The holiday preparation continues! I've decided to do a lot of baking this year, because Christmas cookies are awesome. Last year I made my chocoholic brother a batch of fudge. He loved it, but later that day he said to me, "You know what else is really good in fudge? Walnuts." (Nut allergies run in my family and I couldn't remember if he was one of the people contending with it, so I left them out).

So this year I'm making fudge with walnuts, fudge without (for my niece, who is allergic), candied orange peels (because they're festive and very, very easy), spicy gingerbread cookies, jam thumbprints (they're a family tradition), and a riff on Northern European Christmas breads.

I'm also making Christmas cards. My roommate and I are going to buy craft paper, glue, and other card-making supplies tonight. And then tomorrow I'm going to put a big pot of soup on, make a loaf of bread, turn on some Christmas music, and we'll make cards. That should be fun :)

Today I bought supplies for making the fudge and the candied orange peels, since those are things that will keep well for a long time. I also took a trip to my neighborhood thrift store. I saw a lot of stuff that would be really cute and useful with a coat of paint, but decided to wait on any new projects. I did buy a CD of Celtic holiday music (which I'm listening to right now), a whisk, and a working Sunbeam electric hand-mixer (I've had my eye out for an electric mixer for a while). My total was $7, not bad at all. I love finding treasures. 

Turkey Broth

Today I'm making turkey broth, and lots of it. I had a turkey carcass in the freezer left over from Thanksgiving and I was sick of looking at it, so last night I threw it into a crock pot and covered it with water. It cooked overnight and all day I've been straining liquid into wide-mouthed jars, letting them cool, and then chilling them in the fridge.

The idea is that chilling the broth makes the fat rise to the surface. I then remove the jars from the fridge, skim off the fat, and store THAT in it's own special jar (labelled "schmaltz". It'll be fun to cook things in turkey fat). Then I pour the broth into ice-cube trays and freeze it. The broth cubes then go into a specially labelled freezer bag, for later use in soups and stews. I like this storage method, because it's easy to pull out a bag and grab however much I need. I don't have to worry about defrosting a huge block of broth, or about it spoiling. Win win.

I also organized my part of the freezer and found:

• a freezer bag full of the remainders of several bags of commercial frozen vegetables (there was broccoli, green beans, peas, and carrots)
• a freezer bag full of lemons, already halved and juices squeezed out
• a bag labelled with my name and the words "veg stock" it had some celery tops and the ends of onions in it.
• a bag of chicken stock
• a tupperware container full of cooked chicken pieces
• a tupperware container full of cranberry sauce
• an opened bag of frozen shelled edamame
• a container of yogurt, which didn't freeze to the consistency I expected and is now thawing in the fridge.
• half a gallon of ice-cream
• a serving of lentil soup

And now there's turkey broth and a bag full of cooked turkey pieces that I picked off the carcass.

One of these days I'm going to have a week where I just cook out of my pantry and freezer. I'm sure it would be good eats.