Turkey Soup

I am going to give blogging another try; maybe they will be more interesting this time. Many of my friends love to see my pictures and as much as I am interested in underwater marine life, I do understand that others are not interested in reef behavior, life cycles, or mating rituals. I understand. Really I do, and it is Ok. While taking a class on social media, I had a young, (mid 20’s) professional photographer and group travel leader and social media specialist take a look at my blog. He is a very nice young man, extremely talented and ambitious (his specialty is hiking and photographing big mountains). He was quite smart, but I probably reminded him of his mother. He kindly and gently told me that I had too much information in my blogs and not enough personality coming through. He also suggested I write about my other interests and maybe even combine them together in my blogs.  Well, I am fairly intelligent, and can read between the lines. My blogs were boring as hell! With that in mind, I am going to give this another try.

For the last year I have been making a huge effort at healthier living and not wasting so much.  I have been working out at the YMCA with a trainer for a couple of years now. I am sure you are now thinking you hope I am not spending too much on this, because I still have a ways to go, even after a couple of years.  However, I am much stronger, but I still love to cook and eat. My trainer is working on behavior modification in those areas.

Our social life revolves around food and whenever anyone comes to our house, there is always food served. Just so you understand, we celebrate with food, mourn with food, if I am anxious or nervous I cook, you are getting the idea. I also show my family “love” by cooking for them.  My oldest daughter Tara is expecting a baby any day now and you guessed it, I am cooking. I have been cooking for a week now, homemade ice cream, homemade mustard, cranberry ketchup, pies, homemade granola, cookies, homemade breads, and even now trying my hand at making cheese. She really needs to deliver soon, as we are running out of room to store the food.

In my effort to be healthier, we also joined a community shared garden this summer which gave us lots of fresh vegetables, many we had not eaten before. The crops came in abundance, so I froze and canned the excess, so as not to waste anything.  The pantry is over flowing with canned goods, which I share with my grown children who are out of the house and trying to make it on their own. My son, Scott, who still lives with us and works at Meijer Supermarket, was our guinea pig trying all the new vegetables and running to the store or up and down the steps for supplies.

Thanksgiving is over with now and in my effort not to waste, I decided to make turkey rice soup using the carcasses from both turkeys (one smoked by Wayne, my husband, and one traditionally stuffed and baked). I also threw in the chicken carcasses that I had saved in the freezer from any whole baked chickens we had cooked earlier in the year. I chopped up a couple of large bags of carrots and celery, added some onions and cooked them in batches in my large fry pan. At this point it looked like I was cooking for a large army, as I had not one, but two 18 quart pots on the stove cooking. I seasoned it with herbs that came from the garden and I had dried over the summer, and then added the new “waste not” ingredient, beet greens. My friend Cathy told me that the top of beets, beet greens, can be added to soups for extra nutritional value.  I sure hope the kids like it. Another benefit to soup simmering is that our furnace won’t run for hours from two pots simmering.

This endeavor took some time, five hours. I was able to speed it up by using my food processer to slice the vegetables but the meat had to be plucked from the bones which was all laying in the bottom of the pots. I was amazed at how much meat was salvaged. Yes, it would have been easier to have thrown away the carcasses and just chopped up the leftover turkey, but now I can make some casseroles with the sliced meat.  This is a note to my kids; no I did not cook and add the innards. I did cook them and gave them to our dog, Poka, who is now showing her extreme gratitude by having gelatinous diarrhea all over the house.

I have 36 quarts of homemade turkey soup. We will eat some of it. I will send some to my daughter and her family as there will be a new baby any day now, and she won’t have to cook for a couple of nights. My son Jeff, who graduated from college this last spring, living in Wisconsin, working a commission job, and trying to make it on his own, will receive some to eat now and more frozen containers for later. I will freeze and bring down some to my daughter Erin, who lives in Florida, working as an assistant golf pro, and trying to make it on her own as well. Another container will go to a friend, a single mom with two girls at home, who struggles daily to make ends meet. This is my way of showing “love” to my family and friends, as cooking is a labor of love for me.

To those of my friends who have more than they need, may you always have enough to share. To my friends who struggle daily with enough to eat, clean water, and adequate shelter, may you always be able to make more from what little you have.

I am left to ponder, how many “things” do we need? How much is too much? How can we share our blessings? Can we make do with what we have, or do we need new, and bigger, and better? I will explore this further in my next blog.   Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Vegtable Soup