Holiday's not over till the leftovers are gone

George Pelz developed his recipe because of his wife's fondness for pot pie. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)

Thanksgiving is a holiday of tradition. We celebrate the region's bounty and the return of favorite autumnal dishes. While the main focus is on the big day, many cooks are just as delighted with the remains after the feast. You can only eat so many turkey sandwiches, but there's lots to do with leftovers.

In Framingham, Annmarie Allen is gearing up for the small Thanksgiving dinner she hosts every year for her two siblings, and for her annual "Leftovers Are for Friends" party that takes place two days later. "Life gets too crazy and you don't get to see your friends enough," says the human resources director. "This was a way to get friends together and not cook." She held the first party in 2000 and has not missed a year - even during a kitchen renovation.

Allen hosts around 14 people. There is a core group, with a revolving cast of significant others and friends. Everybody brings something from the Thanksgiving meal. The resulting menu is always a surprise. "One year we ended up with four types of potatoes and desserts," Allen recalls. "Another year we had a good amount of turkey, five kinds of potatoes, green beans, and dessert. There was no balance at all."

Monica Brunaccini, Allen's friend, who has attended every leftovers party, says, "I think by [Saturday], you're so sick of Thanksgiving and turkey, but when you get there and see things, they're new. Everybody has different traditions. There are different nationalities represented."

"I feel like a lot of people empty their refrigerator," Allen says. "I always have a refrigerator full of food when they leave."

George Pelz of Chestnut Hill, co-owner of Pagéo Jewelers in Boston, Newton, and Nantucket, has been cooking Thanksgiving turkey since he was 15. His father was in the meat business and had a rotisserie in his Long Island butcher shop. "My parents were from Europe and they lived through the Second World War, so there was no such thing as throwing away food when I was growing up," says Pelz.

He has become adept at using whatever is left from the feast. He and his wife, Jane, who does not cook, have not hosted Thanksgiving dinner for several years, instead spending the day at his sister-in-law's house. But Pelz still buys a turkey every year, because "I cannot have Thanksgiving without a turkey in the house."

He has made turkey chili and turkey hash, but this year wanted to do something different. Because his wife loves chicken pot pie, he decided he would try it with turkey. He did a dry run before the holiday, using roast turkey parts.

The pie tastes best with both light and dark meat, but the beauty of the dish and others like it is that they work with whatever you have. Pelz mixes in potatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and peas. He cuts the vegetables into very small pieces, because "I like a forkful of everything," he says. This year, the Pelz family, which includes three sons, ages 18 to 25, will be enjoying this recent addition to the leftover repertoire.

New Orleans transplant Allison Parker, who lives in Wellesley, has become known in her Thanksgiving circle for her turkey chili. Every year Parker and her family spend the holiday with friends, and the hosts always make sure to send her home with lots of turkey - "because they know I'll be making my chili," she says. "There are all these sweet flavors that are associated with Thanksgiving. What I like with the chili is it's a totally different set of flavors." Hers is seasoned with chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, dried oregano, and cinnamon.

Parker began making this dish, which she calls "light and guilt-free," about 10 years ago. She says it works with whatever meat is left from the holiday bird, but you do need lots. "What seems heretical is it sometimes takes more meat than you have left over. It feels a little ridiculous the Saturday after Thanksgiving to be in [the supermarket] buying turkey." She has had to do that occasionally.

It gives new meaning to the notion of leftovers: Go grocery shopping after the feast and cook again - just to have what's left.