Talking Turkey

Like every kid I always looked forward to Thanksgiving, but with a qualification. I dreaded the thought of the soup my mother would make with the turkey two weeks later, after the carcass had been picked clean and dried to the consistency of wallboard. Now, of course, we hear from the health and culinary experts on television and in the newspapers a steady drumbeat telling us that if we prepare the bird for cooking improperly, don't carve all the meat off immediately after it's cooked, avoid leaving it sitting out longer than ten minutes, and cook the stuffing separately it can become a little bacteria factory and make us deathly ill. Sure takes the fun out of a holiday whose only purpose is eating. My mom, like everyone else, did all the wrong things, but I don't remember ever having got sick from the turkey. I sure hated the soup though.