The aftermath

With everything done for the Artisan Market and two last napkins to hem, I now have enough time and brain space to deal with the aftermath of Thanksgiving. You're probably thinking that is just a lot of picking up and laundry. While I do have laundry... all tablecloths are washed, two are ironed, and I hope to get to the linen napkins next week.. that is the easy part. 

What is far more time consuming is dealing with the turkeys. Yes, that's plural, as in three. The actual turkey is long gone. After Thanksgiving we had many sandwiches, turkey pot pie, and turkey soup. Y. used some of the very last of it to make herself some turkey and mushroom jiaozi. But there are still the bones. Bones make great stock and I never throw them out. 

Today turkey #1 was officially finished. I canned five quarts of turkey broth and froze 2-1/2 more quarts. 



I would have canned seven quarts but there was an incident. As the canner started to come down to no pressure, I started hearing concerning noises coming from inside of it. Noises that sounded disturbingly like glass breaking. This wasn't good. It was with more than a little trepidation that I opened the canner once it was safe. No broken jars! Two lids had come off, but that meant I could still salvage the stock. I'll tighten the rings on the jars a bit more when I do this the next time.

And that next time will be sooner rather than later. The second turkey carcass has been cooking in the roaster. After it cools, I. and I will strain the broth and put it in my giant pot.


This will turn get refrigerated where it will wait until I have time to pressure can another round of jars. Also tonight, the last turkey carcass will go in the roaster to make more broth. At this point it feels like a bit of an endless cycle. But I also love having quarts of homemade stock on hand, though I'll like it a bit more once it's all processed. 

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