D'Amico & Sons Turkey with Dried Cherries Pasta Salad

Salad:
1 pound rotini
1 1/2-2 cups cooked, diced turkey breast
1 c dried cherries
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 diced celery stalks
1 c whole toasted almonds

Poppy-seed dressing:
1/4 c powdered sugar
2 tbls. champagne vinegar
2 c real mayonnaise

2 tbls. poppy seeds
2 tbls. cold water
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper

To make salad:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse in cold water. Chill. Combine with turkey, cherries, onion, celery, and almonds.

To make dressing: Combine powdered sugar and vinegar. Add mayo, water, poppy seeds, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Add to pasta and toss to combine.

Servings: 6-8 (I'd say more. It was a pretty big salad with a full pound of pasta.)

SOURCE: I got this from Val Hix who got it from the Pioneer Press.

NOTES: I've eaten this recipe almost as written and it was excellent! I did make a few changes when I made it yesterday though:

• I used a 12.5 ounce can of chicken instead of the turkey
• I used 1/2 mayo and 1/2 miracle whip for the dressing. In addition, I didn't have champagne vinegar so I used balsamic vinegar instead. Val made it with a raspberry blush vinegar and it worked well.
• I don't think whole almonds would be pleasant to bite into in a salad, so I would recommend slivered. Actually, I used pecans instead of the almonds and it was very good.
• I didn't have more than 1/4 c dried cherries so I filled in with craisins. It was great!

Turkey Soup

1 leftover turkey carcass
5 qts. water

3 c cubed turkey
1 large onion
2 carrots, sliced
1 c chopped celery
10 oz. package frozen, chopped spinach
3/4 c fresh or frozen peas
3/4 c uncooked rice
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp dried marjoram
3/4 dried thyme

Place the turkey carcass and water into a soup kettle. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove carcass and discard. (Make sure there are no stray bones in the broth.) Skim fat if necessary (but probably won't be with turkey). Stock may be frozen for up to 6 months.

Add vegetables, rice, bouillon and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until everything is tender. Add turkey cubes to heat up in the last 10 minutes or so.

Yield: Lots

Original Source: Taste of Home Cooking

Notes: I used some wild rice from the freezer instead of what was called for here; it was very good. Also, the vegetables you use are all pretty optional - these are good choices. The spinach made it a lot like Italian Wedding Soup without the meatballs. The bouillon called for in this recipe was just a good amount of salt. Also, I added my leftover turkey gravy from the day before to this recipe. Very good!

Grandpa would call this Turkey Carcass Soup (and as you may know, he would consider it a capital waste to throw away a perfectly good turkey carcass without making soup of it).