Gobble, Gobble, again? Confessions from my freezer.

How many days in a row can we eat Thanksgiving leftovers before we shove them in the freezer and forget about them?   I am ashamed to say that my son just pulled out of the chest freezer in the basement a container of leftover turkey....by looking at the freeze driedness of the meat, I really can't say just how long that has been in there.  That is the problem with keeping things in the basement; you forget about them!
Thank goodness we only had our turkey dinner yesterday so there is fresh turkey to work with!    I have invited my sister, her husband, and my dear sweet four year old nephew over to help out! I am still anticipating leftover turkey.  The side dishes, I am not too worried about.

What to do with all of that turkey?  Sandwiches get boring pretty darn quick.  So do plates of turkey and left over sides.  Not everyone I know likes to make gigantic turkey and sides sandwiches like my fourteen year old does. 

When I got home from work today, I brought out the good old stock pot.

Into this beloved giant pot I put:

• 1 large onion, quartered
• 3 stalks celery, washed and cut in half 
• the leaves from the heart of the celery, washed
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut in half
• 2 potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 1 small turnip, peeled and quartered
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• a decent sized pinch of salt
• 2 bay leaves
• the turkey carcass, meat removed (yes, this means just the bones!)

Cover all this flavour goodness with cold water.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for the evening.  (You may have to check on the pot every now and then to skim off the foamy stuff.)

What to do with the goodness of turkey stock you ask?

• make turkey soup (saute onion, carrots, celery, potato cubes; add stock to cover and simmer until veggies are cooked.  Add noodles or rice and seasonings such as salt, pepper, poultry seasoning)
• use it to make the sauce or gravy for a turkey pot pie
• use that turkey pot pie filling to make 'hand pies' using the dough from the 'Mo pizza' post.
• freeze it use to make soup later (but don't forget about it!)
• add flavour to stews
• freeze in ice cube trays to add fat free flavour to stir fry, to saute veggies in, or to thin other thick soups

What ever you do with that leftover turkey, don't forget about it like I did.  It just doesn't look pretty when you find things like that in your freezer. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of it!!