I nearly always make the soup out of a turkey carcass.  Most often I don't make the soup immediately after having a turkey; instead, I freeze the carcass and make the soup a couple of weeks later.  By freezing the carcass I can spare us from turkey overload.

Making the soup is pretty easy, although, it does take a full day to cook.  To begin, I put the turkey carcass, or chicken legs, and beef bones in the largest pot I have and cover with water.  This simmers for 2-3 hours until all of the meat has fallen off of the bones.  If using a turkey carcass you must cook it until it literally falls apart in the pot.  The next step is the most time consuming. It involves straining the broth and sorting through the bones to keep the meat and toss the bones.  Once this step is done the rest is easy.  I add a quart of diced tomatoes, and about two cups each of carrots, celery, and onions combined with 2 cans each of beans, corn, peas and lima beans (frozen would be ok to).  I then add a rather hefty amount of pepper and let everything cook another 3 hours or so.  During the last hour of cooking I add diced potatoes.  Additional seasonings are minimal with some chicken and/or beef bouillon, if needed, and salt/pepper to taste just before serving.  The amounts for all ingredients are really flexible depending on what I have in the house.

I love the soup for a number of reasons.  Probably most importantly it reminds me of growing up, holidays with my family, and my mom cooking.  But I also just love its taste.  I tend to smother the soup with oyster crackers but they are not really necessary; the soup is great on its own and best of all it uses up that last bit of Turkey!

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