Turkey and Noodle Soup (With Thanksgiving Leftovers)

I used our Thanksgiving turkey bones to make stock. 

Then I used that homemade stock and our leftover turkey slices in this recipe. 

Ingredients:

Olive oil 

4 cups of turkey stock

2-3 cups of leftover turkey pieces, sliced

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1/2 bag of large egg noodles

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat your pot on medium heat. 

Pour in olive oil and onions and celery. Cook until veggies are softened. 

Add turkey stock, salt, pepper, and fresh, chopped parsley. (You could also add the salt, pepper, and parsley at the end.) 

Add carrots and cooked turkey chunks and let the soup simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes. 

Then add egg noodles and let them cook another six to eight minutes. 

Turn off the heat and the soup sit for about five minutes to cool a little before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Sourdough Continued

 

I've made two loaves of sourdough this week, and I'm planning to make another this weekend.

I've started scouring my dough with a design. 

I do not like my current bread lame with a long handle, so much so, that I prefer to take the razor off it and hold the razor between my fingers to scour. 

So I've ordered a small lame with a retractable razor to use for scoring instead. I look forward to using that once it comes in the mail. 

The Perfect Boulden Beef Stew

I've been trying different beef stew recipes for decades. I finally created one that is perfect for my family's tastes. 

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Approx. 1/8- 1/4 cup dry red wine

1/8-1/4 cup Arrowroot powder

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

Two large carrots, peeled and chopped

1-2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into smaller pieces and sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking

Four medium Russet potatoes or two large, cleaned, partially peeled, and chopped

Approx. 4 cups beef broth

Kosher salt and fresh cracker pepper to taste

Two tablespoons dried thyme

1/4 cup frozen peas

Directions:

Heat a pot on medium heat and add a generous amount of olive oil to the bottom. 

I like to use an enameled pot, so I can see the star develop on the bottom of the pot as the beef sears. 

Sear the beef pieces. Let them cook as long as necessary to get rid of all water. Turn them as often as necessary. Allow them to get a bit charred, and the oil and beef bits on the bottom of the pan to char, but not burn. 

Pour 1/8-1/4 cup of wine in. let it sizzle and stir the beef around to releasing the char from the bottom of the pan. This will flavor your stock. 

Add your chopped onions and allow them to cook for a few minutes, stirring as necessary.

Sprinkle in the 1/8-1/4 cup of arrowroot powder and stir everything together. 

Now add your broth, carrots, potatoes, salt, pepper, and dried thyme. 

Cover and simmer on low until the carrots are soft when poked with a fork. 

Turn off the heat and add the frozen peas and stir. 

Allow the soup to sit for several minutes uncovered before serving, so the peas thaw and the soup isn't too hot. 

Enjoy! 

 

Leisure Time Not Screen Time

When we take time off school during the holiday, we do not allow the girls to fill that leisure time with screens. 

No games. No movies, etc. 

This has been the case all along. 

And since what we say goes, the girls don't fuss. 

But with all the leisure time, the girls are often bored enough to be interested in doing real things. 

Case in point: Over the holiday break, Adele finished a miniature garden house. 

This sits between the books on her bookshelf. 

It's magical! 

Preparing for Christmas 2025

We always decorate for Christmas on the days following Thanksgiving. 

We have Advent traditions that begin on December 1, so we like to have the house ready when those begin. 

There are many decorations that the kids look forward to seeing again. 

But decorating in and of itself has become a tradition, too. 

This is so much so that the girls were eager to help without even being asked this year. 

Sometime after breakfast the day after Thanksgiving, we all get dressed with shoes on. 

Dwayne goes up to the attic and with help from our girls, now that they are big enough to catch and carry boxes coming from the attic, he brings down the tree and the several boxes and Tupperwares filled with Christmas items. 

We turn on Christmas music. 

In years past, we would play our Christmas CDs starting with Jars of Clay's "Little Drummer Boy." 

But this year, we actually switched things up and played our Christmas records. 

With the music on, we all get to work. 

We always have to rearrange furniture in order to fit the tree in the living room. 

This year, you can see in the pictures, we put the tree in front of the bookshelves where my computer desk usually sits. 

Note: We haven't put the angel on the tree yet. We've decided to wait and put her up on the first night of Advent. 

As we rearrange furniture and set up the tree, we also take the opportunity to sweep, mop, dust and reorganize thoroughly. 

I take the opportunity to purge, throwing away old magazines and papers and donating books we don't want anymore, etc.  

I reorganize closets and drawers as we take items to them. 

We have so much decor, that we have to get rid of our regular, everyday knick-knacks to make room for all the Christmas items.  

So, as we unpack Christmas decor from tissue paper, we take down our knick- knacks and wrap those in the same tissue paper and pack them carefully away in the Christmas boxes to go back to the attic until we take all the Christmas decor back down sometime January, maybe. 

Last year, we added a smaller tree with colorful lights in the homeschool classroom.  

It's a lot of work to decorate for Christmas, but the house ends up totally reset and refreshed.  

All our feet end up aching, but when we finally sit down, the house ends up clean and reorganized and beautiful. 

 

Poetry for Neanderthals

New game this day. 

Big hit with fam. 

Man and I, one team. 

Girls, one team. 

Neck and neck whole time. 

Man says, "North and East. Part of here. Soup." 

"Clam Chowder!" I yell. 

For the win. 

High five. 

Girls in awe. 

Much years one flesh. 

Now one mind.

Thanksgiving 2025

 Happy Thanksgiving!