Leftover Turkey? Save 'Dem Bones!

Last week I went to Orson Gygi's for a R.S. homemaking outing. It was fun using their test kitchen to check out a few leftover turkey recipes. This one gets a thumbs-up (sorry, I don't have a picture).

Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
Serves 6-8

2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 celery rib, chopped
3 cups white cooking wine
2 onions, chopped
1 turkey carcass
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup wild rice
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup flour
3 cups chopped cooked turkey
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook onions and celery until lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Add turkey carcass, cooking wine and chicken broth. Simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. In a large bowl, strain broth, discarding all solids.
Wipe out Dutch oven and toast rice over medium heat until rice begins to pop, 5-7 minutes. Stir in turkey broth, carrots, thyme and baking soda; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 1 hour.
Whisk flour and cream in a bowl until smooth. Slowly whisk flour mixture into soup. Add turkey and simmer until soup is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if desired (the soup I tasted was just a little too salty for my taste, so be careful when adding extra salt).
After thinking this may have been an original recipe (not mine though) I just found this post, and the only difference is the amount of carrots (4 instead of 2). There's a picture on that post, but it might scare you away from trying this recipe. It doesn't look great, but it does taste great.

Black Friday or I Need a Nap

Did you get up during the middle of the night to get to the front of the line at Kohl's which opened at 4AM? Or did you decide to just never even go to bed last night because you went shopping at midnight at the mall in your pajamas (South Towne in Sandy sponsored that one). Or did you start your shopping yesterday afternoon at someplace like K-Mart? Yeah, probably not.
After dinner lunch yesterday, Bud and I drove to St. George so that Karen and I would be in the same town together for Black Friday, as tradition mandates. Usually, we're already in St. George on Thanksgiving day and we have to go on an all-out citywide hunt for a newspaper so we can do our homework and plan out our timeline- which store in which order.
Last year, my early morning purchase was for my turkey (remember I spared you from the boring story yesterday?) by my fireplace. One excellent thing we found last year was this little treasure.
Unbelievably delicious!
This year, since I've already not only purchased the gifts for my out-of-state grandkids, but I've also mailed everything to them (talk about no last-minute panic here!) I had very little to shop for today.
What was on your list of things to hunt down today? Or, did you avoid the malls and all shopping like the plague? And is there anyone out there who has been listening to Christmas music for several weeks already? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I guess I'm the only one.

Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband. He means everything to me. I'm thankful for my children, for their mates, and for their children whom I adore. I'm thankful for my sweet mother and my siblings. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for a living prophet. I'm thankful for the gospel. I'm thankful for repentance and forgiveness. What are you thankful for?

I realize that I haven't shown you my Thanksgiving decorations. Since today is the official day of thanks, what better time than now to show you? I love these word blocks that I get (or sometimes commission someone else to get for me) from Krumpets in St. George.
This adorable guy was from Taipan Trading on Black Friday from last year. There's an entire story that goes with it, but it's a boring story so I'll spare you the details.
Originally, I bought him for the porch, but when we left on our trip, I didn't want to leave him unsupervised, so I put him here. Then I enjoyed him so much inside, I couldn't put him back outside, so here he stays.
More word blocks, and a crocheted turkey that my mom gave me several years ago.

This scarecrow is from a R.S. project from my Chino days. He's been around awhile, but is still holding up well.

Another bit of cuteness from Krumpets.

This is a boring piece, but it was all I had for the door. (Note to self: Must find something better for next year.)

MORE word blocks from you know where...

And, I can hardly wait until it's time to take all that down and put up super cute stuff like this guy!
I have so much to be thankful for. I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

Santorini, Greece

Did you know that Greek is the spoken language of Greece? I know, it's hard to imagine.
The capital of Santorini is Fira. That's the town you see up there on the cliff. The city was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1956. Quick quiz...who do you know that was born in 1956?
They tuck houses in wherever they can.
If you revisit this pre-post of Santorini, you will see a picture from this same spot, except Bud isn't sitting on the wall.

This looks like a door going to nowhere. It's actually leading to a stairway going down to a restaurant.
Looking over that wall, you can see our mode of transportation, Splendour of the Seas.
We just wandered around the town of Fira for a couple of hours. I guess the big attraction would have been to head over to Oia (pronounced Ee-ah), but we didn't do that.

However, our tablemates did go to Oia and I checked out Rex's pictures. His pictures aren't on my post.

This was the entry to an art museum.
And, the exit of the museum. Just want you to know that I've got all the angles covered.
This is a Catholic church. I loved the powder-blue walls.
This is the sidewalk just outside of the church. Isn't that cool?


So you're probably wondering how we got up to the city. There are a couple of options. This cable car was our choice. Good thing that the 1956 birthday person wasn't with us. She wouldn't have gotten in the cable car, I guarantee it. Another way to get up there is to walk, like this fellow in the blue shirt. If you walk though, you have to share the pathway with these guys...

Or you can just ride one up (or down, depending on which way you're headed).
This reminds me of the old Mervyn's commercial "Open, open, open"

What do you think he's thinking?
He's probably thinking he's glad I'm only taking his picture instead of climbing on his back.

Kusadasi, Turkey

I was wrong yesterday when I said that today would be Greece. If I'm taking you in order the way we went on the cruise, then Turkey is next. And here you thought Turkey day was on Thursday. Oh, different turkey.
The name of the port is Kusadasi, but the first "s" should have a little dangly thing hanging off the bottom of it and you say it Koosh-ah-dah-see. This was Bud's favorite place on our trip.
Here's the harbor.
After a short bus ride we arrived in Ephesus (think New Testament and Paul). It is the most ancient city in the world- so I'm told. It was founded in 3000 BC and houses one of the best collections of remains dating from Roman and early Christian times. It was the second largest city of the Roman Empire.


This amphitheater is the smaller of the two in the city.

The original stones are the lower rows. The upper rows have been replicated.



This is Nike. Just do it.

Awesome mosaic floor that they used for the sidewalk!


Guess what this is? We were told that the slaves (or lower class) were sent out in the morning to warm up the "toilets" so the rich people wouldn't freeze their tushies.

This is the grand library. I didn't see any books to check out though. How strange!

This is the big amphitheater. Several thousand people can fit in here, and they actually still give concerts here, including Elton John, and Sting (oops, Sting's concert dislodged some of the stones due to the sound/vibration).

Turkey is famous for its carpets. This young lady was working so fast on this carpet that it was a blur to the eye.

Here's the sales pitch.

And, a couple of signs that made me laugh...

Smoking seriously harms you and others around you, smoking causes fatal lung cancer, smokers die younger, and if that's too vague, Smoking kills!
However, maybe no one over there can read English, because it seems like they all smoke! And while I'm on the subject, we learned that 1 in every 3 cigarettes are smoked in China! Crazy. I'm glad China isn't on my bucket list!

A Day on the Boat

One of my favorite things about cruising is making my own ice cream cone (no, it's not really ice cream, it's frozen yogurt). Bud tries to make his too, but he never worked at Fosters Freeze, so he's lacking a little in the technique department.

As you can see, we didn't come home from the cruise with a suntan! In fact, I never even put my swimsuit on until we were at the hotel in Paris.
Now here's the story with the cabin room. The room on the left was the first cabin we had. It was terrible. It was right next to the pool equipment room, and there was always a terrible noise and vibration in the room because of that. We were told the ship was completely full and there were no rooms to switch us to. However, it was just a matter of getting the attention of the right guy, because on the second day, we were moved to the room on the right. We went from an inside room (yes, claustrophobia and all) to an outside cabin with a window (lovely!). The first room was the smallest cabin I have EVER been in. It was crazy. We were very grateful to Rodrigo, the crew member who had to give up his lovely room to us. Thanks Rodrigo.



























I love the creativity you see in the melon carvings.



















If you haven't started cruising yet, seriously, what's keeping you from it? We're thinking that next year might be a New England/ Canada trip. Tomorrow I'll show you our first stop in Greece.