Turkey Soup

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen cutting, scraping, simmering and picking and ended up with some very good Turkey Soup. Tami gave me the bones of yesterday's bird and today my kitchen smelled wonderful. I made soup after Thanksgiving for many years but when we started having turkey at one of our kids' houses, I lost the left-overs and the soup. Thank you, Tami. You didn't have to pick the bones and we had supper. I also have two 9 cup containers and two 6 cup containers filled to put in the freezer.

Recipe...
One turkey carcass
Celery
Onion
Carrots
Salt
Pepper
Barley
Rice

Put the turkey, a couple of stalks of celery, half of a large onion - cut up, a couple of carrots - chunked, about 1 teaspoon of ground pepper and salt in a big pot. Add enough water to cover everything. I have a stock pot that is just perfect. It is tall, holds a lot but isn't larger than my large burner.

Bring to a boil then simmer for two hours. Fish all of the solids out of the stock. Make sure to get all of the little bones that end up on the bottom. Strain if necessary. Drain.

Add 1-1/2 cups barley and 1 cup rice (not Jasmine - it is too soft), 2 carrots, 1/2 onion, and a couple stalks of celery - all cut in small pieces - to the stock. Add additional salt and pepper if needed. Bring it back to a boil and cook for about 1/2 hour - until the barley is soft.

When it is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the rest. Save the meat; give the soft stuff to your dog; throw the bones away. It takes about that much time to pick out the meat. When the barley is done, add the meat and eat.