slices, dices or in my case, I pulsed some bits through the food processor. This was actually the end of the TURDUCKEN I got from CajunGrocer.com. So actually, there was bits of chicken, duck, turkey and even some cornbread stuffing... Hey, it's a hash, it all works!

I continued to let this saute while I tried to poach an egg! A poached egg is "simply" a boiled egg. I say "simply" in such a way that you should use air quotes while you say it. A poached egg is not simple, but there is a trick I learned from that old stand by, THE JOY OF COOKING cookbook.

Break an egg, without breaking the yolk into a bowl. Get a large saucepan boiling, with PLENTY of water (they said enough to cover an egg twice. I found that actually double that amount works best for me). And when I say large, don't use a small one. You want large because...

and here is the clever trick... Take a long handled spoon and get the water swirling. You want it to look like a flushing toilet. While the water is swirling, add the poop... I mean egg to the center of the vortex. And when the water begins to settle and stop swirling, look at what I did!!!

Let it be at a gentle simmer, takes about 7 minutes to cook. If you want a runny yolk (I do), remove the egg from the boiling water and immediately plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process.

I peed my pants a little, this was so pretty!

Most of you know THE PIONEER WOMAN. An amazing body of work on her blog, and has her own cookbook!

I used her recipe for BLENDER HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (that she claims never fails)... I followed her excellent directions (that you can find by clicking HERE), and sure enough... It never failed!

Plated the tater hash, topped with the eggs and poured some of the sauce on top...

A simple dish, made special with the fancy eggs and sauce becomes a very filling breakfast or dinner!

Look at that yolk!

And if you were paying attention, the sauce in this last photo is a bit darker than the sauce in the earlier photo... I added just a bit of za za zing to the Pioneer Woman's sauce by adding some hot sauce. Obviously, do this to taste. My gentle wife prefers no hot sauce (the earlier photos, while I prefer a tad za za zing! It zang for me!

I am tired of posting Turkey leftover recipes, so I will do a fast recipe for a TERRIFIC Turkey Salad (lunch sandwiches)...

Turkey
Red onion
GRANNY SMITH APPLES (really)
RED GRAPES (again, really)
Sweet Paprika
Mayonnaise (if you use Miracle Whip, and put it on your blog, some people will criticize you in the comments, so if you use MW, probably best to just type Mayonnaise and avoid the controversy). the apples and grapes really set this salad apart from the norm!

And finally, the night after the TURDUCKEN DINNER (9 dishes and 13 guests), I was not in a mood to really cook much. I fried a slice of the turducken, I fried some left over red wine risotto (that I will blog about one day, mostly because I have an amusing story that makes me look like an idiot... you all like those stories). Topped with a couple fried eggs and added a left over ANNA DAMN HER (Anadama) ROLL with butter and honey... Now this plate was indeed... GOOD EATS!

AND with this, I am all out of Turkey and Turducken. BUT, fear not. Turkeys were 40 cents a pound recently. I have two in my freezer. Coming soon, "what I did with my turkey leftovers series II"!!!