After spending two days cooking an elaborate holiday meal, the very last thing I want to do is get up the next morning and make breakfast. So yesterday–the day after Thanksgiving–we had pie for breakfast. Because we are grown ups and we can do whatever we want. So there.

*Sticks out tongue and wiggles fingers in ears*

But eventually real food must happen again. And more than likely, your fridge is full of bits and pieces of leftovers. Turkey legs. Cranberry sauce. If you’re really lucky, maybe some gravy. And while my absolutely favorite post-Thanksgiving leftover meal contains only three ingredients–white bread, mayo, and dark meat turkey–I may have found a second runner up: a breakfast dish I’m calling Thanksgiving Eggs Benedict.

It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.  And if you just cooked a holiday meal, you likely have everything you need on hand already.

Thanksgiving Eggs Benedict

Ingredients

leftover stuffing or filling (I used potato filling)

eggs (3.5 per person)

a few tablespoons flour

butter

lemons or lemon juice (can substitute orange juice)

breakfast meat of choice (I used a few slices of deli ham)

fresh herbs (I used parsley but wish I had dill)

Directions

1. Mash together whatever stuffing you have with an egg or two, depending upon how much stuffing you are using. Add a few tablespoons of flour. Note: THIS IS NOT SCIENCE. If it is overly gooey, add more flour. Overly dry, add another egg.
2. Drop stuffing mixture into a hot, buttered skillet. Cook like pancakes, flipping once or twice until pleasingly brown. Remove to plates.
3. Cook breakfast meat of choice in same pan. Plate on top of stuffing cakes.
4. Fry two eggs per person, again in same pan. Plate on top of meat-topped stuffing cakes (that sounds dirty, doesn’t it?)
5. Bring about an inch of water to boil in the bottom of a small pot.
6. Melt 1/4 of a stick of butter per person. I did this in the microwave.
7. Separate one egg per person, placing the yolks in a metal bowl. Add a squeeze of lemon juice (or a dash of orange juice).
8. Place metal bowl of yolks over boiling water. Whisk. While whisking, drizzle in butter. Pour on top of everything, sprinkle with herbs, and enjoy.

Substitutions

-If you are not a fan of ‘dippy eggs’, feel free to make this with scrambled eggs. You could also go the more traditional route and poach your eggs. I’ve not yet mastered the poaching of eggs, but if you can do it, go for it.

-As you can see from the photo, I was lacking any true form of breakfast meat. So I used lunch meat. You could certainly use bacon or sausage or even leftover turkey (though to me there’s something morbid about serving poultry with eggs). You could also go meatless.

-I used potato filling to make these cakes, but that’s because I’m mostly Pennsylvania Dutch and potato filling is a required holiday staple. If you only have bread filling, you can use that. You will have to form the patties with your hands, and they will turn out more like crab cakes than pancakes.

***

You will note that I did not begin direction number five with ‘make hollandaise sauce’, even though that’s what you’re doing. I did not phrase it this way because for some reason, the idea of making hollandaise freaks people out. I know–it freaked me out. Until I did it and realized that it is just a tempered egg and some butter. It was so easy and so delicious.

This entire meal took maybe fifteen minutes to make, from walking into the kitchen to sitting down at the table. Ok, fine. I was sitting down at the tv tray. Because I’m a grown up and I can eat wherever I want. So this is both faster and cheaper than a diner breakfast. And you can enjoy it in your pj pants. You know–because you’re a grown up. And you can wear whatever you want.