Easy delicious turkey stock / soup

I hope everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful day! As usual I made more food than anyone can consume in a 4 day weekend and now I am looking for room in my freezer so nothing goes bad. I also broke the unwritten “don’t stress out and make something new rule” well it actually might be written somewhere, I heard it all over the TV; every cooking show, morning news show etc. and to make it even funnier, I forgot I even bought them to make. We were scheduled to eat at 2pm. Everything was SO on time that I even said “damn I am going to make it for 2 not bad”

Around 1:30 I opened the fridge to get a stick of butter for the potatoes and saw the package of brussels sprouts – ugh should I make them? Everyone except my husband said yes, he still raves about the only way he likes them broiled steak over brussels sprouts Click here for that post https://wordpress.com/post/cookingatclarktowers.com/2736

My daughter was quick with a “let’s put maple syrup and bacon on them”. Thankfully I had already cooked up a pound of bacon that morning, with another intention but we didn’t need anymore food to eat; or me to make ONE MORE THING to snack on.

I quickly cut the brussels sprouts in half and covered them with olive, salt, pepper and some maple syrup and while the turkey was resting; put them on a sheet pan to roast for about 15-20 minutes. Transferred them to a platter and crumbled bacon on them. YUM!!!! Said everyone but my husband – can’t win them all!

So with all the leftovers and turkey stock I vow to eat & make things from the fridge/freezer till Christmas – yup I am saying it out loud; there is no need to buy anything except bread, milk, eggs, fruit and veggies. See how quickly I clarified what I meant.

Today is going to be turkey soup day! It’s cold out and I have no more room in the freezers. After the turkeys (I always make 2 smallish birds) were picked clean I had a pot on the stove for the carcass’ and added the pan drippings, leftover gravy and some fresh celery, carrots and onions; brought it to a boil and then left it to simmer for about an hour.

I didn’t have time or the energy to “deal” with it so I put the whole pot outside on the back deck. It’s quite cold here so it is fine. Now comes the fun part of skimming off the fat and throwing everything but the stock aka “liquid gold” away and storing in the freezer (when I find room) what I don’t use for soup.