Turkey Day Take 2, Part 1

Yesterday I made sure to clean up as I went and that I had an empty dishwasher before dinner began. Even so I was left with a big mess this morning.

I know that the big dilemma from Turkey day is what to do with the leftovers. So to give you ideas (and to remind myself next year) I am going to post some recipes of what I am doing with the leftovers. First of all, last night I took all the turkey off the bird and threw the bones, skin, and the giblets that I had saved into my crock pot. I covered it all with water and let it cook all night. This morning I used tongs to pull out the bones and big pieces and then strained the broth into a large container that I put in the fridge.

This morning I made cranberry bread using leftover cranberry sauce. I modified the recipe from this one.

Cranberry Bread

1/2 C butter
1 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Zest of 1 orange finely minced
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 C plain yogurt
1 C Cranberry sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Grease and flour bread pan

2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla and orange zest. Combine four, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stir into creamed mixture alternately with the yogurt.

3. Pour 1/3 of batter into pan swirl 1/2 of the cranberry sauce into the batter. Repeat ending with the batter on top.

4. Bake 55 minutes, until golden brown.

After I finished making the bread I put a pot of turkey noodle soup on the stove to simmer. I used the broth I made this morning, I chopped up the leftover carrot and celery sticks and extra chopped onions that I cut when making the stuffing. I'll let the soup simmer all morning and I'll put the noodles in right before we are ready to eat.

Thomas Sholar's Chicken and Rice Soup (or chicken noodle or turkey noodle)

1 1/2 C chopped cooked chicken
1 C chopped carrots
1 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped onion
2 T dried parsley
2 tsp chicken flavor base
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
10 C vegetable broth (I used the turkey broth I made this morning, I also don't add all 10 cups, I like mine with less liquid)
Salt to taste
3/4 C rice or 1 cup orecchiette pasta

Combine all ingredients, bring to boil, cover and simmer at least 45 minutes, add noodles or rice shortly before serving (go by package cooking times).