The blizzard and a turkey soup recipe.

The wind is howling outdoors and the snow

has been coming down like crazy all day.  Compared to recent chilly temperatures around zero, today is a balmy 25 degrees.  A cold snowy day is the perfect day for a bowl of hot homemade soup!

I kept the birds fed during the storm but as dusk fell, they found shelter.  This poor cardinal was hanging on while being wind blown.

The red-bellied woodpecker came to the feeder late in the day.

This is an old recipe out of the Rumford Complete Cook Book dated 1931.

Using the leftovers from our Christmas turkey, we covered the carcass with water and simmered for about two hours.  

The recipe suggests putting a stock of celery and an onion in the stock while simmering.  I opted to leave the celery out and I will add my onion later on.

Strain the stock from the turkey.  Discard the carcass.  

Clean the turkey by removing any remaining bones.  This can be tedious but it's worth it!

While the recipe calls for extract of beef, I left it out.  

The soup smells wonderful at this point!

Onions are added for additional flavor as the soup continues to simmer.

We added a cup of carrots in lieu of the celery.

Continue to simmer.

Pre cook a cup of brown rice and add to the soup.  The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons which doesn't seem like enough.  Continue simmering for another hour.

Ladle into a bowl and enjoy!  Serve with bread or croutons if you like.  A thanks to my husband w.ho makes this whenever we cook a turkey.

While we were enjoying our soup, the cat was enjoying watching the birds in the snow.  We have about 15 inches of fluffy snow so far.  It's winter in New England!