After Thanksgiving dinner I carved most of the meat off the carcass and
then put the remnants into a two-gallon stock pot and commenced to
simmering the stuff down. A whole onion and a handful of bay leaves also
went into the pot. Brought to a simmer and allowed to cook for a couple
of three hours. Then cooled down on the stove top and then into the
fridge overnight.

Friday I put on the surgical gloves, skimmed most of the fat and
injected butter from the top of the pot, then deboned the carcass meat.
Fished out the onion and the bay leaves and put up two and half gallons
of nicely gelatinous turkey stoup (lots of meat in there), all went into
the freezer in labeled containers. Means a good bit of soup this winter
to us. All of this was from a free twenty-pound turkey daughter had
gotten and brought, thawed to the house on Wednesday. I vacuum sealed
the meat and froze it and she took it home with her Thursday night in
the cooler. Lots of meals for she and her husband and stepson, although
they don't particularly like turkey. I also gave son-in-law, who is
trying to be a better cook, lots of recipes using turkey.

The last of the cornbread dressing will be eaten today along with some
sliced ham, twice baked potatoes, and some leftover black eyed peas. The
hambone now resides in the freezer awaiting a marriage with some sort of
beans on a future evening. All is well, we're alone again with no noisy
descendants lying about devouring all goodies in sight. We will miss
them and wish to see them again until they show up, then we're glad to
see them leave. Sometimes I think our kids grew up to quick, the last
one flew the nest in 1980, but they're good, responsible citizens and
that's all you can ask of them.