Turkey Frame Soup

Don't throw that leftover turkey frame away. There is still meat on those bones! Make a delicious turkey soup with it.

Turkey Frame Soup

1 Turkey frame (the turkey carcas leftover from roasting a turkey)
1 can of chicken broth
2 cans of petite cut canned tomatoes
water to fill your soup pot 3/4 way full
Cut fresh carrots and celery, enough to satisfy your families veggie needs
1 chopped onion
2 fresh Sage leaves, 2 fresh sprigs of Oregano and 2 fresh sprigs of Thyme or dried Sage, Oregano and Thyme
Salt and pepper
Hold noodles to the side - Cooked wide noodles (enough for your family needs)

Boil until vegetables are soft. Remove all the turkey carcas/bones and place on a plate and let cool down. Remove the meat from the bones. Toss the bones in the trash and toss the chopped meat in the soup. Simmer until supper time. Add cooked noodles about 30 mins before serving so they don't get overcooked.

*Note* If you want to freeze some, freeze the soup without the noodles. If you anticipate saving some for lunch tomorrow, then put the soup in one container and the cooked noodles in another container and put them together before heating in the microwave.

Source: ME!

You Can't Take Just ONE Day?

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. At the very least, I hope you had a nice Thursday. But you know who didn't have a happy Thanksgiving? That's right. Angelina Jolie. She hates it. She hates Thanksgiving. Wait. What now?

I've heard of people hating a variety of different holidays. I'm not a particularly huge fan of Arbor Day. That doesn't mean I'm against planting trees. I just don't see the point in having an entire day dedicated to the subject. Now, Thanksgiving? That's a little different. I can totally see the point in taking a day to give thanks, spend it with people you like (usually) and get paid for the day off. (Thank you FDR for mandating that it be held on the fourth Thursday in November.) But, surprise! Angelina Jolie doesn't see it that way.

According to the fine folks over there at PopEater, a one Rob Shuter tells us that "Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans...To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn't her style. She definitely doesn't want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder." Oh, for cryin' out loud.

And continuing alone in true Angelina style, the article goes on to say that "Angelina gets so grossed out by Thanksgiving that she has made sure her family will not be in America this year on Thursday." Good Lord.

Listen, Angie...through the history of time, across the world, across the entire world, civilizations have been formed by one group of people taking over and/or slaughtering another. This is not unique to America. If there's one thing I cannot stand it is those who feel so enlightened and feel as if they are acting so politically correct, but they're completely wrong about their basis for doing so. But that aside, it's not the point.

The point is that it is a day to give thanks. Maybe if she felt so strongly about it, she would use this day and her immense (yet, unfathomable) star power to do something about it. Then again, considering that she's wrong about her position on this particular topic, it would make her look like a damned fool to do so. That might explain some of it, but I don't think that it really does.

Here's someone who has the entire world on a platter placed before her and she can't see the point in a day to give thanks? Be thankful for your family? Be thankful for what you have? Be thankful for what your life is or is not? One day? She can't get into that? All right then. I knew there was a reason that she's always bugged me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! And to those of you not celebrating Thanksgiving today, Happy Thursday!

This may come as somewhat of a shock to some, but yes, even someone as cynical and as sarcastic as I can be on occasion (translation: with every living breath) can actually acknowledge things to be thankful for. And I have plenty of them. I don't know if I constantly think about them year round, but it does occur to me at times other than Thanksgiving that there's plenty to be thankful for.

See, it's coming up on almost ten years since an occurrence that I refer to as The Unfortunate Incident, when a bunch of stoic doctors were predicting that I had about an hour to live. Of course, no one bothered to tell me that. (I'm always the last to know these things.) And almost ten years later, I'm happy to report that, thankfully, they were wrong. (Actually, they probably got the diagnosis right, but just underestimated me is all. Hey, these things happen. No harm, no foul.) While I don't think about it all the time, at this time of year I do tend to think about how thankful I am that I have been able to continue living my life as if nothing ever happened (some minor mangling aside). It's awesome.

So here we go. My thankfulness for this year is that: I'm thankful for my crazy family...even if I don't tell them all that often. (And that trend will likely continue, thankfulness or not.) And if they ever figure out how to use The Innerwebs and find this, then they'll know.
I'm thankful for the things that are typically considered "the basics"; a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear and a bed to sleep in. (Basics are good.)

I'm thankful that even though I write this blog, that doesn't necessarily make me 'a blogger'. (I prefer "That funny chick who writes stuff".) But more than that, I'm thankful that there are folks out there who actually read what I write and (for the most part) seem to enjoy it. That's awesome. Thanks.


I'm thankful for Guitar Hero (I will deny writing this, should it ever come up in conversation.)

And I'm way thankful for my friends for being my friends, even after all of this time.

Right about here is where most of you could stop reading if you wanted, but I hesitate to say that because I need at least one of you to keep on reading. (But besides that, if you stopped reading, you'd miss the most awesome Bloom County strip ever at the bottom.) And yes, it does matter which one of you needs to keep reading.

Dude, I am ridiculously thankful your friendship. I wouldn't have thought that someone who was so kind, real, polite, real polite (that's important, you know), smart, intelligent, really funny, honest, caring and just fun as hell, actually existed. But you do and it's awesome and I am way thankful for said awesomeness.


I'm thankful for all the times we've done stuff together (though not so thankful for the same damn menu at Chili's) and for your patience (and guidance and list of rules) with me during interactions with the general public. I'm thankful that I don't always have to be "on" when we're hanging out (even though I do miss the stand-up routine at times). And I'll deny this if it ever comes up, but I just think that's the coolest thing. Don't know what I'd do without ya. Happy Thanksgiving, dude.

Planning for Thanksgiving

Do a Google search on the turkey to see how long your turkey (by weight and temperature) needs to cook. Follow the brining instructions and the cooking instructions. You can stuff your turkey but I prefer to cook my stuffing separate. If you cook the stuffing separate, then ream the inside of your turkey with butter and put some carrot, celery and onion inside the turkey to give it a little extra vegetable taste or apples for an apple taste. But there are lots of ways to cook your turkey and ways you can prepare it so do some Googling.

Make your stuffing. There are tons of stuffing recipes online so do a Google search if you haven't already.

Make your mashed potatoes or potato salad (which could be made ahead).

Make your gravy.

Be sure you have made up enough tea. Chill your drinks. Go ahead and make up several coffee filters with premeasured coffee and stack them in a bowl so it will make it quick and easy to keep the coffee coming! Pour out cream into your creamer and place in a bowl of ice, fill up the sugar bowl, arrange to have sugar free substitutes. If you make decaf AND caf coffee then make a little sign and tape it on the coffee maker so that it notifies your guests what coffee is in the pot. One side of the sign says "Decaf" and the other side says "Caffeine". Put tape that faces one way and another piece facing the other way. Then you can just peel up, turn around, tape back down and vice versa.

Send husband or teen to pick up the bagged ice and put in a cooler in the kitchen for filling glasses.

About an hour before guests are to come, set out the cheeseball/dips/spreads and crackers. Be sure it is inaccessible to pets or small children.

Set up your buffet. There are ways to keep foods warm even putting them out early. Used chafing dishes, or microwave heat packs. I have several of the vintage electric warming trays that I use. If you buy them at yard sales...be sure the wiring isn't too old and is in excellent shape because you don't want electrical hazards. Also be sure that your buffet is safe from pets and small children. Close the dining room door or use baby gates or something so that they are safe from hot food falling on them or cats jumping on the buffet and making themselves at home. After the turkey is cut, keep it tightly covered with tinfoil so it won't dry out.

There is also a way to keep foods cold. You don't want salads with mayonnaise sitting out all afternoon. So use freezer packs or ice. You can use large bowls(), put some ice or ice gel packs in it and set the salad bowl(s) inside the bigger bowl(s). You will probably need to put a towel under the tablecloth to absorb moisture so that the condensation won't ruin your wood table. This makes a miniature cold bar.

Wipe up the bathrooms and make sure there is toilet paper with extras in view.

Check the coat closet to make sure you have room for guests coats.

Light the scented candles (keep in mind if guests have allergies you will have to snuff them out).

Clean up your kitchen and set the dishwasher running.

Go take your shower and get dressed. Dress in something pretty but comfortable.

Unload the dishwasher.

You should be ready! Happy Thanksgiving!

Planning for Thanksgiving

The rest of this week will be a heavy one so I hope you took my advice and took Sunday off to be with the Lord and rest up. Don't forget to take some time every day for quiet time to settle your nerves. Take your vitamins, eat well and don't miss any other medications you are suppose to take. This week is a marathon so treat yourself right so you can survive it and pass the finish line.

Get some of your weekly cleaning chores behind you by doing them today. It's a good day to get the laundry done, change the sheets. Leave your dusting, bathrooms and vacuum/mopping for Wednesday so that your house is in great shape for Thursday. But if there is anything you can do, do it today because the rest of the week will be wall to wall cooking and cleaning.

If you are having guests to stay overnight, work on their room and bathroom. Make sure you have clean towels, toilet paper and soap in the bathroom, extra blanket in the bedroom. You might add a tray or basket with some extras such as trial sizes of shampoo and lotion; a map of your town; bottled water; etc. Just little things that might make their visit special. Make sure you have a clock or clock/radio for them too. If there is a TV in the guest room add a list of channels (if your cable or satellite company hasn't sent you one, you can usually download from their website).

Clean out your refrigerator. Throw away all your old leftovers (or make a soup for supper). Merge the multiple bottles of ketchup into one and do this for any other multiples. Wipe it out thoroughly to make room.

Take your turkey out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to start a slow thaw.

If you do your own bread for the stuffing, today is a good day to make and toast that bread and let it stand at room temperature overnight. Tomorrow you can throw into a food processor to make into crumbs. Then store in ziploc bag.

Planning for Thanksgiving

It's Tuesday. Don't forget to take care of yourself today. Take some quiet time to gather your energy.


Today is the day to fry your sausage and bacon that you will need as ingredients. My Sausage and Mushroom Dressing and Broccoli Salad contain sausage and bacon. What I prefer to do is to take my electric griddle outside and cook the bacon and sausage. I like to do large batches at a time, seal meal sizes in vacuum sealed bags and freeze. Then we can take them out and microwave for breakfast or for a recipe. It keeps from smelling the whole house up and keeps the greasy out of the kitchen. My husband built a cooking deck just off the garage. He has his grill and some chairs and a table out there.


Make your dressing today and refrigerate. Then it's ready to pop in the oven on Thursday.


Make any congealed or vegetable salads (like my Broccoli Salad) today.


Make cheeseball or spreads, dips.


If you are doing your own pastry for your pumpkin pies, make up the pastry today and refrigerate.

Turkey Brine

Brining Your Turkey

Salt changes the structure of the muscle tissues in the meat, allowing it to swell and absorb water and flavorings. It also breaks down the proteins, resulting in a tender-seeming turkey. This means that--despite the moisture loss during roasting and the long cooking time--the end result is a juicier bird. When buying a turkey for brining, choose a natural turkey, not a self-basted bird that's been injected with a solution of salt and other flavorings. Look for the words "natural", "no additives", and "minimally processed" on the label. Brine should be cold before adding the turkey or the meat will absorb too much salt.

Vegetable Broth Brine (Read the instructions on this one so you see how to use the brine for all the other Brine recipes that follow)

1 gallon vegetable broth
1 cup sea salt
1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried savory
1 gallon ice water

In a large stock pot, combine the vegetable broth, sea salt, rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to be sure salt is dissolved. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature. When the broth mixture is cool, pour it into a clean 5 gallon bucket. Stir in the ice water. Wash and pat dry your turkey with paper towels. Make sure you have removed the innards. Place the turkey, breast down, into the brine. Make sure that the cavity gets filled. Place the bucket in the refrigerator overnight. Remove the turkey carefully draining off the excess brine and pat dry. Discard excess brine. Cook the turkey as desired reserving the drippings for gravy. Keep in mind that brined turkeys cook 20 to 30 minutes faster so watch the temperature gauge. Place a gallon of frozen water in a large cooler (freeze in a water bottles) or ice bags (ice in Ziplocs) and brine the turkey and brine in the cooler while it marinates overnight. Or use a big bucket and put the iced water, turkey and brine in the bucket. Most refrigerators won't hold it so use the ice to keep your turkey safe while it marinates. Watch out for the cooking time on this as a brined bird cooks much faster - especially if you're using a roasting bag (which I did). A 22 lber can cook in only 2 1/2 hours!!

Citrus Brine

1 cup salt
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 orange, cut into wedges
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 gallons cold water

Rub salt onto your turkey, and place remaining salt, lemons, oranges, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and pepper into a large pot. Place the turkey in the pot, and fill with water. Refrigerate overnight. Discard brine after removing turkey. This is a good one to use if you are smoking your turkey.

Brine With Garlic

2 gallons water
1 1/2 cups canning salt
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar

In a large bucket or container large enough to hold your turkey, mix together the water, salt, garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Store in a refrigerator, and soak turkey for 2 days before smoking or roasting.

Sweet Brine

4 quarts water (24 cups)
3 1/2 cups kosher or sea salt
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cracked peppercorns
7-8 cloves garlic
5 bay leaves, crumbled coarsely

Prepare brine by combining ingredients in a stainless steel or enamel pan (do not use aluminum). Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until all of the sugar and salt are dissolved. Allow brine too cool.

Smoked Turkey Brine

1/2 c. pickling salt
1 c. Morton's tender quick (found in spices near salt)
4 to 5 tbsp. liquid smoke (1 to 3 oz. bottle for 2 gal. brine)

Sage Brine

Toast about 2 tablespoons of the chopped dried sage (best using fresh sage that you have dried)
Put the sage into a pot of water with two parts kosher salt and one part sugar. Bring to a boil and then let it cool.

Cranberry Brine

2 medium onions, roughly diced
5 stalks celery, roughly chopped
5 medium carrots, roughly chopped
14 garlic cloves, unpeeled and smashed
6 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 sprigs fresh thyme
6 sprigs fresh sage
12 sprigs fresh Italian Parsley
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 cup kosher salt
2 quarts cranberry juice

Mix together in a large pot 1 of the onions, 2 stalks celery, 2 carrots, 6 garlic cloves, peppercorns, 3 sprigs each of the rosemary, thyme and sage, 6 sprigs of the parsley, kosher salt and the cranberry juice; heat and stir until the salt disolves and mixture begins to simmer; remove and let cool to room temperature.

Apple Brine

1 1/2 cups, KOSHER salt (not regular, use Kosher)
1 1/4 cups, brown sugar
10 whole cloves
3 teaspoons, black peppercorns
1 1/2 gallons (6 quarts) apple juice or cider (non-alcoholic)
The peel from oneor two orange or one tangerine (colored part only - not white pith)
Optional: 3 teaspoons, dried thyme and/or 3 teaspoons, dried sage

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive pot, bring mixture to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes (partly covered). Allow brine to cool completely.

Planning for Thanksgiving

It's time to start planning for your Thanksgiving! Just a few days away! Sit down TODAY with your notebook and start making your plans.


First make a menu. Be sure you have things from all the food groups...meat/protein, vegetable, fruit, dairy and something sweet. Ok, OK, so dessert isn't a food group! But, for Thanksgiving, it should be! Keep in mind any dietary problems that have to be accommodated. If someone has diabetes have some sugar free sweets and drinks for them (you can buy sugar free cookies, chocolates, or make sugar free cakes), if someone has a food allergy try to accommodate, or at least provide them an alternative. If someone is on a diet, provide attractive substitutes to the calorie laden riches.


Delegate dishes to others for help. Maybe your mother would make her banana pudding and your aunt would bring the potato salad. Maybe your children could help in making simple dishes like the crudites and relish trays. Don't be afraid to ask for help.


While you are making a menu go through your coupons to see if you have any that can help save you money.


Once the menu is determined, and the coupons selected, make your shopping list. Remember, Mothers, your children need to learn how to do these things too. So if they are of the age to be able to help in your planning stage, then by all means include them. Let them suggest menu items, go through the coupons, or help in making the list of what each invited guest can bring. Sit around the dining table and let them see the planning stage and participate.


Make a list of things you can do ahead of time. For instance, on Monday, take the turkey out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator. Tuesday, make the this. Wednesday make the this and that. Anything you can do ahead of time really helps you on Thanksgiving day!


Go shopping and buy only what is on your grocery list. No impulse buying! Stick to your list and you will save money. The minute you buy something that is not on your list, you've blown your coupon savings.


After your planning, you are ready to pull out your silver and sort and polish. Aren't you glad you don't have as much silver as these ladies!?! Modern women don't like silver since you have to polish it to keep it pretty. Too much trouble! But I still like a few pieces of silver (or, in my case, silver plate) to make the table shine. I found out that if you polish regularly then you don't have to work so hard at it. As soon as it gets that little gold sheen to it, polish and it's very easy. Remember, every time you polish silver, you are rubbing silver off. Silver is a soft metal and polishing literally rubs silver off. To keep silver from tarnishing as quickly, remove it from air. Mine stays in the china cabinet and the doors close securely. This has helped keep it from tarnishing as fast. Also, I've read that wrapping your silver in felt silver cloth slows tarnishing. So keeping your silverware in a wooden silverware chest lined with silver cloth, or buying or making silver bags for your silver can really help.


Next, is to wash your Thanksgiving china. Whatever you use for Thanksgiving needs to be washed unless it's your everyday china. I have a thing for china. And I have a set for all the seasons like Spring, Winter, Christmas, Fall, Summer. This is my Fall or Thanksgiving china. My Mom used this china with her Amber Depression glass dishes. It was a great match. I didn't get the Amber Depression glass dishes but I did get this china. Once you've washed it, set it back in the china cabinet to keep it dust free for the week. Or set your table and cover with a sheet.


























After washing your china, be sure to wash the crystal you will be using.

















Now wash your linens. Iron and fold them. Since you are this far ahead of yourself, do a Google search and try folding your napkins real fancy! Kids might like to help with this too. Make it a 10 minute project where all of you take a couple of napkins and learn to fold them into a fancy masterpiece!



Tomorrow we will talk about some more planning tips.

Planning For Thanksgiving

Work up your Mis en Place: This is a French term for preparing all the ingredients for a dish in advance, such as washing, trimming and chopping vegetables; setting out your spices and herbs, etc. Clean and dry salad greens, and store in a resealable plastic bag. Notice in these photos that I found, they used tin foil baking pans to hold the ingredients for each menu item. They used throwaway cups and tops. I think this is one of the handiest tips I've found in a while!

Make Cranberry Sauce or Cranberry Relish or Cranberry Salad and store in container in refrigerator so it can marinate.

Make breads and rolls -- freeze.

Work on your Thanksgiving decorations. A table decoration, placecards, silk flower arrangements, candles, etc. I found these online. Aren't these table arrangements lovely!!!

Planning for Thanksgiving

Today is Sunday! Go to church and have a good lunch. Take a nap. Those are your orders.

Be sure your husband has all the folding tables and chairs gathered together.

This is a good time to grate all your cheeses if you haven't already done it.

When Katie Got Engaged!

This is my digital scrapbook page of when Dustin proposed to Katie last Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(Photo courtesy of AP/AFP/Getty)