Turkey/Rice Soup and Black Bean/Corn Salad

Tonight's dinner was all winged...no recipes. Turkey/Rice Soup with a Black Bean and Corn Salad. No real recipes. This is what I did.

First, put the turkey carcass in with some onions, carrots, celery, fresh parsley and thyme, peppercorns and almost covered with water. Brought to a boil and then immediately brought to a simmer for about 4 hours. About half way through I kinda stirred the carcass around to get it mixed up. About this time I tasted the broth and added a bit of kosher salt and some Knorr's chicken broth to bring up the flavor. After about the 4 hours, I lined a sieve with cheesecloth, poured everything through it into another stock pot. I let cool, then cleaned the carcass for meat for The Girls.

I let the broth cool in the frig to form a layer of fat and skimmed it off. Then I put a couple of cups of broth in a pan with about a quarter cup of wild rice and brown Texmati rice, brought to a boil, then let simmer for about 45 minutes or until the rice was cooked.

In the meantime, I chopped up a stalk of celery (with leaves) , half of a sweet onion, a couple of carrots, and a couple of cloves of garlic. I threw all this in with several cups of turkey broth and cooked until almost done. I added about a cup of diced turkey and then the cooked rice (along with remaining broth) to the original broth. That's it. Taste it and serve with done.

I served this with another off-the-cuff salad: Corn and Black Bean. I had a package of frozen corn and thawed out about half of it. I drained a can of black beans and rinsed them. Chopped up some red onions, red pepper, and cilantro. I whisked together 3 Tbsp canola oil, 1 1/2 Tbsp white wine vinegar, some S&P, some Durkee Ethnic Seasoning (southwest....cumin, chili powder, etc) and poured it and stirred the salad.

I served this with my new favorite Pepperidge Farm Artisan Whole Grain Rolls. It was a really nice dinner.