R.I.P Thanksgiving leftovers

For some reason, my mother and I are in the habit of cooking enough food for a small army for Thanksgiving, when in actuality there are usually only between 6 and 8 people there, plus whatever random friends my siblings and I can scrape up to come over and help us consume massive amounts of pie.

And every year, there are 2 kinds of cranberry sauce. 'Regular' and 'orange'. And every year, I'm pretty sure my mother and I are the only ones who actually EAT the cranberry sauce. This year I made both. I left the orange with my mom because it's her favorite, and I brought the 'regular' back with me. Alas, I ran out of turkey far before running out of cranberry sauce, and sat around trying to figure out what to do with the leftover sauce.

*light bulb* I love pastries. More specifically, I love turnovers. (Oh, and cream cheese) This was a delicious brain child.

Cranberry Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp grated orange peel
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 bag fresh cranberrys

In a pot, combine 1 cup water, sugar, cinnamon stick, ginger, orange, and cloves. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Add cranberries, and bring to a boil. Lower heat until medium, and simmer, stirring, until thickened, 8 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick. Chill.

Cream Cheese Filling
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 c. sugar.

Blend in an electric mixer until smooth.

Prepare phyllo dough (as I did) or puff pastry according to package directions. Place 1 Tbsp each of cranberry sauce and cream cheese mixture at one end of dough strip. Fold flag style. Brush with butter. Bake for 13 minutes at 350F.