Text 7850, 96 rader
Skriven 2008-05-26 14:46:20 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
   Kommentar till text 7724 av Nancy Backus (34345.cooking)
Ärende: Turkey soup
===================
Hi Nancy,


 RH> We had Thanksgiving at mom's family & Christmas at my folks when I was
 RH> growing up.  In 1974, Steve had moved to NC and I was planning to go
 RH> see him over Thanksgiving break.  My parents said "not if your

 NB> Growing up, we had most holidays at home.  We did go once or twice to
 NB> my mom's parents for Thanksgiving, and a few years they came to have
 NB> it
 NB> with us, along with my mom's sister's family.  Of Thanksgiving and
 NB> Christmas, the latter was probably the more important to the family.


We've usually lived too far away to make it to family for the holidays.
The closest we managed to get assigned was Fort Devens, MA (about 35
miles west of Boston) but were only there for 6 months.  Once we had our
girls tho, I'd rather have stayed home and established holidays
(especially Christmas) with them. We've done a lot of that--and having
others as guests (single soldiers, new to the area people, etc)
instead of trying to make it to family for a visit that would entail
more time traveling than visiting.


 NB> Once I was going with Richard, I found that Thanksgiving was the
 NB> important one, for his grandparents, especially.  And by the time we
 NB> were married, Margit (his sister-in-law) had made Christmas Eve a
 NB> must-attend for the family.  So Thanksgivings were a Backus holiday,
 NB> and we split Christmas between the families... The Eve was Backus and

We never lived close enough to do that. With Steve's family in western
NY & mine in the Catskills, it meant a half days (or longer, depending
on stops) drive just to get to the other family.


 NB>  NB>> gone to bed...)  Thanksgiving night's ritual was the starting of
 NB> the  NB>> soup... putting the bones in to start simmering.  That had

 RH> My mom did the soup about a week or so after Thaksgiving/Christmas;
 RH> she got all the meals she could out of the bird first.

 NB> Mom usually had a fairly small bird, and it fed quite a few people, so
 NB> we'd strip the carcass down that night, and put aside anything
 NB> leftover for sandwiches etc for the next couple of days.  There wasn't
 NB> all that
 NB> much left usually anyway.  She was already doing that, before I
 NB> started boiling the bones for soup.  :)

My parents always got a bird big enough to feed us at least 4 or 5 meals
before it went into the soup pot.  With 5 kids, that was probably a good
sized bird.

 RH> Sounds good.  My mom always used white rice (one of the few times
 RH> she'd use rice) but we have always used brown. I use brown rice all the
 RH> time for everything; we even taught some Hawaiians how to use the rice
 RH> cooker for it.

 NB> I grew up with white rice, but I've always used brown, too...  I think
 NB> I switched over when the kid was little, maybe sooner, maybe when I
 NB> was
 NB> first on my own.  Haven't used a rice cooker, though.  I hear that
 NB> there are adjustments needed to use brown in a cooker, but I've only
 NB> done rice on the stove.  Somewhere along the line, I stopped boiling

It's so easy to use a cooker--as Carol and others (besides me) can tell
you. The only adjustment I made was just a bit more water--and enjoying
the convenience factor.(G)

 NB> my parents had taught me), and started just letting it simmer until
 NB> the broth is just about absorbed and then turning off the heat for the

I never boiled, just brought it to a boil, immediately turned the stove
to as low as it could go and ignored it until ready to serve. The rice
cooker frees up the stove top for other things.

 NB> rest to absorb.  If I was cooking just the rice by itself, I'd add a
 NB> couple
 NB> of cubes of bouillon, maybe some dry minced onion, and some butter...
 NB> but for a while now I've done it mostly with chicken or turkey, so I
 NB> omit the butter.  It never needs any sauce or gravy that way, either.

Instead of bullion, I use broth as it isn't as salty (home made has no
salt).  I don't add butter or anything else while cooking either so I
can use left overs in various ways.


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly@earthlink.net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... It's as easy as 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841!

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