I am so far down the road of sufganiyot testing and hallmark movie watching that I have to remind myself that thanksgiving still hasn’t happened or else I’ll get confused about the turkey cupcakes on my Instagram feed. Still I have no regrets about having moved forcefully in the direction of holiday cheer from the moment that Halloween ended. I mean, let’s hear a round of applause for this bagel macaroni noodle menorah and this narwhal address stamp and the new Sia Christmas album. zooomg.

We are going to Chicago for the long weekend, where we’ll celebrate Eggboy’s birthday, Stoopie’s birthday, Thanksgiving obviously, and the National Dog Show hosted by Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Oh, and my high school reunion, to which I will be wearing the closest thing to adult footie pajamas that Eileen Fisher gift cards can buy.

I am extremely ready for my Thanksgiving routine, which goes like this:

Wake up to Stoop placing her small dog, Audrey, on my head (Eggboy has been up for hours, chatting with mum and reading the newspaper),

Flop down stairs, pour a coffee, migrate to the couch, struggle for five minutes with mum’s remote controls, and then finally find the Macy’s parade. Sing and dance along when the Camp Broadway kids come on.

Exchange sup dudes with Stoop husband. Alternate between the parade, twitter, pickin my nose, and Audrey being placed on my head until it’s time to oversee Eggboy’s annual pumpkin pie production. (He plans to repeat last year’s success, which consisted of Sarah’s filling and Yossy’s crust.)

Assist with stuffing tasting, vegetable chopping, etc.

Gush over the sheep dogs during the dog show.

Check Instagram. Crimp Eggboy’s pie, tweet about his progress. Decide if he is a pieboy or not a pieboy this year.

Ad lib until it’s time to eat and then just keep my head down until it’s clear that everyone’s forgotten about going around the table to say what we’re thankful for. It’s just so mushy 😭😭😭😭😭

Fall asleep in front of a movie, any movie. Maybe Elf this year??

Here is a perfect way to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers, a turkey wild rice hot dish that is topped with leftover stuffing!! It's soo cozy and good, and it's basically a thanksgiving sandwich that you can eat from a bowl. The thing about this wild rice hotdish though is that it should be made anytime during the winter months, not just when you have leftovers. Around here we pretend like it’s a little more of a grownup hotdish since it has ~local wild rice~ adding bite and nutrition, but it’s just as buttery and creamy and rich as, say, its tater tot counterpart. You can totally sub out the turkey for roasted chicken or ground beef or a vegan meat substitute (as so many of you did with the tater tot hotdish)!! And when it’s not stuffing season—which is sad to think about because stuffing should be eaten at all times of the year, right??—go ahead and top this with the traditional crushed cracker topping. Eggmom uses saltines! I bet ritz would be good too. Or cheez-its. Mmmmm.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!!!!

Turkey Wild Rice Hotdish with Stuffing (AKA Thanksgiving Leftover Hotdish)

makes 6 - 8 servings

ingredients

3/4 c (135g) wild rice, rinsed and drained

2 c (480g) water

Kosher salt

6 tb (84g) unsalted butter

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

3/4 c (95g) all-purpose flour

3 c (715g) whole milk

2 tb vegetable, or chicken soup mix (i prefer the orrington farms brand, but something similar, like a bouillon cube or better than bouillon or a homemade bouillon will work)

Black pepper

1 tsp dried rosemary, chopped

4 c (about 515g) cooked shredded roasted turkey*

4 c leftover stuffing (I like this recipe)*

*Since it's impossible to predict exact leftover amounts, don't fret if you have a little more or a little less stuffing or turkey! These amounts are just a ballpark.

Leftover cranberry sauce, for servinng

clues

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

In a medium saucepan, combine the wild rice, water, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, until al dente. Drain the rice and set it aside.

To make the creamed soup, in a large pot, melt 6 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, until soft, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute. Stir in half of the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Stir in the remaining milk and cook, stirring, until very thick. Add the soup mix, a bunch of turns of black pepper, rosemary, and salt to taste. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, 1/3 soup on the bottom, then 1/2 the rice, and 1/2 the turkey. Repeat and then top with the remaining 1/3 of the soup mixture. Top with stuffing and bake for 45 minutes, until bubbly. If the stuffing is getting too browned on top, cover with foil.

Serve with leftover cranberry sauce.

Print this Recipe

-yeh!

photos by chantell and brett quernemoen

pictured: apron, casserole dish

please tell me you did not actually think that i was making plain jane and easy peasy sufganiyot yesterday and being serious about it.

i mean, ok, they are a solid second rate choice for when you're busy last-minute constructing your menorah. but no way would any guests of mine catch me just making sufganiyot.

when you're religion tells you to eat donuts, you eat donuts with a capital d. you work all day in the kitchen and you make it all from scratch, or you at least go to the donut plant. you don't just fry bullshit dough out of a can.

so if you haven't already figured it out, i quickly made donuts yesterday so that i could have day old donuts today in order to simulate the timing between the first night of hannukah and thanksgiving... so that i could make stuffing out of my day old sufganiyot... so that i could make thanksgiving even fatter.

i didn't actually make them to eat them and share them with my friends.

i won't even try to sugarcoat this (heh. get it? cause sufganiyot are coated in sugar?), this is going to be the reason that we all explode on thanksgiving. you might have trouble saving room for pie. or latkes. or whatever. this stuffing is the perfect marriage of the three food groups of salty, sweet, and bacon. it for sure isn't kosher (unless you use a dairy-free donut and turkey bacon). and i have only tried this with my biscuit dough sufganiyot, which are rather cakey, so if you plan on having a sufganiyah of a different texture, i recommend testing it out before the big day. i could see lighter doughs getting a bit too soggy, but i hope to be proven wrong.

this recipe is based on the recipe that i wrote last year for pastrami sandwich stuffing. which presents another thought: does there need to be a stuffing-centric concept pop-up restaurant? yes, yes there does.

sufganiyot stuffing with bacon

makes 6-8 servings

ingredients

one batch of these sufganiyot

2 tb olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 pinches of kosher salt

4 slices of bacon, chopped

1/4 c dried cranberries

1 c chicken or vegetable broth

1 egg

a pinch each of ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and thyme

a small handful of fresh parsley

clues

preheat oven to 200 f. slice open your sufganiyot, extract the jam as best you can, and set it aside. cut sufganiyot into 3/4-inch pieces and then bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until they're very dry. when they're done baking, remove them from the oven and crank the heat up to 375 f.

heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. cook the onion and celery until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. add the bacon and dried cranberries, and heat until the bacon is cooked through.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the broth, egg, spices, and reserved jam (you'll want 1/4 cup of jam-- if you don't have enough reserved from the donuts, add more).

in a greased large loaf pan, gently combine the sufganiyot cubes and the onion mixture. fold in the parsley and the broth mixture to coat the cubes evenly. bake for 45 minutes.

enjoy while wearing your prettiest eating pants.

-yeh!