In today’s installment of Waiting for Opening Weekend Never Tasted So Good, I have found a terrific use for the turkey leftovers in our fridge. Honestly, it seems like we have more turkey left than we started with. It doesn’t help that my in-laws, who visited last week, departed for New York on Friday morning.  That’s two fewer mouths to feed with all that yummy food.  

However, both of my sons came down with a strain of influenza that defies the vaccination (boy was Big Guy annoyed). So, while they ingested Tamiflu and sports drinks, I cooked down a lovely stock from the turkey carcass. While the boys had an endless supply of broth (which I loaded up with egg noodles, natch) to aid their recovery, I was busy shredding the remaining turkey meat, while finding myself  oddly grateful that DV hadn’t opened yet (we’d have to ditch a ski weekend in the name of the flu.  As Little Guy would say, “Not cool.”) Still, the extra snow we got between Tuesday and Sunday of Thanksgiving week are making me feel VERY good about the prospects for some great skiing on opening weekend.)

Still, I needed to make both the flu bout and the wait for opening day more palatable.  So, I headed to the store to pick up a bag of Deer Valley Turkey Chili Mix.

The extra turkey, benefitting from the stock-cookup, shredded beautifully. It’s all simmering in the slow cooker now. And while it’s tempting to serve it this week for dinner, I’m thinking it’ll be more fun to freeze it in quart-sized bags with the idea that it’ll be perfect après ski dinner in a few weeks.

For those of you reading this from far-flung locations, you don’t need to wait till you come to Utah to taste this chili- you can order online at deervalley.com! With just a click of the mouse, you can order your own Deer Valley Chili Mix kit (and some other divine treats from the Deer Valley kitchens).

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the two pies we purchased at DV for the feast were a hit, but we had a bunch of small-slice-eaters at our table, so Ski Dad has taken to eating a slice a night “as a public service,” so they don’t spoil before we can finish them.

I, on the other hand, am madly shopping for new ski duds (more on that later) and thus can’t afford a spare calorie.