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The day after Thanksgiving is never as low-key or relaxing as I hope it’ll be, and I don’t even go shopping!

Though it’d be nice to have a day of vegging in front of the TV after the all day cook-a-thon, family tradition (ie: the kids) dictates that the Christmas tree and decorations MUST. GO. UP. RIGHT. NOW. And over the years (and the accumulation of a lot of crap– er, decor) it’s become a longer and longer process.

Thankfully, Black Friday dinner is low-key. I take advantage of all the leftovers in the fridge, but instead of serving the same meal we just had yesterday, I created a one-dish meal that everyone loves.

As you can see, it’s as easy as can be. Using ramekins (mine hold 14 ounces) or a 13×9 casserole dish, line the bottom with a layer of mashed potatoes.

On top of the potatoes, put a layer of chopped turkey.

Drizzle some delicious leftover gravy on top of the turkey.

Top off the whole thing with stuffing.

Bake uncovered in a 350° oven for about 40-45 minutes.

For the last ten minutes, I drizzle about a tablespoon of melted butter per ramekin (or half a stick for a casserole dish) on top of the stuffing, which gets it really nice and crispy.

Serve it with leftover rolls, cranberry sauce and a nice salad. It doesn’t get any easier!

I am once again needing to take a pass on this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie.

Here’s how brilliant I am: We have a small dry-erase board on the fridge so that everyone can write down the things that they need, or if something has run out, etc.

I went grocery shopping last week. I always bring a detailed list of what I’ll need for two weeks’ worth of food and meals, but then I walked out the door without even looking at the dry erase board and briefly wondered how it was that my shopping trip was so much shorter than usual. Well, I’d left half of what I needed still scrawled on the fridge door.

Anyway, I haven’t made it back out for Shopping Trip Round 2 yet, so I don’t have the pumpkin or cranberries for the Dorie bread. But I will definitely be doing the next one in two weeks because I just discovered that I get to host it! I’m very excited.

So to make up for my lack of participation, I’m going to share with you a new trick I learned last week.

Bacon weaving.

One of our dinners last week was BLTs. However, instead of just frying up bacon in the pan, I came across the idea to kind of weave it together and bake it in the oven. This way, you get bacon in every bite of sandwich, and you’re not pulling out entire strips of bacon in one bite, either.

I cut the package of bacon in half first.

Lay three of the strips side by side on a baking sheet (preferably a pan with edges so the bacon grease doesn’t run off into the oven). Weave three more strips into the first strips. Put in a cold oven and then heat the oven to 400°.

My one package of bacon gave me five woven squares, which was perfect for the five of us. It took about 20-25 minutes for them to all be perfectly cooked, and I kept a close eye on them and took out the ones that looked like they were finished cooking before the others.

I can understand not wanting to go through trouble of doing this, but honestly, it only took a few extra minutes and the rest of the prep was so easy that I didn’t mind at all. The bacon cooks nice and flat, and you don’t get splatters all over your stove top, either.

The only drawback is having to turn on the oven in the first place and heat up the kitchen, but I think it was worth it!

I’ve just uploaded a few posts I had written elsewhere with some table decorations I’ve done for the last few holidays. I’ve got a large glass jar that I found at Walmart back in January that I like to change out with different things to reflect whichever holiday is coming up next.

In February, I used pink and white candy corns for Valentine’s Day. For March I used split peas for St. Patrick’s Day, and in April I used a few bags of jelly beans for Easter.

For the last few holiday-less months I’ve just filled up the jar with two bags of dried northern beans and one bag of dried red kidney beans and plopped it on the table for something to look at.

But while eating dinner the other night the thought struck me that it would be really easy to transform it into a quick 4th of July jar, and when Mike went to a home improvement store this morning I asked him to pick me up a few paint sample cards in dark blue (he got me red, too, but I didn’t need it). Don’t go too crazy — you only need a few. If you don’t feel comfortable using paint cards, construction paper will work too.

I free-handed a few stars out of the paint chips and slid them down into the jar in front of the beans. Voila! A craft easy enough for even me to do.