Thanksgiving and its aftermath

I cooked a complete Thanksgiving dinner this year. Most years, I cook sides and we go to my parents' house, where they make the turkey, and my youngest brother bakes rolls and pies. This year, that brother and his new bride could not come until Sunday, hence the dinner at my house, with my dad and sister in attendance.

I was excited for the chance. I made up a pretty menu and a cooking schedule for the day, which worked well except for the turkey seemingly taking longer than it should have, the result of my never investing in a real meat thermometer and the little pop-up not popping up. It didn't matter; it was a traditional meal and the turkey was overcooked in the traditional fashion.

It being well after Thanksgiving now, I'll just share what I thought was the most successful recipe: the best sweet potato casserole I've ever made. I got it from Allrecipes, but made some small changes. I only made half a recipe, but I'll give you the larger amount.

Classic Sweet Potato Casserole
5 sweet potatoes (no size given in original - I used 4 small ones for half a recipe)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake sweet potatoes until fairly soft (this can be alongside the turkey). Cool slightly, then scoop them out into a large bowl and mash them.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
Mix the mashed sweet potatoes, salt, first 1/4 cup butter, eggs, vanilla, spices, white sugar, and cream. If you use an electric mixer, the strings from the sweet potatoes will wrap around the blades and will be easy to remove and discard. Put the mixture in the baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine the softened butter, flour, brown sugar, and pecans. Mix with a pastry blender or your fingers to the consistency of coarse meal. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.
Bake about 30 minutes, until the topping is crisp and lightly browned.

Now, what do you like to do with the leftovers? I like the leftovers so much that when we don't have T-day dinner at our house, I always cook a turkey a few days later so that I can have leftovers.
I like turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and cole slaw. This year, I put a little stuffing on the sandwich, as I had seen on restaurant menus, and it was delicious (it was a sausage stuffing, very well seasoned).
I always make broth from the carcass and use it for a mushroom, leek, and barley soup.
And I love to make James Beard's turkey hash recipe from the stuffing, although I don't use anywhere near as much butter as in the original! Here's what you do (I'm not looking at the recipe so it may be wrong in some major or minor way): saute some onion, garlic, and green pepper in butter. Add cold leftover stuffing and turkey and cook it until it is hot and soft. Mix in some almonds and black olives (yes, you heard me), then pour in some heavy cream (or half-and-half if you don't want to overdo it quite that much). Cook it down a bit, stir in some parsley, and serve. Sometimes I leave out the olives and almonds, but this year I had some around and they are good in it, even though I don't like canned black olives. Both are better sliced than whole in this.