Even if I may not be a casserole fan for 85 96.75 percent of the year, the cold weather has me craving creamy mushrooms and wild rice all baked together into a belly-warming dish of deliciousness. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’m going to talk about them (the mushrooms and rice) twice before I’m done. Here and again as a soup soon after. The casserole starts with white rice and boiling water and a bit of white wine.

I start with mini portabellas, and I couldn’t pass up this asparagus. It just looked perfect. You could toss in green beans or broccoli or any other vegetable of your choosing. Or don’t. This would work completely green free as well.

Into my measuring cup I add one can of cream of mushroom soup and then fill to the 2-cup line with milk. Mix it together and add it to the rice and water.

Mix it all together.

And add some turkey. This is left over from Thanksgiving. Give it a stir.

Stir it all together. You want to make sure all the rice and vegetables are under liquid. If you need more liquid, add just a bit more white wine or milk to cover them up. (Pick the wine. Everyone needs a bit of wine in their casserole.)

Now, rather than stopping there, we’re going to use up any leftover dinner rolls you might have around. No dinner rolls? How about stuffing mix? The idea is to give the casserole a crunchy layer that will help balance the creaminess inside.

Drizzle olive oil over the bread cubes and toss gently to distribute.

Leftovers have been completely transformed into a hearty warm meal of comfort food that will keep you warm even on the coldest early December evening.

Remember the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where the turkey comes to the table, browned and glorious, and then as Clark goes to carve it the whole thing deflates? Here, let me refresh your memory.

The other week we had purchased these turkey cutlets on a whim. Outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we don’t really cook much with turkey. And a turkey cutlet at that. A breast or a whole bird I can handle, but a cutlet? Feeling uninspired, I turned to the Google to answer my cries for help and the L.A. Times answered. While all of their suggestions sound delicious, I could only pick one. This is that one.

Kidney Bean was there, as he so often is, eating a snack while his parents prepare his dinner. He is a little turkey, if turkeys are plump with curly baby mullets and like crackers and water from a purple cup.


Assembly line for the turkey: flour, egg and milk mix and then the bread crumbs. Then off to the rack as you dredge the rest.


The little turkeys then meet a pan of hot olive oil, when they sizzle and pop and smell delicious.


And the other side. If I’m being honest and truthful, I don’t like frying things, even in a 1/2-inch of olive oil…because it splatters and I don’t have a screen to stop it. I hate oil splatter. It is such a pain to clean up. You can verify with Ole that I was moving hot burners and everything on the stove to wipe up the splatters the minute they turkey was done, before we ate so the oil wouldn’t cool and be hard to wipe up. I can be a bit Type A at times. Just a little bit.


I let them drain on a cooling rack over a baking pan while I fried round two.


We added it to rice and Smitten Kitchen’s roasted tomatoes and cipollini, but it could also go with pasta or a bed of greens, potatoes of many varieties or on a bun.