Martha's (Stolen) Leftover Secret

A few years ago, for the first time ever, my trained chef brother was going to be home for Thanksgiving. Implied: he was going to be cooking and oh, we were not disappointed.

He refused to plan a menu, saying how could he, when he didn't know what would be fresh in the grocery store that day. Such pretentious words were never more welcome!

For the first time in years, I ate a turkey that was moist, perfect, dare I say - delicious - without the help of gravy or other accoutrements. The mashed potatoes were fluffy and buttery. The cranberry sauce tart. The other side dishes were classics with culinary twists. Everything was, in a word, delicious.

When the chef bro said he'd be coming back the next day to "take care of leftovers" I was positively gleeful. What magic would he work??

So imagine my surprise when he stopped by with nothing but a bag King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. (I'd have a picture here...only Blogger hates me...so...sorry.)

Anyhoo -

I thought to myself, there's gotta be a mistake. There's no way someone trained by the likes of Lagasse and Keller is bringing ghetto hawaiian sweet rolls into my kitchen.

But he was totally serious and explained that sweet rolls make the perfect leftover sandwich. He then proceeded to breakdown Thanksgiving dinner by its components.

Mashed Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes were to be used like condiments. We slathered the bread in them.

Proteins like ham and turkey were layered.

Then we looked for something crunchy, like green beans.

We topped it off with a sweet element, like a dollop of cranberry sauce.

We made a half dozen combinations and spent the better part of an hour creating close to a hundred sandwiches.

They shoulda tasted so gross, but it was like the perfect Thanksgiving slider.

Turns out he uses hawaiian spring rolls to make a leftover for almost anything. Leftover ground beef of any kind - spaghetti, taco, whatever - makes a beef or sloppy joe slider. It's great for sopping up leftover soups and stews. And it's bite sized, so you can eat like...a hundred of them and it's only five calories, right?

NOW I USE THEM FOR EVERYTHING.