Making Use of Leftovers From Turkey Dinners

Dear Heloise: Turkey is always a great buy, and here is how I use everything except the bare bones.

Roast the turkey and enjoy a delicious meal with all the trimmings. Freeze leftover slices, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy for an easy oven (or microwave) meal for another day.

While the turkey is roasting, cook the giblets. Use the broth for gravy and the chopped giblets in either the gravy or the dressing. Remove as much of the meat as you can from the carcass. Save the small pieces for casseroles.

Cook a Long Time

When the carcass is as clean as you wish, disjoint it and put it into the slow cooker with the skin, gristle and fat. Add an onion, carrot, celery, salt and peppercorns. Cover with water and cook all day or all night (or cook in a Dutch oven on top of the stove for a couple of hours). Strain the broth and cool the carcass just enough to handle.

Divide the broth into plastic containers in one- to two-cup amounts and freeze. When frozen, remove the container and store the broth in plastic bags to save room in the freezer. Use it for gravies and casseroles.

Remove all the good meat from the bones. It comes right off, and you will be surprised how much there is. I freeze these small pieces on a cookie sheet, then put them in a plastic bag so I can use as much or as little as I want each time.

--DELLA, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Dear Heloise: I was recently following a recipe in a favorite cookbook when I came across an entry for red pepper. What is red pepper? I am unfamiliar with this spice.

--JUSTINE, Howard, Colo.

Dear Justine: Cayenne pepper is now being labeled as red pepper. The spice trade has stopped using cayenne pepper as a labeling term because it didn’t refer to any particular variety, and there was never a “heat” standard for it.

Dear Heloise: I just came across this interesting little tidbit: how bing cherries got their name.

They have been traced back to China. A gardener happened to find a seedling on a trash heap and took very good care of it. It bore large, dark, beautiful sweet cherries. The Chinese gardener was called Bing, and that’s how the most popular of the Northwest cherry varieties received its name.

--CATHERINE, Dallas, Tex.

Dear Heloise: When I have leftover tea or coffee, I never toss it away. Instead I pour the leftovers in a clean ice-cube tray and freeze them.

I use them in iced tea or coffee; it adds flavor!

--VI, Montrose, Colo.

Dear Heloise: I find that baking soda does a multitude of scouring jobs. For tea stains and water spots, I put some soda, vinegar and water in the vessel and let it stand and then rinse.

Even stuck-on food in skillets or pans can be scoured out, with no scratches and no powder left.

--MARY, Evansville, Ind.

Dear Heloise: When I open a jar of plain applesauce, I add three drops of red food coloring to it. It makes it such a pretty pink color--it looks much more appetizing, and the family loves it.

--H.B., San Antonio

Dear Heloise: When I only have a few spears of asparagus, I wash and trim them and place them upright in an eight-ounce microwave-safe glass filled halfway with water. I cover the glass with plastic wrap and poke a couple of small holes in the plastic.

I microwave it on the High setting until the asparagus is crisp-tender, approximately two minutes.

--JENNY, Drake, Colo.