Save That Turkey Carcass!

     Have you gone off shopping for the day and know that the remnants of your beautiful turkey wait in the refrigerator to be stripped down for delicious turkey sandwiches?  Mmmmmm...   Turkey sandwiches...  Sounds wonderful.  But, now that that is done, what do you plan to do with the carcass once it is stripped?  I know so many people who simply throw it away.  In fact, I used to be one of them.  Not any more!

     To get every last scrap off goodness out of your wonderful Thanksgiving meal, may I suggest using that carcass before you throw it out?  I put mine in my largest stock pot - aromatic vegetables still inside the cavity - along with any drippings and scraps from the carving plate.  Next I covered it with water and put it on my stovetop to simmer for a few hours.

The turkey carcass in the pot ready to become delicious soup for my freezer.

     Four hours later, the bones came apart and lifted right out of the pot leaving an incredibly rich turkey stock with scraps of turkey meat and vegetables.  I will take this "soup" and divide it into Tupperware containers for my deep freezer.  I expect to get 4-5 meal containers from this pot.  (We had a 20 lb turkey.)  And there is so much you can do with all this wonderful leftover Thanksgiving yumminess.

See how dark and rich that stock turned out?  You can't buy that in the grocery store.

     I plan to add some chunks of my leftover turkey because we have so much of it.  Later, when it is time to use these for meals, I will defrost them enough to get them in the crockpot and let it do most of the work.  I can add leftover meats, potatoes, more vegetables, pasta (I love using alphabet pasta in this), potatoes...  whatever you can think of.

     Remember my previous mention of stews and soups waiting in the freezer for cold nights when I don't want to do any work?  This is an ideal way to add to that supply.  Fresh hot bread or grilled cheese sandwiches can be added to make this a hearty and satisfying meal.  And look how much money it saves!

     I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  I look forward to preparing for Christmas with you.