Turkey Noodle Soup

Every Black Friday, while people are pushing and shoving their way through packed stores and slashed prices, getting stepped on, trampled on, and ran over just to get ten extra dollars off that big screen TV or season of Dexter, I'm at home in my snuggly jammies, with a cup of hot coca or chai, cooking. Sure, I had just spent the entire day before slaving away in the kitchen. And sure, I'd love to save a few bucks on Christmas presents and spend the rest of the day tired from being jacked-up on adreneline after waiting in the freezing cold for 7 hours, but I'd much rather put my energy to an even better use and have a wonderful meal to share with my family, instead of nap time. This is why, every year, I take that left over turkey carcass and make a turkey noodle soup. Yes, I save some turkey for sandwiches and such, but a large amount of it goes to this soup. You can freeze it and enjoy it later, or you can eat it up right away, but either way, sitting in a warm house in your slippers, smelling turkey soup simmer on the stove sounds a lot more appealing to me than fighting angry mobs! 

Oh wait... its not the day after Thanksgiving? Dang it. Well, yesterday, I found myself wanting to eat this soup with the same desire I have to win the lottery. But alas, no turkey carcass. I ran to the store and found some turkey drumsticks, fired up my crockpot on HIGH, and hours later I was in Post-Holiday-Heaven.

Kelsey's Crockpot Turkey Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
* Three large turkey legs
* 9 cups chicken broth
* 6 large carrots, sliced
* 4 sticks of celery, sliced
* 1/2 large onion, chopped
* 4 red potatoes, cubbed
* Chicken Bouillon cubes
* Salt and Pepper to season
* 3 Bay leaves
* 2-3 teaspoons Thyme
* Noodles (I used about 1/3 of a box of bow-tie)

To Do:
* If you have all day, throw the turkey legs in with the broth, veggies, and season with salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves. (Use a few bouillon cubes if it needs more flavor- I added three extra) Cook on low 8-9 hours. Check on turkey legs and once meat is cooked, remove from crockpot, shred meat off the legs, and put back into crockpot. With about 15 minutes left of cooking, toss in noodles until they are tender. Serve with warm biscuits.

* If you don't have all day, and you aren't able to get your ingredients into the crockpot until after noon, you'll have to make a few adjustments. I had to cook my turkey legs on 375 for about 40 minutes to make sure the meat would be cooked. Then, I shredded the meat and placed all ingredients in the crockpot together. I cooked it on high for 4-5 hours.