leftover turkey soup

oh my GOODNESS did we have thanksgiving leftovers!  bless the wallaces’ hearts, it took five days just to get it all under control.  i am most certainly grateful for such abundance (as things are still making their way into smaller containers and into the freezer! :)

there were two turkeys that had been carved down and i volunteered to keep one of them to try my hand at making soup stock.  i didn’t want to let it go to waste if i could help it, though getting a large turkey carcass to fit in a pot with two inches of water covering it was trying indeed!  

*i’m not a strict vegetarian.  i don’t eat a lot of meat either, and like to know where it came from and how it lived before i put it into my body.  i run into some moral trouble when it comes to things like processing a turkey carcass.  if i’m going to eat it i feel i should darn well be able to deal with it in its less than romantic state (not to mention be able to face its life--and death--before it was presented to me as food).  and this endeavor was definitely less than romantic.  

that said, i brought the pot to a boil and then turned it down to simmer, leaving it for several hours.  if the water level got too low i added a bit more in and stirred it occasionally.  it went into the fridge overnight and the next day i heated it enough to liquify it again, then had to dig through and pull out all of the bones and less than desirable bits.

i gotta say, this kinda tripped out a bit.  i mean, nature doesn’t skimp out.  there were a million and a half parts to that bird and every bone, tendon and muscle served a very specific purpose.  what an absolute work of art, what a perfect being of beauty, and what a thing of awe that we can be nourished by it.  i have never felt so much respect for an animal that was my food before, and i think that has become difficult with such a separation between us and the process.  meat lines the grocery store coolers and we don’t have to think any more about it than that.  

i feel that a close connection to our food is important regardless of what we eat or don’t eat.  i have the most amazing chickens in the world running around my backyard and i am blessed with incredibly beautiful and nutritious eggs every morning.  i get to go out in my bare feet (with my babies clucking behind me every step) and pull cherry tomatoes from an accidental plant that now needs a fourth cage to hold it up, clip okra from a tiny forest, and break chard and collard leaves from their plants with a crisp and unparalleled satisfaction.  it’s an awe inspiring thing, and i love and respect it as such.

so.  back to my miracle soup.  i heated it up a third night, finally ready to “finish” it, and added several cups of water to mellow out the richness.  really, it didn’t feel like it was lacking much of anything.  it smelled divine and was thick and beautiful.  i cooked up some spiral noodles to throw in and minced 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  there was the last of a sad looking head of fennel in the bottom drawer so i added that for a bit of green.  

that was really all.  there's enough for half a dozen meals and then some.  i’m glad i took the time and energy to make something wonderful out of something that would’ve been easy to deem disgusting and throw away.

leftover turkey soup

approximate price: if you’ve already got a turkey, then free!+a half bag of pasta

*it is never my intention to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat, and i'm not advocating for any kind of diet, other than creativity and using what you have.  this adventure happened to involve some emotion, so i have shared that as part of my process.

alfredo tofu and collard pizza

i make a lot of pizza....at least once a week.  i haven’t learned to make the crust from scratch yet (that’s like a real recipe!  yikes!) but it’s the most fun way for me to throw odds and ends together to make something that’s pretty darn hard to mess up.

i had suggested pizza, because we had an open package with one crust left that i knew wouldn’t last long, but even i was verbally skeptical that we had anything to put on it.  shame on me!  i know better......

i had gotten a jar of alfredo sauce at the store recently, and then remembered i had also gotten some tofu...what else, what else, i thought.....sunflower seeds....chard and collards from the garden.....carrots, no.....cabbage, no.....leftover okra and baked eggplant.....garlic.....green onions.....cheese.....

well that was more than enough to convince me!  confidence regained ;)  i sauteed a yellow onion with most of a package of tofu (saving just enough to be able to do a little something with it if i need to this week) and a little butter and bragg’s.  while that was cooking i went out and said hi to the chickens while i collected a few leaves of collards (making sure to thoroughly de-aphid them :).

i chopped up the baked slice of eggplant (not much but why not?) and added it into the mix with the leftover okra pepper stir fry from last night, making sure to remember a few cloves of minced garlic.  all that went on the alfredo dressed pizza crust and into the oven.

it was really good!  it had almost a sweet aroma to it, maybe from the butter and tofu combo?  i sprinkled a little ground flaxseed and cracked salt on top, and ready....set......eat!  :)

approximate price: $5

cucumber pomegranate salad

our friends are growing pomegranates, and while they were chicken sitting for us left one for us in the refrigerator.  i haven’t had one since i was a kid, and will had never seen one.  at least i was able to identify it and have some idea about what to do with it (not much, mind you :)

have i mentioned how much i love salads??  the possibilities are so limitless it’s crazy.  you really don’t need much to make a side dish, and sometimes the fewer things that are in it the more interesting it can be.  and now that lettuce is in season in texas (i’m sorry northerners!) we both have been craving it like crazy.

i chopped cucumber and banana peppers, and dug out most of a pomegranate (i saved some seeds to munch on later (i hear that chickens find them tasty, too ;)  i added some roasted sunflower seeds and green onion, along with oil, vinegar and cracked salt.

cucumber pomegranate salad

approximate price: $3

nutmeg squash with pomegranate date quinoa, veggie stir fry and fruit salad

well, it’s tour time again!  usually that means that i don’t do much cooking and rely on archived recipes to cover the time, but my good friend and tour mate daisy o’connor has some awesome friends in san francisco that we got to stay with for the first leg of our trip.  and it JUST so happens that they enjoy having traveling house guests cook dinner for them.....oh boy oh boy!  shit in a pot goes on the road!  :)

i was a little intimidated in a new city and a new kitchen (and daisy made sure my reputation preceded me!) but she and i were a team and so i took a deep breath and plunged in!  (why is it anyway that we shy away from our talents for fear that we might mess up this one time even though we’ve proven time and time again that we’re good at what we do??  life lessons everywhere ;)

our compiled pool of ingredients came to:

plain quinoa and red quinoa

an assortment of veggies (mostly green)

2 spaghetti squashes

an assortment of fruit (persimmons among them!)

my first inclination was towards “stuffing” the squash with the quinoa and veggies, but we didn’t start it soon enough to cook it in halves, so we cut it up into smaller chunks to cook it faster, and put them faced down (skin up) on a coconut-oiled* glass baking pan.

we mixed the quinoas together and cooked them in a rice cooker.  (i do it at home in a pan/pot: 2 cups water per 1 cup quinoa.)  we added a few spoonfuls of coconut oil (one of the luxuries of the evening!), a handful of fresh pomegranate seeds, a handful of dried date pieces and a healthy sprinkling of sea salt.

the broccoli, zucchini, kale, green beans, etc got chopped and went into a frying pan (with some coconut oil....) and were super no-fuss.  all we added was a bit of salt and balsamic vinegar.

with squash i’m learning that the rule for how long to cook it is either A) at least an hour, or two.... or B) ‘til your hosts are really hungry.  it was in at 450 for about 45 minutes when B happened.  we scraped it out of the skins into a bowl adding, yes, two or so spoonfuls of coconut oil, a sprinkling of salt, a drizzling of honey and the surprise grand winner: nutmeg.  we only used a small amount, maybe a teaspoon, with a shrug and a “why not?”  that’s the best :)

daisy made a simple fruit salad with apples and persimmons and pomegranate and we presented our gracious hosts with quite the spread!  a little discombobulated with a few confused moments but everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal :)  we put everything out on the table on its own for people to serve themselves, and i was told the next day that during a phone call one of our buddies was still talking about our squash!  (i definitely call that a success ;)

nutmeg spaghetti squash with pomegranate date quinoa and veggie stir fry

approximate price: pooled resources are harder to calculate, but this was probably around $15 worth of food for 5 people, only using what we already had!  :) 

*coconut oil is pricey, but supposedly is very good for you!  it’s the GOOD kind of fat, and very stable so it has a high heat tolerance and is slow to oxidize (i.e. become rancid).  it has a subtle flavor which can be very tasty in place of other oils (or butter....as this IS shit in a pot! ;)

Kale Chips

kale chip heaven!  :)

i was really determined to get this kale chip thing down after will’s mom made us a batch for a road trip and they lasted about 20 miles!

i had some disappointing runs, though it’s hard to mess up salty greens!  too much oil can keep them from getting crispy, but hey, nobody’s loss :)

i have learned firsthand why kale chips work best, and i believe it’s because of the waviness of the leaves.  other greens can lay too flat on the pan and either burn or get quite stuck.  collards are the very thin and elegant variety, while chard and even beet greens can hold their own.  but kale is best.

i have found that 300 degrees for 20 minutes works out just fine.  finally, consistency!  :)

about three full grown leaves will fit on my pizza pan.  i wash and remove the thick part of the stem (usually at least 3/4 of the length), then chop them into bite-sized pieces.  i put a small amount of oil in a bowl (i use olive oil, a tablespoon or so) and dip one or two fingers in to rub onto the backs of the leaves.  this is far from precise!  just get a little bit on there (there shouldn’t be enough to be drippy at all) and lay them oil side up on the pan.  it’s ok if they overlap a little.

i sprinkle some cracked salt across the pan and pop it into the 300 degree oven, setting the timer for 20 minutes.

if you’re feeling really patient (but ready for an amazing payoff!) you can finely mince some garlic in with the oil, as well as finely grated cheese.  both are delicious!  or try other seasonings and flavor combinations.  as i’m typing this i’m suddenly thinking that some tamari mixed with the oil would be delightful.....

kale chips

approximate price: a bunch of kale, even organic, costs around $2.  you can make a lot of chips out of that!