What to do with a left-over turkey

Not my turkey

OK, so Thanksgiving dinner is over, your turkey no longer looks at ALL like that pretty picture over there → and you now have the massive task of taking care of its remains.   What to do, what to do…

It’s a big job, but not insurmountable – just do it one thing at a time.  And don’t throw anything away – get the most for your turkey dollar.  Just a few ideas:

First things first.  If you are like me, you actually carve just about as much turkey as your guests will consume (plus a little extra for piggy seconds).  So the first task is to finish carving the turkey up.  I neatly slice what I can, then pick off the remaining big pieces with my (clean) fingers. 

Of this, I split the turkey slices and large pieces into 2 or 3 portions; I package and freeze two of them, and put the remainder in the refrigerator for a second (and third) turkey dinner tomorrow.  Hopefully, you have lots of leftover side dishes to go along with all of this when the time comes.  You can have a standard turkey dinner, you can chop and mix some of it with gravy and have hot turkey sandwiches, etc.  There's another idea down at the end of this piece. 

The smaller pieces I chop and make a turkey salad for sandwiches:

Turkey Salad
1 or 2 cups of chopped turkey
1 gob mayo ( a couple of TB maybe)
1 or 2 tsp mustard
Chopped celery
Chopped onion (green is great, but regular old yellow onion is also good)
Pepper

Mix this all together in a bowl. Vary the amount of mayo until it looks right, and not too dry. This is a simple mixture, but it's great on soft white bread with crispy iceberg lettuce, or on left-over dinner rolls.  You can add a chopped hard-boiled egg if you've got one handy.

Now, you’ve still got some-kind of large turkey carcass sitting there.  Make stock!  Throw him into a large pot with all of his bones you've got hanging about, cover him with fresh cold water, add a few pieces of onion, celery and peeled carrot (leave these in larger pieces so you can easily discard them later).  Add a clove or two of smashed garlic and season with some other herbs and peppers.  I use salt-free mixes or just pick things out of the garden if I have any (thyme, rosemary, etc).  Heat to a boil, skim off as much foam as you can and then reduce to a simmer (covered) for several hours. 

While this is simmering, clean up your mess and your kitchen.  Wash the dishes.  Watch the game.  Whatever.  At the end of the evening, if it is cold outside, I put the hot pot on a wire rack to cool outside overnight, then finish the cooking the next day (if necessary), because there probably isn’t room in the refrigerator for it at this point.

After four or five hours of simmering, you've got some great stock to make soup, or use for anything you need turkey stock for.  I set some aside for soup and put the remainder (after it cools of course) into 1 pint freezer sacks; you can put 1 or 2 cups in each sack (premeasure it exactly so you know how many to take out to thaw when you need it) and lay them FLAT on a cookie sheet or a plate in the freezer to freeze flat.  Write the ID and date on the sack before you pour in the broth. Once they freeze and hold their shape, you can take them off the cookie sheet or plate and store them neatly upright.

Of course, before you do all of that, you'll want to remove the bones and pieces into a large colander which you've set over a large bowl; after it has a chance to drain for a little while, pour that broth back into the rest. Then strain it all before you package and freeze it.  If it is fatty, let the fat separate and skim as much of it off as you can.

Now… You’ve got a nice large bowl of bits and pieces – and some of that stuff in there looks pretty nasty, eh?  So get yourself a small knife, and wash your hands up real sanitary-like, we’re going to pick through all of that simmered refuse and dig out ALL of the little pieces of meat and put them into a smaller bowl.  This is the part of the job that takes the longest time, but it’s not too bad once you’re busy at it.  It goes pretty fast.  But don’t hurry – there’s probably a pound or two of meat you can put back into the soup pot in there, hiding.  Pick through the bits and pieces, separating the stuff you don’t want from the little bits of meat.  The larger chunks can be chopped with the knife while you work. 

Once you get this all done, you have been tossing the bones and gristle and other little nasties into the trash sack nearby while you work (haven't you?), and what you have left is a bowl of little bits of turkey meat that are great for making turkey soup.  A ten-pound bird will net you about 2/3 of a pound of meat bits – but you may get a pound or two from a larger turkey.  I take this “soup meat” and split it into smaller portions – and freeze what I won’t use right then.

Kinda like my soup

Turkey Soup
1/3 pound soup meat (as above)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped or sliced thin
1 stalk celery, chopped or sliced
1/3 onion, chopped
1 chunk cabbage, sliced and chopped
1 handful of peas
2½ cups turkey stock
Herbs, salt and pepper for seasoning
Small handful shell macaroni or pipettes, etc.

Add a small bit of oil to a pot, toss in the vegetables and sauté for a few minutes on medium heat.  I don't use large chunks like that photo up there -- but you can do them however you want to; it's YOUR soup. When about halfway cooked, dump in the stock and the turkey.  Season as desired with an herb mixture.  Add some chopped fresh parsley.  Pepper is good…

Bring to a boil, then simmer for about ten minutes.  Add the pasta and cook about 10 minutes more on low heat, just a little past "simmer."  Have a small glass of wine while you do this, or play with your dog.  When it is finished, adjust your seasonings (I almost always add a bit more as turkey soup tends to be a bit bland) and after it cools, put it in the fridge or freeze it for later dinners when you’re tired or cold.  This makes about a quart of finished soup, mas o menos.

This concludes our small exercise in making the fullest use of a Thanksgiving turkey.  I like a little variety, so I’m going to toss one more recipe out there for some of those leftover turkey slices/large pieces.  A friend of my Mom gave her this recipe and it is a fun way to use up some of the leftover turkey.  I couldn’t find Polly-Anne’s exact recipe in my Mom’s recipe box, so I looked online until I found one that looked most like it.  This came out about identical to the way I remember Polly-Anne's “Turkey Taco Ole.”  Allrecipes.com calls this Southwestern Turkey Casserole.  Whatever you call it, it’s pretty darned tasty.  It’s a southwestern-style turkey-tortilla version of lasagna!

• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
• 7oz can diced green chilies, drained
• 1 cup sour cream
• 10 oz diced or chunked leftover turkey
• 16 corn tortillas, cut into strips
• 8 oz shredded mild cheddar

 Heat oven to 350.

1. Grease a 13x9“ baking pan.
2. Make the required number of tortillas, or use store-bought if you have to.  Cut them into strips.
3. In a large bowl, combine the condensed soup, the turkey, the sour cream and the chilies.
4. Arrange half the tortilla strips evenly in the bottom of the pan. 
5. Spread half the soup/turkey mixture over the tortillas. Top with half the cheese.  (Instead of shredded, I used ultra-thin slices of Sargento mild cheddar and it worked great). 
6. Repeat the three layers (tortillas, turkey mix, cheese) ending with the cheese. 
7. Place in the oven for about 40 minutes.  Cheese should be browned and bubbly.  Upon removal from the oven, let it set-up for a few minutes before serving.

I halved this recipe and made it in an 8x8 baking pan.  I use only the Cream of Chicken soup when I do this, 1 can.  Use lower-salt soup if you can find it – canned soup has a huge amount of sodium in it. [Please note; you CAN make home-made condensed soup, using your own stock.  I made this recipe recently with a smoky home-made turkey stock and it was very, very good. I cannot serve my family foods that are high in sodium, and this was my reason for not using the canned soup.  Not to mention the great flavor!]


This is not at all spicy.  You could hot it up by adding a tsp or two of dried red pepper flakes to the turkey/soup mixture, or use a can of jalapeños instead of the green chilies. This is one of those dishes that tastes even better the 2nd day.



My Grandma said...

“The best thing I ever have in my kitchen is a friend who likes my cooking.” 
          Lulabelle Pruitt

Remembering John Kennedy, 1917-1963

John F. Kennedy - 35th US President

"Two generations later, the assassination still stirs quiet sadness in the baby boomers who remember it as the beginning of a darker, more cynical time."  [ABC News; November 22, 2013]

Fifty years ago this Friday morning, not just a man, not just a president, but a dream shared by many Americans was shattered by an assassin's bullets in Texas. His leadership not only brought hope to Americans, but he brought hope and encouragement to others around the world as well. I thought perhaps this anniversary could pass unnoticed by me because I have been jaded by the sordidness of American politics, by the fallibility of men, and that after the passage of so many years the residual effects of these memories would not be significant, that I could ignore them.  They were, I thought, something from a distant past. 

In that, I was mistaken, as the memory of those events has today brought me much sadness. We cannot know with any certainty how history would have judged the Kennedy presidency absent his assassination. His plans were cut short before they could play out, so his possible successes and his failures will remain conjecture forever. But we do know that a large measure of our innocence was taken from us that day. Those of us who lived through the events of late-November, 1963 never saw the world in quite the same bright way again. At age ten, I was not "political," and I have never had an opinion about JFK's politics - the tragic cost of his loss only became clear to me in subsequent years, and those far-reaching effects lie totally outside the realm of his beliefs or his political platform.

I have been reading a lot about John Kennedy this week, and I have been looking for something meaningful to share with you.  The words of his inaugural address came to mind.

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Now the trumpet summons us again. Not as a call to bear arms, though embattled we are, but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle; a struggle against the common enemies of man – tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom.

In the hour of maximum danger, I do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it. The energy, the faith, the devotion, which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world - ask not what America can do for you - but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love - asking His blessing and His help - but knowing that here on earth
God's work must truly be our own.”

John Kennedy
Inaugural Address - January 20, 1961

JFK's Eternal Flame

Who I remember on Remembrance Day; Fred Ferguson

On Memorial Day, we remember those we lost.  On Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, we remember those who served.  We have had so many wars, and beyond that, so many others have served in times of peace, that the faces and the names tend to get lost in the masses.  So I thought for this Remembrance Day, I would find one name, one face, and pass along his story to you.

Almost the first name that came to mind was Fred Ferguson.  He was of my own time, almost my generation, about the age of someone who could have been my big brother, or a young uncle.  Today he’s 74 years old; he retired as a Major in 1982. Even after retirement, he has continued to "serve" our community in different ways. Years ago, I believe in my activities with the (then-named) Confederate Air Force, I got to meet Fred Ferguson; I consider that an honor to this day.

He was born in Texas, from where so many good things come.  He joined the Army as a young man in 1958, in Phoenix, and ten years later was serving in Southeast Asia.  That was the year of the Tet Offensive. He had become, by that time, a helicopter pilot, flying what we remember today (somewhat affectionately) as the Huey, perhaps the most-recognized icon of the Vietnam War.  In the climactic battle at Hue he distinguished himself with clear-headed action and a determination to get the job done under horrific conditions that many others wouldn’t risk.  That's not just empty prose - others looked at the situation and refused to go.  But Fred Ferguson wouldn't leave American troops and aircrew behind as their position fell to the North Vietnamese. Here is what his Medal of Honor commendation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. CWO Ferguson, U.S. Army distinguished himself while serving with Company C. [1st Air Cav]

CWO Ferguson, commander of a resupply helicopter monitoring an emergency call from wounded passengers and crewmen of a downed helicopter under heavy attack within the enemy-controlled city of Hue, unhesitatingly volunteered to attempt evacuation. Despite warnings from all aircraft to stay clear of the area due to heavy antiaircraft fire, CWO Ferguson began a low-level flight at maximum airspeed along the Perfume River toward the tiny, isolated South Vietnamese Army compound in which the crash survivors had taken refuge. Coolly and skillfully maintaining his course in the face of intense, short range fire from enemy-occupied buildings and boats, he displayed superior flying skill and tenacity of purpose by landing his aircraft in an extremely confined area in a blinding dust cloud under heavy mortar and small-arms fire. Although the helicopter was severely damaged by mortar fragments during the loading of the wounded, CWO Ferguson disregarded the damage and, taking off through the continuing hail of mortar fire, he flew his crippled aircraft on the return route through the rain of fire that he had experienced earlier and safely returned his wounded passengers to friendly control. CWO Ferguson's extraordinary determination saved the lives of five of his comrades. His actions are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on himself and the U.S. Army.

Ferguson

“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”  When you read the reports of what he did (or hear him tell the story), those words take on new layers of meaning. They become real.  On the ground, in the smoke, in the horror of a fierce battle with jagged metal flying everywhere, he kept his head and focused on the plight of others. We cannot imagine what that is like, the reality of it, unless we’ve been there, unless we've been immersed in the white-knuckled, mind-numbing terror. 

Citizen Ferguson served his country – us – for about 24 years.  He served in peace and he served in war. He deserves our thanks and our remembrance today and every day.  Wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, I hope he knows that he and others like him are the reason we remember on Remembrance Day. When I think about the face of a Vietnam-era veteran, a true hero, it is men like Fred Ferguson that I think about.

Dick, this one's for you.