Day 26: 3 Gifts Preparing and A Recipe or Two

1.  Containers of work-day lunches prepared and frozen for quick retrieval; turkey and rice casserole for hubby, turkey soup for me (recipes below).

2.  Tablespoon-dollops of pumpkin, frozen and placed in a ziplock freezer-bag for when the furry kids get a tummy ache.  Did you know pumpkin relieves a dog's upset stomach?

3.  A trip to the Tree Farm means preparations for Christmas decorating has begun!


Here are those recipes...

Turkey and Rice Soup

Take your turkey carcass, neck and giblets and place them in a very large pot and cover with water (be sure all the bones are covered - it will be about a gallon).  Add a large onion, quartered; two carrots, quartered; and two celery stalks, quartered. Cover and simmer for many hours.  Cool and strain the solids out of the stock.  I typically let mine go all day. I start it the morning after Thanksgiving (intent on avoiding the shenanigans of Black Friday), and don't start the cooling process till late afternoon or evening.

You can discard the veggies, compost them, or remove the onion and feed the rest to your eager, happy-dancing dogs.  This year those drooling dogs also received the neck meat and giblets (careful of bones).  There have been times, though, I've added it back to the soup - your preference.

Take another couple of carrots (2 or 3) and dice them; another onion, diced; and another couple of celery stalks, diced. Add them to the soup along with a few shakes each of your preferred spices (thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, a bit of seasoned sea salt - this one seasoned with garlic, onion and black pepper).   Also add 2 cups of diced turkey.

Bring to a gentle boil, then let simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and add 2 cups of cooked, brown rice.  Let it cool a bit and then divide into your storage containers.  It gave me about a dozen pint jars.  The Thanksgiving Turkey Soup is one of my favorite parts of the holiday!


Turkey and Rice Casserole

This is a lot like the soup, only subtract the broth and add a bit of cream of chicken, instead...

Saute half a diced onion, a diced celery stalk, a diced carrot (go heavier on the veggies, if you like, but this was made with Joe in mind who prefers it meat-heavy).  Add a can of Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup (until I can post a tried and true recipe for homemade cream of... I'm trying to get away from canned soups), 2 cups turkey, 2 cups cooked, brown rice, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the broth from the turkey soup, if available.  If not, just add a touch of water to loosen it a bit.  Season it to taste, similar to the soup.  Stir it up good and turn it out to an 8 x 12 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  It should serve about 4 if you add a yummy side-salad to it.



And there's still turkey left.  I think there may be Turkey Pot Pie on our future!




Using up every bit of that Thanksgiving turkey (and the stock veggies, too)... I'm linking to the Homestead Barn Hop!  I'm new to it... but I just love Barn Hop Mondays!