Toujours dinde*

I didn't manage to order my turkey until the Monday before Christmas, about 12 hours after I arrived in Boston. I was a little tense about that. I mean, I know I could've picked up a frozen Butterball at the supermarket, but I wanted a fresh turkey. I'm picky that way.

So anyway, by the time I called (8am on Monday morning), the woman at the butcher shop told me that all they had left was a 15.5-lb (7-kg) turkey. So I took it.

Then I fretted. Would that be enough meat for 12 people? Would it be skimpy? Would we--horror of horrors--run out?

(All the while conveniently overlooking that one of the diners is five, one is a vegetarian, and four would be leaving to eat another Christmas dinner three hours after eating mine.)

You know where this is going: even after everyone eating their fill, and sending a third of the guests home with doggy bags, I was still left with pounds upon pounds of leftover turkey. I finally finished it off today (those of you with food safety concerns, look away now), after having made the following:

1. turkey stock (after removing the aforementioned pounds and pounds of meat from the carcass);
2. turkey risotto (made with the turkey stock and chunks of meat);
3. several plates of leftover turkey and fixings;
4. several more turkey sandwiches;
5. turkey pot pie (involving more turkey chunks as well as more turkey stock in the sauce: one full-size for dinner, two mini, frozen for later);
6. and today, a twofer, to put an end to the madness: for dinner, turkey bolognese; and
7. for lunch, turkey salad sandwiches.

Old school turkey salad
Note: the smaller you cut everything, the neater the end product will be. I like mine chunky, so as a result half of it fell out of the sandwich. I did not care.

1 cup white turkey meat, cut into chunks
2 slices bacon, fried until crisp and chopped up
1 stick celery, cut into small chunks
1 Tbsp mayonnaise**
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Eat straight from the bowl or serve as a sandwich on slices of toasted white bread (with pickles and chips alongside, natch).

PS If anyone wants recipes for the other turkey items, do say so; otherwise, I'll assume that by this time everyone else feels like being done with turkey also.

* Translation: "turkey all the time".
** I used the last of the batch of homemade mayonnaise I made last week. More on this later.

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