I have done all of these at one time or another! My cooking fail was salvagable. Did you know if you take the typical white American farmed turkey and don't slaughter it at 7-9 months it will grow to over 3 feet tall and weigh in at 44 pounds dressed? First we had to take all the racks out and set a couple bricks in to keep the home made roasting pan off the electric coils. The we roasted Giblet [we name our food animals appropriately] the specified time for the weight. The breast meat came out beautifully but the legs and thigh were rock hard. So *fail*. As we did the cleanup, I tossed him into my 5 gallon stock pot after quartering him so he would fit. We tossed in the mashed potatoes, stuffing, roast veggies [baby new potatoes, baby carrots, pearled onions and celery hearts glazed with turkey stock[ and water to cover, set it up to simmer overnight and went to bed. In the morning we hauled the carcass out and pulled off all the meat and chopped it, tossed it back into the pot and had Thanksgiving soup [for a week, tons of leftovers!] The broth ended up looking like the smoothest gravy I had ever tried to make, and the meat was tender, and the roast veg held up their shape. All I needed to do was a tad of black pepper and a shot of hot sauce and some red wine vinegar to brighten the back taste. Overall, it was a serendipitous mistake, and we have never been able to recreate the soup, but every November we keep trying.

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