Everything but the gobble

Going from this...

To this...

Takes all morning on the stove. And I'll spare you the in-between picture, when the turkey carcass cooks down into a slimy grey mess. It looks even worse than one of those 1950's jello salads!  But after straining you're left with a delicious healthy broth, a base for many kinds of soup. 

The "Private Selection" frugal turkey finally comes to a frugal end. Our ancestors would be proud--we ate everything but the gobble.

Bone broth is in fashion because it has all sorts of heath benefits. The long simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds and minerals, including glucosamine and our old friend, gelatin, formed by the breakdown of collagen.  That's why a good chilled turkey broth is all thick and jiggly.

The weather was so miserable yesterday. I was lucky I could just stay home, cooking and puttering around the house. It was a long day, but not particularly boring.  We grew up in a different time, when being bored was a simple fact of childhood.

Most kids nowadays are kept so busy they don't have the chance to experience boredom, which is a shame, because I think it builds character. But that's just a cranky senior citizen talking. Kids today also have experiences we never dreamed of, and I don't begrudge them that.

Here's a little poem on the subject from the Writer's Almanac:

To Boredom

I’m the child of rainy Sundays.
I watched time crawl
Like an injured fly
Over the wet windowpane.
Or waited for a branch
On a tree to stop shaking,
While Grandmother knitted
Making a ball of yarn
Roll over like a kitten at her feet.
I knew every clock in the house
Had stopped ticking
And that this day will last forever.

Charles Simic