turkey carcass soup...

each year, matt and i snag the turkey carcass from my mother in law on thanksgiving and we make some yummy soup with it.

this year at our house, we have much to be thankful for and decided to celebrate with an early feast last friday. i could go on and on about what we are thankful for, but i'll save that for another post.

with thanksgiving just around the corner, i thought i'd share this fall recipe of ours, its not only a tradition for us, but a favorite. normal people would call it turkey and vegetable soup, not us, but we never claimed to be normal. enjoy this turkey carcass soup!

turkey carcass soup

once the turkey meat has been cut off of the bones for dinner, put the turkey carcass in a large pot and fill it with enough water to cover. bring it to a boil, then simmer it for an hour or so. pour the liquid and carcass through a strainer into a container (save the liquid). pick the meat off of the bones and put that back into the large pot. pour the liquid back into the pot. add all of the following and let it simmer for an hour or two.

3 carrots - chopped

3 celery stocks - chopped

1 onion - chopped

2 zucchini - cut in small pieces

1 large potato - peeled and chopped

1 cup barley

1 t. salt

1 t. white pepper

a lesson from my mother in law...

this photo was taken at the last family dinner, we celebrated shirl's 81st birthday.

a lesson from my mother in law...

she recently passed away and now her four children have the very difficult task of going through her belongings. watching matt do this is harder than i ever imagined, this is the only house any of them have ever known their mom to live in. it has been hers for 51 years. the kids have to decide who will take what, what to donate and what just get rid of. although this all doesn't have to take place now, there are certain things that do need to be taken care of right away...like the food that remains in the house.

yesterday they began that job. matt brought home a very full box of food, 4 cases of water, 2 cases of diet coke and a fancy glass bottle of water. as i looked at these items, i was reminded of what a sweet and thoughtful woman my mother in law was. its amazing how something like a box of cookies or bag of chips can take you to a different place, a distant memory.

she had a combined total of 25 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. she knew what each person liked to snack on, what they liked to drink. she made sure she had plenty on hand, just in case any of us happened to stop by. she knew i preferred diet coke over diet pepsi. she knew levi and matt loved green tea and taylor was a water drinker. she was always stocked up on all of these things, just in case we came over for a visit.

as matt and i put our goods away in our kitchen, i thought about how she always had something for us to drink or to snack on when we just stopped by. i thought about my friends and family. do i know what they like to drink? do i have those things on hand? do i stop what i'm doing to make that friend or family member feel welcome when they stop by?

i really hope that as we sort through the things in her life, we not only see deeper layers of who she was, but that we also grow in ways that make us just like her.