1. Shortly before eight o'clock I climbed in the Sube and flashed out to Kingston. Ed and I piled into his pickup and hurtled to CdA and met Stu for breakfast at IHOP. I enjoyed my biscuit and gravy with scrambled eggs and hash browns and it was fun getting to yak with Ed and Stu.
After eating, Ed and I went to Kohl's. I cold tell my current pair of walking shoes were pretty much used up because both my big toes were starting to snarl at me at night so I bought a new pair rather than confront that recurring problem of having my big toes get all inflamed and swollen, which they do when my shoes either don't fit quite right or are worn out. Ed picked out a black blazer for Nancy and, as luck would have it, Sue Wise happened to stroll by and Ed asked her to try on the blazer, thinking Sue and Nancy wear about the same size. Ed and I left Kohl's with our mission accomplished and after a quick stop at Buffalo Wild Wings where Ed bought a gift certificate, we headed back to the Silver Valley.
2. Back home, I took out the turkey breast to make sure it was thawed out (it was) and I set it out so it would warm up to room temperature. I cooked the turkey breast like a pot roast. After I buttered and salt and peppered it and covered it with ground sage, I put the turkey, breast side down, in the Dutch oven over high heat and seared it in melted butter. I took it out, put it on a plate, and covered the bottom of the Dutch oven with turkey broth, chopped onions, and dried rosemary. I returned the turkey to the Dutch oven, covered it, and roasted it for an hour at 325 degrees.
After an hour, I took it out, stuck a meat thermometer in the bird, and poured a load of carrot and celery pieces into the Dutch oven and covered them with the liquid bubbling up around the turkey. In another hour, the turkey was roasted. I removed it from the Dutch oven to rest for a half an hour and poured the liquid and the vegetable into the other Dutch oven to provide the foundation for the turkey soup, the reason for roasting this turkey in the first place.
Once the turkey was rested, I sliced pieces off of it, chopped them up, added the turkey to the broth and vegetables and added more of the broth I'd made earlier in the weekend. I boiled a batch of egg noodles in a separate pot, put them in the soup, and I made dumpling dough. Once I'd heated the soup to a steady simmering boil, I plopped the dough, tablespoon by tablespoon on to the soup's surface and covered it.
I got out the vegetarian chili I had left over and divided it into two pots. In one, I cut its chili powder intensity with red wine and in the other I heated up the chili untouched.
Earlier in afternoon, I had toasted almond slivers in a cast iron pan and put them on the bulgur, apple, and cranberry salad I made on Saturday. With the soup and chili ready to go, I got out the sweet potato cornbread muffins I made on Saturday, took them out of their wrappers, and put them back in the muffin tin and back in the oven at a low heat to warm them up for dinner.
3. Christy, Everett, Carol, and Paul arrived and I made them each a Lounge Lizard -- a new drink to me -- which is a rum and coke augmented with a splash of Amaretto. While the others visited and very much enjoyed their cocktail, I got the table set and took everyone's soup order and we all sat down to a dinner of turkey noodle soup with dumplings -- or chili --, the cinnamon-y bulgur salad dressed with a honey lemon yogurt dressing, and the cornbread muffins.
Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals. When I make turkey soup again, I'll probably make noodles or dumplings, but not necessarily both, but I love both and I might not be able to resist it. I'll get to make turkey soup again some time in the future because I have a lot of meat left over from the turkey breast I roasted today and lots of bones from today and from Thanksgiving to serve as the foundation for more turkey stock.
Since we are having a lighter meal on Christmas Day, maybe I could, with the approval of everyone, make turkey soup then.
By the way, making this dinner was time consuming, but I had a blast making so many things for the first time. Until Saturday and Sunday, I'd never roasted a turkey breast, never made dumplings, never baked and mashed sweet potatoes to serve as an ingredient in cornbread, and never made this particular bulgur salad.
I'd never mixed a Lounge Lizard before, either.
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