Turkey Tacos with Cranberry Salsa & Cream Cheese

In spirit of my new less is more attitude, I’m not hosting Thanksgiving this year. It’s been at my house the last 8+ years and sometimes I’ve cooked for over 20 people. No big deal because I do it all the time for work but this year I put it out there early on that someone else in the family was going to need to host Turkey Day. I was done. I need a year off and don’t want to be responsible for anything other than bring a side dish or two.

Bless my big brother because he jumped in quickly and offered to take the reigns. Next Thursday I will show up at his house cheesecake and rolls in hand (I can’t show up empty handed) and then promptly take a seat on the couch where I’ll pretend to watch football before giving up and instead thumbing through some of his old cookbooks.

As much as I’m looking forward to not hosting a house full, I’m also having a wee bit of remorse knowing that I won’t get to smell a turkey cooking in my oven all day and what’s more, the leftovers will be sparse. When I do host, my fridge is always better off for it, stocked with every kind of Thanksgiving leftover you can imagine. I like to think of the leftovers as my reward for pulling off cooking for such a large crowd. What will I do without my stuffing sandwiches and warmed up sweet potatoes and gravy to dip my potato chips into?

The mountain always opens the day after Thanksgiving and it’s tradition in our house to ski Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then eat Turkey leftovers the entire weekend. I don’t cook- unless it’s to make soup or heat something up in the microwave.

Feeling a tad regretful about my decision not to host, I bought a whole turkey breast from Whole Foods and roasted one night last week. Since it was just the boys and me for dinner, I had plenty of leftovers that I put in a baggie and tucked into my freezer to save for next weekend. I’ll be damned if I go through next weekend without a turkey sandwich in sight.

I kept out just enough turkey as I knew I wanted them to be the feature in this week’s taco. Sort of a play on my favorite sandwich of cream cheese, turkey and cranberry sauce, the highlight of these tacos is the cranberry salsa. Just sweet enough, the tart salsa is an awesome combo with the crispy flour tortilla, a smear of cream cheese, shredded leftover turkey and fresh cilantro.

Happy turkey day planning, everyone! Are you hosting? What are you making this year?

Turkey Taco with Cranberry Salsa

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Ingredients

Cranberry Salsa:

• 8 oz fresh cranberries
• 1 Fuji or Gala apple, quartered and cored
• 1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 small jalapeño, seeded if desired for less heat
• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/3 cup honey

For the Tacos:

• flour tortillas
• leftover roast turkey, shredded
• cream cheese
• salsa
• fresh cilantro

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Instructions

1. For the salsa, place all the ingredients in the base of a food processor and pulse to combine.
2. To make the tacos, smear some cream cheese over entire tortilla and top with desired amount of turkey and cranberry salsa. Fold tortilla in half.
3. Heat a pan on the stove over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter. When melted, toast both sides of taco until crispy and turkey and cream cheese are heated through. Serve with extra salsa and cilantro if desired.