Gargoyle Bolognese

I've made Jason Santos' pastrami bolognese twice now. The recipe calls for FOUR POUNDS of pastrami, which seemed just way too much, so the first time I made it, I got a pound of pastrami and quartered the recipe. The flavor was great, but almost too meaty, so I decided the next time I'd halve the meat and add mushrooms. Unfortunately, I didn't remember clearly what I had done and wanted to do, so last night what I ended up doing was making a double batch of the recipe, with one pound of pastrami--so one-eighth the suggested meat content--and one pound of mushrooms. It was still good, though now not quite meaty tasting enough and still not enough mushrooms, but it took forever to reduce to sauce-consistency. So for the next time I am hereby noting that what I want to do is to use one pound of pastrami, 1.5 lbs. of mushrooms, and otherwise make a half-batch.

( And here's the recipe )

Turkey Paste, Stock and Mushroom/Marjoram Soup

I'm closing up tabs and wanted to note that after Thanksgiving I made the best stock of my life, using this recipe. I used it to make the soup that's also on that page, using noodles instead of rice or barley, at Alice's request. The mushrooms and marjoram gave it a very different flavor than usual and it was a very hearty, wintery soup. I've used another quart of the stock for celeriac soup--that was pretty good, but not so much that I'd use the recipe again, so I'm not linking to it--and I've got three left that I'll hope to use in the coming weeks. Suggestions for good-with-turkey-stock soup are welcome.

Also worth noting--this year I was struck by the tips from Kitchen Surfing. I brined the turkey for the first time and have to say I didn't think that part was worth the hassle. It was not more moist than usual and a couple of people complained about the salt-level. I wasn't able to find lard on short notice (it occurred to me later that Savenor's was probably the answer) but Dave's Fresh Pasta carries jars of duck fat (you're welcome). Because the turkey cooked so much faster than expected (a 27 lb. turkey was done in 3 hours, 30 minutes at 400, 90 at 350--should have been 60, and then 250 for another hour) I didn't use up all the herbed duck fat. So suggestions for things-to-cook-in-herbed-duck-fat are also welcome--I know about hash browns.