Turkey noodle soup

Aaah, leftovers. One of the best parts of Thanksgiving.

Tonight we had a turkey noodle soup - homemade turkey stock from the turkey carcass, onions, celery, carrots, turkey, and egg noodles. The big kind, of course.

I spent most of the day making Christmas cookies. Nearly all of the recipes come from my first edition Betty Crocker, published in 1950. It has a LOT more recipes than the newer edition. My favorite Christmas cookie recipe is an alternative to the "key" recipe.

Merry Christmas Cookies - Light Dough
1/3 c shortening
1/3 c sugar
1 egg
2/3 c honey
2 3/4 c sifted flour (I don't sift and it works fine)
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
(the recipe calls for 1 tsp lemon extract, but I like the cookies better without it)

Cream shortening and sugar, add egg and honey and mix well. Sift together flour, soda, and salt and add slowly to wet ingredients. (I do sift at this point so I don't wind up with a big clump of soda in my cookies.)

Chill, roll out and cut into shapes. Bake until lightly browned. Cool and decorate if desired.

This is a very forgiving dough - the instructions call for rolling thick (1/4"), but I usually roll thinner. It holds together very well when rolling - I always roll between two sheets of wax paper - without too much added flour.

I love these cookies, but the rest of my family doesn't care for them much. So, I bake them at Christmas, enjoy and share them.

Cheese & Crackers

Really, who wants to seriously cook the day after Thanksgiving???

Thanksgiving dinner was great - turkey, macaroni & cheese, 2 kinds of dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, asparagus, and raw vegetables. Three pies - pecan, chocolate, and lemon. All taste wonderful, but the lemon meringue filling is not as firm as it could be.

Soup and Salad

Brought to you courtesy of Small Man. I'm not sure what prompted this - it was the Cars soup for the soup, but he told me "I LOVE lettuce!" in the produce aisle, which I had no idea about. And he ate a whole bowl of lettuce. TMOTH and I had fancy greens for our salad, and Phillips cream of crab soup. Yum :)

Dinner has been going steadily downhill lately, and I've tried to reverse it starting this week. Posting on here should at least keep me accountable.

For Thanksgiving, I have the turkey in the freezer and need to go clean out the fridge to make room for it to thaw. I have cornmeal to make cornbread for dressing and Wednesday night bean soup. I have an Oreo crust and humongo chocolate bars from Trader Joe's to make chocolate pie. I have potatoes and sweet potatoes and marshmallows and green beans. (No cream of mushroom soup, though. Real mushrooms and white sauce for MY green bean casserole.) I need to check on the supply of eggs and flour and sugar, and I know I need cream.