the ultimate food thursday

Today is the biggest Food Thursday of the year – Thanksgiving!! I hope you all enjoy your feast and family as much as I will. And while I am currently drooling at the thought of roasted turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn bread dressing… I’m choosing to write about post-Thanksgiving. The Time of Leftovers.

Oh sure those leftovers are fun on Friday. Who doesn’t like a little turkey sandwich and a warmed up plate of delicious sides. But come Saturday – we’re all a little tired of the bird. For the love of all things good – stop trying to feed your family turkey for three days straight!

So – what do you do instead? I have two very simple ideas for you and you’ll be thanking me later:

1. Make stock. Do NOT throw away that turkey carcass. Put it aside and when you’re cleaning up after dinner, put it in a big pot (yes the whole thing, skin, bones, random turkey parts) with a large peeled onion, some carrots & celery and about a tsp of salt & pepper. Cover it with water and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer away for 3-4 hours. Put it in the fridge overnight. The fat will all rise to the top so the next morning you can skim off the fat, pour the rest through a colander into a large pot and you’ll be left with delicious homemade stock. Put it in some plastic containers and freeze it for later.

2. I usually keep about half the leftover turkey for nibbling and the other half I break into bite-size pieces and pack into quart size freezer bags. (I also pick through that colander after I strain my stock for leftover bits of meat) And, you guessed it, put it in the freezer.

Now let’s flash forward to a cold day in January. You’re trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I know! Get out the turkey and stock from your freezer! You can easily make a turkey noodle soup (which as you might imagine is equally good with chicken), here’s a great recipe for your crock pot:

Turkey Noodle Soup
- 2 cups chopped turkey (1 quart size baggie)
- 2 cups water
- 6 cups stock
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 leek, sliced & rinsed
- 1 carrot, peeled & sliced
- 2 stalks celery, sliced
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram & basil
- 1/3 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1/2 package of egg noodles

Put it all (except the noodles) in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Boil noodles and add them in just before serving.

Or bust out this oldie but goodie and really warm up that winter night:
White Bean Chili
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken or turkey
1 15 oz can of white beans, rinsed & drained
2 cups of stock
1 cup of green salsa
1 9oz pkg of frozen corn
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

Put everything but the cilantro in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. If you need to simmer it a bit longer – add more broth. Stir in cilantro before serving.

Spicy Tomato Topping
A spoonful of this on top of the chili makes the dish!

1 large tomato
2 medium green onions
1 jalapeno
1/2 tsp lime zest
2 TB lime juice (if I don’t have a fresh lime to zest, I’ve just added a splash more lime juice and it comes out fine)

Chop it up & mix it in a bowl. This tastes best if you do it a few hours early so the flavors have time to meld together.