Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving Pizza


We all love Thanksgiving.  The turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce.  And we all love the leftovers... for a day or two.  But by the time Monday rolls around, nobody really wants ANOTHER cold turkey sandwich.  So we've come up with a fun and different way to use up the last bit of your Thanksgiving leftovers: Thanksgiving pizza!  It might seem a little strange at first, but you are going to love it.  This pizza is comfort food at its finest!

Ingredients:
-1 refrigerated pizza crust
-1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
-1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
-1/2 cup shredded turkey
-1/2 cup prepared stuffing
-1/2 cup whole sweetened cranberries (from cranberry sauce)
-1 small celery stock, diced
-1/2 small onion, chopped
-2 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped
-Leaves from 2 strips of marjoram
-10 tarragon leaves, torn into small pieces

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Begin by rolling a store bought pizza crust out onto a pizza pan or cookie sheet that has been greased or lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  If you want to make your own crust, be our guest, but you've already cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner so don't feel guilty about going store bought.  Spread a thin layer of mashed potatoes on your crust.  We used about a cup and a half.  Make sure you reheat the potatoes first for easy spreading.  We also suggest using very flavorful mashed potatoes since they will be the base of your pizza.  If you prefer your potatoes plain with Thanksgiving dinner, just add some extra butter, milk and garlic when when you reheat them.  Once you've spread the potatoes, cover with a layer of shredded cheese.  We used a blend to mozzarella and provolone.  Evenly spread shredded turkey, celery, onions, and herbs over the pizza.  If you don't have the herbs listed above, use whatever fresh herbs you have left over from making dinner.  Next, evenly distribute the stuffing in small batches over the surface of the pizza.  Finally, add the cranberries.  We didn't have have any cranberry sauce, so we just cooked down 1/4 cup of fresh cranberries in a 1/2 cup of water with a couple tablespoons of sugar over medium heat until they began to pop.  Turn off the heat and allow cranberries to cool before adding to the pizza.

Bake on the bottom oven rack for 10 to 12 minutes.  We only left it in for 10 minutes and found that the crust wasn't quite as crisp as we would have liked in the middle.  Keep an eye on the pizza, and pull it out when it is done to your liking.

Way cooler than cold turkey sandwiches in your lunchbox don't you think?

XOXO,
Tall and Small

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