In the kitchen with Steve-O the LLamabutcher

Big cooking week last week. Last night I made Thanksgiving Stew, which was basically a medley of left-overs left to simmer to golden goodness. We made stock Thursday night, boiling the carcass of the noble bird together with the loose veggies that the cavity had been stuffed with. The big difference this time was we drained the stock into used yogurt containers, instead of one big container, for much more convenient freezing. That way, when we need stock for soup, we just defrost enough for that time, instead of a whole big thing. I have no idea why I never thought of that before, but what can I say, I'm dense. I started with sauteing two smaller yellow onions, some celery chopped finely, in a little bit of olive oil, a little flour, and about a cup and a half of red wine. I added northern beans, and would have added a can of corn and a can of carrots if we had had them. The turkey stock, plus about three cups of water, two handfuls of cranberries, the meat from one drumstick plus the wings, a little bit of turkey sausage, a regular potato and a sweet potato, a large spoonful of gravy, and then, when the thing had simmer for a couple of hours, about half a cup of stuffing mix. Savory does not begin to describe how awesome it was. Since we were out of pie, and that's just wrong, Miss Somersault and I made a pumpkin pie to go with it.

I've been on a real soup/stew/chili tear as of late, and this was a great addition to the mix. The cranberries actually worked nicely (they were raw when added, and broke down nicely to be soft, but without getting all gooey.