Food Friday, Leftover Turkey with Noodles!

While you are out purchasing your Thanksgiving grocery list, make sure to pick up a some frozen egg noodles. By Friday, you will not feel like doing any more cooking and you will want something more than a cold, turkey sandwich, especially if you attempted to go out for "Black Friday." Then you think to yourself, "Oh yeah! we are going to have turkey and noodles" as you get the bag out of the freezer.

This process actually starts when you cook that big bird for Thanksgiving dinner. For a small bird, I like to put it into the crock pot while a big bird bakes nicely in the oven in a pan. You will need the following: turkey, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and butter. To fix your turkey, thaw it in the fridge 2-3 days earlier sitting on a cookie sheet. Take it out of the fridge and standing over the sink, unwrap it. Clean out the insides and rinse off both the inside and outside. Put sliced celery and onion pieces inside with a couple of tablespoons of butter. Set aside and wash hands well. Plug in the crock pot to high or turn on the oven to 350 degrees. For the oven, take a clear cooking bag and flour it with a tablespoon of flour, shaking it around in the bag to coat it with a layer of flour. Next, slide in the bird in the bag and place it in the pan. Before tying the bag, place the remaining celery, onion, and butter around and on top of the bird. Do this also for the crock pot turkey as well. Add salt and pepper. Let the bird cook. From my experience, I usually cook the bird until the top glows with a golden color, ranging a few hours depending on size of the bird and temperature of the heat.

After the turkey has been carved and eaten for dinner, I put the leftovers in freezer bags in portions suitable for our family meals. I divide the turkey broth from the pot or bag into clear freezer containers. I then take my stock pot and boil the remaining carcass and meat with water for additional broth. Once strained, I divide up the remaining broth into containers and swift through the cooled meat with my hands looking for pieces of bone, cartilage, and vegetables to remove. What you have leftover is small, shredded pieces of meat, enough for meals like turkey and noodles.

I will date these bags and containers, putting them into the freezer. The rest I put in the fridge for dinner on Friday. I take a container of broth and mix it with a can of chicken broth (for the added salt and to make my supply go further). As it heats up on the stove, I add in the turkey pieces bringing it to a boil. I then mix in the noodles and cook it on medium heat until the noodles are nice and tender. I may add some celery salt, onion salt, and pepper for additional flavor. In the meantime, I have peeled and sliced some potatoes to make mashed potatoes and snapped some beans for steamed green beans.

It is nice to have a simple meal after all your hard work making a large one. And yet this meal will still amaze your guests, tease their taste buds with savory bites, and warmly fill their bellies after all that shopping.