Friends, hello.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, filled with delicious meals, lots of family time, cozy fires, snowy skies, and maybe a nap or two. If you're gearing up for a New Year's Eve gathering, I hope you feel rested... I'll be spending it in sweatpants on my sister's couch, and I am so looking forward to it.

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, I made turkey tetrazzini with leftover braised* turkey leg meat. A few weeks ago, just after Thanksgiving, I shared the tetrazzini recipe with you all in a Google Doc, but I've since made it several more times, always to rave reviews, and so I've finally posted it to the blog.

I love making it not only because it is delicious, but because it puts any leftover turkey and/or turkey stock to great use as well as any leftover cranberry sauce: they go lovely together!

A plate of Turkey Tetrazzini aside salad and cranberry sauce.

Unlike many baked pasta dishes in which the sauce binding it all together can be on the rich side, this one is made primarly of stock, and the process for making it is not unlike making gravy: you make a roux, add a splash of Sherry, then some stock and cream. The sauce barely thickens during its 15-minute simmer, and it makes for a farely light tasting pasta dish overall. I find the crispy edges irresistible.

One of you shared the recipe with me, crediting America, the Beautiful Cookbook, and I've since found the recipe in several other old cookbooks, namely The Joy of Cooking, which includes this note:

"This dish was created nearly a century ago by the great French chef Auguste Escoffier in honor of the legendary opera star Luisa Tetrazzini. It has lost none of its appeal since."

Indeed it has not! Get the recipe here:

Turkey Tetrazzini

*On Thanksgiving, while at my mom's house, I braised a few turkey legs to ensure there would be enough meat on hand both for the feast — we were roasting a small turkey — and our leftovers. The braised legs were so delicious, and I've made them twice since, including earlier this week for a family dinner. As soon as I can find turkey legs again, which may not be till next fall, I will share the recipe.

PS: For your leftover ham bone: Split Pea Soup, so simple, so satisfying 🎉🎉🎉

A bowl of split pea and ham soup topped with olive oil croutons.

Review of the Week

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overnight Brioche Cinnamon Rolls

"Just made these for 12/25/25. Tried cinnamon rolls before with other recipes – fails. Threw this together on Xmas eve. They were better than any other cinnamon roll I’d ever eaten. My son commented on how fluffy they were. The only difficulty I had was rolling the dough into a rectangle, but that’s just a matter of practice. Highly recommend this recipe!"

— Hatsy

Simple NYE Menu

As noted, I am not hosting for NYE, but I am having a few friends and their children over early next week, and for it, I am pulling out my "team dinner" menu: Baked Pasta, Caesar Salad, and Focaccia. I love this menu, because I can prep so much of it way ahead of time: I will make the focaccia dough and the dressing today, and I will fully assemble the pasta bakes (I'm making 3) on Monday. Into the fridge they'll go till Tuesday evening, when I'll bake and serve them.

Caesar Salad — find both a large- and small-batch dressing recipe in this post.

A bowl of Caesar salad covered with finely grated parmesan.

Focaccia: This dough can hang out in the fridge for days.

For when people arrive, I will also have veggies and hummus out. I love Little Sesame and Esti. If you are feeling ambitious, you could make it.