Turkey, Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sauce Grilled Cheese Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich Extravaganza

Yes. This post needed a two line title. You'll see why.

We are still eating Thanksgiving leftovers over here at the Lumberjackson Lodge. It's been over a week and we still have little containers of green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. (I should probably check on a couple of those, just to be safe...) Our lunch on this cold, white Friday is a wintery twist on my favorite sandwich of all time. Grilled cheese.

This morning at breakfast, I cooked up a couple extra pieces of bacon. A couple months ago, I started to bake bacon instead of cooking it on the stove, and I've never looked back. Somehow, putting bacon in the oven preserves the right textures in the right places, lets me get it really crispy without obliterating it, and makes it super easy to pour out the extra bacon fat in a mug to use later. (I heard via the Paleo diet that this is 'healthy'. We still eat bread, cheese, fruit and lots of the other stuff Paleo recommends eliminating, but saving bacon fat is something from the Paleo diet I choose to listen to. Ha.)

I have a sliced Italian loaf today. If I were in California, you can bet I would be using sourdough, but out here in Kansas, a good loaf of sourdough is hard to come by, and way too expensive for our grocery budget. Ergo, I use either French bread or Italian. Still turns out pretty good, if I do say.

My father in law sliced the turkey on Thanksgiving into nice thin sheets. (Massive, if you're comparing it to turkey in the deli meat section, but who wants that watery, paper-turkey anyways?) I think the white meat is the best in this kind of sandwich. The moisture from the brie and cranberry will infuse into the drier white meat.

Whole-berry cranberry sauce. The only way to go.

And finally, brie. It has been so long since we've had brie in the house. Brie in Lawrence is expensive. The only way I get any is if Aldi carries some seasonally (hasn't happened yet, but that IS how I got my Jarlsburg. Mmmm.), we take a trip to Costco (it's been months), or I feel a little indulgent while at Wal-Mart (I know, I know.. the shame. But also that's how I got this sweet little round of brie, so I'm not embarrassed.)

And now, the magic.

I normally have my butter softened in a butter dish, but the weather, and therefore the house, has been so stinking cold lately that the butter in my butter dish is not at all softened! So I put a little butter in a pan with a little teensy bit of the bacon fat I mentioned earlier. Mmm. Then I put in a slice of bread and rub it around in the pan a bit to coat the whole side with the mixture.

Layer on pieces of brie (leave that rind on, people!), turkey, bacon, a little bit more brie, and some cranberry. Cook on medium to medium low so that the heat gets up into the sandwich and melts the cheese and warms the turkey before the bread gets too dark. I like it more on the dark side than the light side, but you want it to get there slowly. Flip when your bread reaches your desired color.

Is it bad that I'd probably prefer eating this sandwich than a full Thanksgiving meal?

And to top off the rich deliciousness, lets have a side of re-baked green bean casserole.

So, all in all, pretty simple. Alex devoured his and had very nice things to say. I finished mine and was sad that there was no more. All signs point to - this sandwich is supes delish.