Thanksgiving eve

Came this afternoon to my daughter’s home in Columbia, SC.  We came up today so that I could be here in time to cook the Turkey for tomorrow.  I have most of my family brainwashed to believe that no-one does a turkey better than I.  It gets me invited to famlily in such I way that I don’t have to buy all the food, I just have to prepared the turkey and dressing. I love it.  Unfortunately some of my children think they can do it better than I, but fortunately it is not universal.

I used to do the turkey and then when the dinner was over and most of the turkey  eaten, I would boil (actually simmer) the carcass overnight and make a stew of the left over meat etc., which we would eat for a few days after Thanksgiving.  When one has six kids on an academic salary it is important that nothing go to waste.

The last few years, as the kids left for their own homes, I haven’t done this.  A big soup like that was likely to go to waste (or waist, as the case may be.)

Monday, we purchased (and I prepared) a medium sized turkey (about fourteen pounds) for a local group that feeds a number of folks once or twice a month.  This week, they were expecting several hundred “guests” because it is Thanksgiving week so they needed more stuff.  Our church provided ten or eleven turkeys as did several other local churches.  The organizers didn’t want dressing, and asked to have the turkey boned out, sliced and warm for the feed.   I prepared the turkey Monday night, then Tuesday morning boned it sliced it and heated it for Tuesday dinner.  After it had been prepared and delivered, I came home and looked at the carcass.  It still had a lot of meat tucked in it as well as giblets and the broth the giblets were cooked in, so Tuesday evening, for the first time in years, I cooked the carcass, and all the other stuff that hadn’t been delivered and made a soup, with potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms and a few other sundry veggies that were handy, spiced it and let the soup simmer all night long.  In the morning I was a little astonished at the quantity and quality of the soup.  It was really yummy, but there was about a gallon and a half  (or close to two gallons) so  before we could come up here we had to get the stuff in big jars and refrigerated it.  By now it is jellied (cooking bones does that) bottled and refrigerated, and by the time we get home, I am going to figure out what I can do with it all.  I now remember why we haven’t made left over turkey soup for a few years.  If I can find some neighbors who are not tired or eating through their own leftovers, I may have a lawn party (or something).   

My daughter doesn’t have internet access at home, so I won’t be able to post this till Friday or Saturday, but it is, I suppose, better than not posting at all (My practice for a couple of weeks)