No wait, Beth, you say, bemused and bewildered, you've got it wrong. It's called turkey day, not turkey week.

But that's where you have it wrong. In the Beth and Phil house (or rather, apartment), it is turkey week. I'm having so much fun with it, I may do it every year.

A Compleat History of Turkey Weeke

Once upon a time there was a young, very hot, knitter named Beth. In addition to knitting, she liked to cook. One day, when our heroine was at the market (the grocery store to all you non-East coasters) after the holidays, she saw a sign that indicated turkeys were on sale. She pulled her Faithful Sidekick, Phil, closer to the plump foul and peered at them, astounded by what she saw.

"Phil," the young, very hot, Beth said, "They're ten dollars!"

"We don't need a turkey," said the Faithful Sidekick.

So Beth put one in their basket.

During the walk home, while Phil carried the turkey, Beth developed a plan. "There are but two of us," thought she, "but this turkey is fourteen pounds. Maybe I should make the turkey one day, and make turkey related recipes for the rest of the week." She broached the idea to the F.S. and he said "sure," which in sidekick language means "I don't care; you do all the cooking. Also I love you and you are awesome"

Turkey Week Arrives

So yesterday turkey week began. There are five days of recipes, which I will now share.

Monday: Roast Turkey
I'm not going to provide the recipe for roast turkey. If you don't have a basic cookbook to find one for yourself, go out and buy the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. No one should be without one. It guided me through my first ever turkey yesterday from cleaning to carving.

I stuffed my turkey with onions, carrots and celery for some flavor, and I made a basic gravy. We had a lot of turkey, so I didn't make any other sides (also, Phil got home earlier than I thought he would). You may want to add stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, or whatever is standard for you on the "other" turkey day.

Monday Night: Turkey Soup

I carved the turkey right away and put all uneaten meat in a huge tupperware bowl. I took the bones (minus the legs)and put them in the crockpot. We have a huge crockpot, so I didn't have to break it up, but of course that is easy if your crockpot is smaller. Here is how to make turkey soup for turkey week.

Ingredients

1 turkey carcass, carved and mostly de-meated

Any leftover veggies from the meal but you should have at least

1/2 onion
2 carrots
2 celery sticks

Leftover gravy

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Chuck it all in the crockpot and fill with water until carcass is covered. Set on ten hours and go to bed. In the morning, debone the soup and put in containers to be frozen. I like to use it either as stock (although normally I have chicken bones) or a soup. If you decide to use it as a soup, throw in some rice (cooked, preferably). You may want to add some spices, as well.

Tuesday: Pulled, Barbeque Turkey

Today is the second day, as well as the last day of participation for the crockpot (based on the fact that I go to Chicks with Sticks on Monday nights and work on Tuesdays. I rather needed the crockpot for these days of turkey week, to ensure Phil's food was warm).

Ingredients

Dark turkey meat from roast turkey day (the two legs were enough for us)

1 bottle barbeque sauce

Bread of choice

Directions

Pull the meat off the bones and, after emptying the crockpot of soup, put it in there. Pour in the bottle of sauce. Set it to about 8 hours on low. When dinner time rolls around (or because you are "testing it"), stir the turkey in the crockpot to make sure it is "pulled." It should be sort of stringy. Make your sandwiches and go to town. We will be having salad as our side, but of course there are many good veggies for pulled turkey. Green beans, corn, or even just steamed mixed veggies sounds pretty good (but we don't have any).

Tomorrow I'll post the recipe for turkey rolls (a recipe that comes from Phil's family and rocks hard core awesome).