Turkey Leftovers

While most people are looking ahead to Christmas, I am still stuck at Thanksgiving.  Specifically, with the Thanksgiving bird.  It's actually mostly gone, but last night I used the remainder in turkey noodle soup.  It was perfect for a chilly evening and only took a half hour.  I diced up both white and dark meat and combined it with chicken broth, egg noodles, frozen peas, a couple of bay leaves, some dried rosemary powder, dried sage, and cracked pepper.  Let it simmer until the noodles were done, and voila!  Soup!

Talkin' Turkey

I guess that Williams-Sonoma turkey techniques class was pretty inspiring after all.  This morning we headed out of town to a local turkey farm.  As we drove along a small rural road on this windy, cloudy, cold day through the flat Midwestern terrain, someone in the car remarked that it seemed a little like Siberia, it was so desolate.  Before long, however, we spotted a number of long, low metal sheds.  As we got closer, we could see turkeys in the sheds.  We had arrived!  We admired the turkeys still hanging about in the outdoor pens, marveled at the number of white turkey feathers scattered everywhere, then pushed our way into the crowded sales office where we purchased an 18.75 pound turkey and a package of turkey Italian sausages.  An older couple next to us carried out two 20-pound turkeys and a 12-pound turkey.  I wonder how many people they are feeding on Thanksgiving?  I'm satisfied with only one local, farm-raised, free-range turkey. Can't wait until Thursday!

There was plenty of room in this pen.  The turkeys crowded together by choice.

Turkey and Bubbles

our 2010 Thanksgiving turkey

Today I went with a friend to a Williams-Sonoma Technique Class, The Perfect Turkey.  It was fun and, what's more, I learned a few things even though I've been roasting turkeys for more than twenty years.  We even got to taste a turkey prepared with their dry brine.  It was really juicy, but maybe a little too flavorful for me, and too salty for my friend.  I like my turkey mild so that the stuffing can carry the flavor.  My parents like to joke that I dump a whole container of rubbed sage into my cornbread stuffing.  This is not exactly accurate, but I do like sage.  A lot.

Being Williams-Sonoma, of course, the instructor was a little snooty and gave disapproving glances to a woman who confessed to using a grocery-store aluminum pan to roast her turkeys.  The store's roasting pans are very nice and were even on sale, but really? who wants to spend $199 on a roasting pan to use once or twice a year?  They have an even bigger model for $279.  What?  And these are sale prices, kids.  After lunch we stopped in Home Goods, and they had an equally fabulous Cuisinart roasting pan for around $59.  Personally, I use my grandmother's old enamel roasting pan.  Anyway, the class was fun and we got to save 10% on our Williams-Sonoma purchases.  I managed to control myself and only got a couple of whisks that I really needed.

Are you wondering about the "bubbles" in my title?  Since my friend signed us up for the class and was doing the driving, I wanted to give her a little thank you. So I crocheted a dishcloth/hot pad for her.  You know that I only learned to crochet very recently, but I think the cloth turned out well.  I made a similar one for my daughter last month.  I found the pattern, Bubble Dishcloth, on Ravelry; it's easy and pretty quick to make.

Two and a half weeks until Thanksgiving.  I'm already feeling thankful today -- for my old pan, my new whisks, crochet thread, and mostly my family and friends.