When Alaska days get short and the temperatures drop, I get a hankering for comfort food ... I'd been thinking about turkey soup for a while now, but when I went to the store last night, the only suitable turkey offered was a family pack, on special ... with nine turkey legs in it! What to do? The price was right, so I put it in my shopping cart, bought a locally made loaf of "spent grain" bread, using grains from a local brewery, and selected the vegetables.

A 2 lb. bag of Alaska carrots
A big stalk of celery
5 small Yukon Gold potatoes
1 good sized rutabaga
2 small white turnips
2 fat parsnips
2 leeks
1 medium onion

Four turkey legs went back into the freezer. Three were roasted in the oven for turkey and gravy and for sandwiches. The last two went into a big Dutch oven with one stalk of the celery and all the celery leaves, the medium onion (peeled and chopped) and a couple of carrots (also peeled and chopped). A little salt, some poultry seasoning and some parsley flakes from my pantry went into the big pot, too.

When the turkey in the stewpot was done, I took the meat off the bones (about 2 cups), flaked it and put it into a refrigerator container. I strained the broth, squeezing the juice out of the vegetables to get all the flavor, and adding it back into the broth.

I reheated the broth with a little more salt and a good spoonful of curry powder and tossed in a couple of handfuls of brown rice. I peeled the carrots, reserving a couple to eat raw, sliced the rest into "coins" and added them to the pot. I brushed the potatoes, leaving the skins on, diced them and added them. I peeled and diced the rutabaga and then the turnips, adding them as soon as they were prepared. I peeled and chopped the parsnips, cleaned the leeks and sliced them into thin, round slices. I cleaned and chopped three stalks of celery, adding them at all at once, along with a couple of shakes of cayenne pepper.

I adjusted the salt and let everything get hot. I could have added some peas, but it seemed green enough and the pot was now full ... almost too full for the turkey that was waiting in the refrigerator. I "tested" a bowlful and found it good. Tomorrow, it will be even better, once the flavors have "married."