The last of that leftover turkey breast?

A child of the late seventies and early eighties, many of my "traditional American" holiday memories revolve around convenience foods.

My not-so-traditional memories involve a heaping tray of meat lasagna next to the turkey platter, but I digress...

Who remembers pistachio fluff, courtesy of the friendly folks at Jello and Cool Whip? Green bean casserole with three different kind of Campbells canned soup? Sweet potatoes smothered in Stay Puff marshmallows?

My favorite of these convenience food concoctions actually never appeared at the Thanksgiving table, but was a regular feature on black Friday. Hot turkey salad topped with crushed potato chips. If my dad had a recipe, he never wrote it down. The base was shredded leftover turkey, often mixed in equal parts with leftover stuffing and/or mashed potatoes. To that he added random handfuls of diced onion and celery and enough mayonnaise to bind the mixture before topping it with the aforementioned crushed potato chips and a random sprinkling of grated cheese.

Since we didn't host the big event this year, I didn't have all the fixings to work with. I started with the turkey breast, added onion, red bell pepper and a bit of leftover mushrooms, used equal parts mayonnaise and ale-based mustard as the binder, and topped the casserole with the end of a bag of Kettle chips and the last hunk of chipotle cheddar.

It's not terribly photogenic, but it tastes good!

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From the archives...
In 2006 I explained my affinity for avocados.
In 2007 I made mini maple pies for Peabody's virtual housewarming party.