Leftover and Extra Turkey Recipes

Eating up a whole turkey can be a real challenge for a small family. Figure on roast turkey for the first appearance at the table. For the second appearance you could offer turkey a la king with a "white" sauce that substitutes chicken broth for the milk. Add pieces of turkey, pimento, and peas and serve over toast. Next time have turkey sandwiches with mayonnaise, salt, pepper, lettuce or whatever. Or turkey salad. Or turkey pizza. (Marinating leftover turkey in olive oil and rosemary prevents drying.) Or turkey and rice. The last time serve Turkey Bone Soup.

LEFTOVER TURKEY AND RICE
Spread out 4 c. cooked, chunked turkey meat in a large skillet or shallow baking pan. Mix together salt and pepper to taste. 1/2 c. honey, 1/2 c. prepared mustard, 1 t. curry powder, and 1 T. turkey drippings from the roasting. Pour the sauce onto the turkey meat and mix it all together. Heat thoroughly on top of the stove, stirring as needed, or bake until hot (about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F), stirring once or twice during that time. Let your family spoon this over cooked rice. A sprinkle of chives over all adds more color and flavor.

TURKEY BONE SOUP
Break up leftover cooked turkey when you're seeing more bony skeleton than meat on the carcass. Put bones, meat, and your leftover stuffing along with carrot chunks and some onion and maybe celery into a kettle with plenty of water. Add a few peppercorns, salt, and a bay leaf. Cook an hour or until you can get the remaining meat easily off the bones. Then sort out and discard the bones. Now add about 1/2 c. rice or barley, and cook on low heat until the grain is ready.

CANNING TURKEY--OR RABBIT, OTHER SMALL GAME OR OTHER POULTRY
Cut up the bird enough to be able to precook it in a big pan or pressure cooker. Cook until you can easily remove all the bones, then discard them. Place on lids, and process at 240 degrees F (10-lb. pressure) in a pressure canner for an hour and a half. When the cooker is opened, remove jars and fully tighten lids. 

CANNED TURKEY SOUP STOCK
The water that you precooked the turkey meat in is a good basic soup stock. Cool and skim to remove the fat. Pour stock into pint jars. Add 1 T. barley, rice, or other soup-grains to each jar, plus small pieces of the gizzard and heart and marginal bits of meat scavenged from the bones pile. Do not add liver. Fill to within 1/2 inch of the top. Put on lids, process for 35 minutes at 240 degrees F. (10-lb pressure). Tighten lids.

Turkey never have to ponder the mysteries of life and love. Reality can be harsh and hard, full of pain you can't escape--but it can also be joyful and marvelous, like falling in love. You can love your plants and animals and feel in control. When you fall in love with another human being, you must trust them to care for you. You're no longer in total control (although I've seen some people manage to come darn near it--loving and being in control of their own life and now their partner's also: a stressful lifestyle). There is a time to love, when it's very hard not to love. Yet you could resist. Would it be better to say no this time and hope for a better match next time? There will be another chance.

[Excerpted from the "Cooking a Turkey" section of Chapter 9: Poultry. Illustration copyright 1994 by Cindy Davis.]