Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....

Take two pounds of turkey carcai...

Toss in six or seven leftover sweet potatoes...

Oh, and for the heck of it some ravioli remnants...

That's how we spent our Saturday with our friends the D's... resourcefully redeploying leftovers.

John learned how to make stock at a weekend class at the California Culinary Academy... a program they apparently discontinued last spring, so there's no link to provide. The class was a great investment... he's kept us "in stock" of many varieties ever since. And when Thursday's adventure produced several pounds of turkey bones, he knew exactly how to deploy them.

While the stock simmered, we moved to the sweet potatoes. We fell in love with them on our virgin visit to The Counter. So we fired up the deep fryer, pulled out the mandolin and turned to the Internets looking for possible spice combinations. We settled on a slight variation of Kalyn's suggestion, omitting the fennel because I'm not a fan, and substituting a blend of chipotle and paprika for the aleppo since I didn't have any of the latter on hand. The result: mighty close to the target, quite tasty, and definitely worth repeating when we're looking for something that combines comfort food, indulgence and a bit of a twist.

While we roasted turkey parts and fried potatoes, we put the kids to work with the leftover ravioli fixings. With a minimum of instruction, they rolled the pasta, formed and stuffed the ravioli and once again loaded the sink with discarded dishes.

All in all, a productive afternoon.

Technorati Tags: Leftover Tuesday | NaBloPoMo 2007