Making some turkey pies for the freezer today. I use all the gravy, turkey, and some frozen vegetables, a few partially cooked diced potatoes and cut up carrots. Fill crust lined pie pans and cover with a crust. I like using the throw away aluminium foil "au Gratin' pans. These are a nice 'hearty' size and bake up in about an hour. Before filling each, I spread some margerine on the inside bottom crust to keep it from getting soggy when baking. They get put into Food Saver bags. Nice easy no mess meal for later on.

OK Boop I'm going to give you my family recipe I use and my disclaimer and warning, I never measure so I will try to get as close as I can but most of the time I follow the rule of start small and keep adding to taste. If you can get 2 cups of drippings, add 1 to 2 cups of chicken stock. Then add the turkey neck and the turkey butt to the pot. Next add poultry seasoning, sage, salt and pepper to taste. Normally I add a bit of poultry seasoning and sage, let it simmer for awhile and then add more to taste. Next add 3 to 4 boiled eggs cut up, about a tablespoon of butter and let the whole thing simmer on low to slightly medium until it finally starts a good rolling boil. During the cooking process, stir every now and then mostly to make sure that it is not sticking in the pan. When you have a good rolling boil, then add a little water to a cup and slowly add a tablespoon, possibly two, depending on how much gravy you wind up making, of flower and stir in the cup until it is smooth. If you add the flour slowly and stir into the water quickly, it won't be lumpy. Once you have a smooth non lumpy flour misture, pour this mixture into the gravy and again cook slowly until it comes to a boil. At this point then begin adding the additional poultry seasoning, sage and salt and pepper to taste and cook until thickened and that's it! It is really easy peasy and if you feel you have to measure the seasonings start with a teaspoon and keep adding until you get to get just the right taste level. If you get really stressed email me and I will give you my home number and I can walk you through it! Gobble gobble!!

Well, I've got to go with what my dad has always done in the past. I swear two 25-27 lbers served 50 people when we used to rent a hall for the entire family, and there *were* leftovers. But I guess my parents really like their sandwiches. As I said, my dad's a big eater. According to what I read online, smaller birds have more % bone so 2 lbs per person instead of 1.5 lbs is a better estimate, but *still* I'd think that 11.4 lbs would be enough for 5 adults (2 of them women who don't eat much, my mom would eat like 1 slice of breast meat and I eat the equivalent of 2 chicken thighs max and that's pigging out, won't eat again that day even if we have the big dinner at 2pm or so) and 1 very picky 11-yo. For example, my guys will eat 2 chicken thighs each if I make them, and serve them on the bone (I would normally only eat 1) but if I make soup like I did last night (30 minutes in pressure cooker), or a casserole of something with lots of "filler" then 4 thighs is more than enough for the 4 of us. Tonight I browned 1 lb of ground turkey, saved about 1/2 of it, used 2 quarts of beef broth, 2 cans of beans and some leftover spaghetti sauce with ditalini to make soup. We each had 2 bowls (DS and DH might have had 3, I wasn't counting), and I have more than a quart of soup left over (DD just ate some leftover noodles with plain browned meat). On The Washington Post site I found this quote "One of our staple resources in the Food section is the âÂÂChefâÂÂs Book of Formulas, Yields & Sizes,â by Arno Schmidt. The book says one 22-pound turkey will yield 12 pounds of roasted meat, including scraps, which equates to 22 servings �" lining up perfectly with the USDA guidance." which is 1 lb uncooked per person. That's just over 1/2lb of cooked boneless meat per serving. I'm sure the guys *could* eat 1 lb each (though DH and DS maybe less since there will be side dishes) but yeah, good estimate if they each have a sandwich later that night, there's 3 lbs. Mom, DD and I combined will eat 1.5lbs perhaps (that's with me pigging out b/c no way is DD going to eat 1/2lb of meat), there's 4.5 lbs of meat, no bones. If an 18 lb turkey yields 9-9.5 lbs of meat then we'll have about half left over, I would be fine with 2 lbs of leftovers for sandwiches(plus half the bones to make soup), that should last a week (DH and DS go through a lb of turkey lunchmeat each week but carved turkey is thicker, I think you tend to use more, and I'll be eating it too). That leaves 2.5 - 3 lbs or so (plus half the bones) leftover for my parents. So I really think 18 lbs is enough, no reason to buy 20 (4 lbs per adult!).

My DH loved the way this is prepared at an Italian restaurant we frequent, and I thought it must be simple to duplicate. Here's the photo from the restaurant version and then the one I made which tasted even better - guess I used more cream and maybe I poured on too much sauce for the photo. Turkey & Noodles in Curry Cream Sauce *********************************** 2 - 3 portions 1 lb turkey breast, cooked and cut into chunks butter - 1 heaping TBS flour - 1 heaping TBS milk - about 1 1/2 cups heavy cream - about 1 1/2 cups 1 chicken stock cube or spoonful of chicken bouillon mix 1 heaping TBS curry powder (I used Sharwoods's mild) fettuccini noodles for 2 - 3 servings fresh ground pepper butter 1) Put water on to boil for noodles. 2) If turkey is not already cooked, it can be done in microoven with 3 TBS water until just done 3) Melt butter in saucepan, take off stove and mix in flour to make a roux, gradually adding warmed milk a few drops at a time and stirring to keep smooth. 4) Put back on low heat and finish adding milk, then cream a little at a time and stirring. Crumble in chicken stock cube and curry powder. Stir to blend. 5) Add turkey chunks and heat gently, keeping warm while cooking noodles in pot of water. 6) Drain noodles, add butter and fresh ground black pepper. Pour sauce over noodles and mix. Serve on hot plates and add grated parmesan. Note: The Spanish and German chicken stock cubes and chicken sauce bases are excellent and quite different than the ones I saw in Canada. This dish tastes better than the version in the Italian restaurant and goes well with a nice crisp green salad. ******************************** I usually make a turkey curry at the end of our Christmas bird. The dressing and cranberry sauce as well as the gravy all goes with this. The recipe is taken from a Sharwood Curry Powder advert for chicken curry which I also make but here I substitute leftover turkey. TURKEY CURRY **************** Serves 4. 1 apple, peeled and chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 TBS oil 2 TBS curry powder 1 level TBS flour 15 fluid oz (scant 2 cups) stock (boil turkey bones to make stock) 1 TBS chutney (I use Sharwoods Mango Chutney) 1/4 to 1/3 cup (60 grams) sultana raisins 8 oz (225 grams) diced turkey (include different sized small pieces from the leftovers on the turkey platter) salt 1) Fry chopped apple and onion together in 2 TBS oil. Add curry powder and flour. Fry gentry 1 minute. 2) Blend in the stock, bring to boil. Add 1 TBS chutney and the raisins. Simmer, covered - 30 minutes. 3) Add turkey pieces to the sauce, season with salt and simmer very gently 10 - 15 minutes more. If you have some leftover turkey gravy - that also goes well added into the curry sauce. 4) Serve over rice and pass around cranberry sauce, warmed turkey dressing, mango chutney and chopped walnuts. SharonCb