Turkey Soup from scratch

Well, mostly from scratch. And sorry in advance for the lack of pictures.

We had some lovely carrots in three colors from our CSA that I wanted to use, but we had a busy day doing stuff, so I went with default plan: coarsely chop, roast at 425 in olive oil and roasting salt, checking every 10 minutes until they were done.

While that was going on I chopped some small onions and sautéed them in the soup pot in some bacon drippings.
When the carrots were done (about 20 minutes, though they could have gone a little longer if I wasn't so hungry),
I added them to the pot.
Then some chopped turkey breast.
Then some chopped oven-cooked-then-frozen bacon.
Once that got all nicely up to temp, I added some almond meal and a little bit of mashed potatoes (because I had them and need to eat them and don't really want to sit down to a giant pile of mashed potatoes).
Then I tossed in some frozen squash. Wasn't planning to do it. I just did. That's how I roll.
Over it all I poured in one 28 oz jar of homemade chicken broth that I had heated in the microwave.
Once that got good and steamy I added another 28 oz of hot water.
Turned it down to low, covered, and let simmer.

Later, I put half of the soup into the Cuisinart food processor with a TBS of Herbs de Provence.
Added this back in and served over 1 TBS of sour cream.
Made six hearty servings.

I've been trying to figure out how to cost out a dish like this. I'm not sure what to do about the carrots, which were part of our CSA basket. Or what to do for the chicken stock, which was made from the bones and leftovers from a roast chicken we had a couple days ago (and more veggies from the CSA). I think it worked out to less than $1.50 per serving all told. Which doesn't seem fantastically cheap for homemade soup, but seems reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients and that it tasted really good. ;-)

In particular, I'm glad I added the potato and almond meal. Neither came through as a distinct element in the final soup, but I think they added to the richness of the broth.

Hakuna Frittata

I got hooked on frittate when we got our first CSA and they supplied a recipe for a "Greens Frittata" (which itself was adapted from Antipasti by Joyce Goldstein) that became one of my goto recipes. It reminded me of the "Use it up quiche" from the Tightwad Gazette.  I adapted it in several ways.

Vacuum sealing mason jars

I think I have found an inexpensive way (on the margin) to seal standard mason jars with flat canning lids.

You need a vacuum sealer and a vacuum canister that is large enough to hold the size jar you want to use.
Place a clean flat canning lid on the jar (which has been filled leaving enough head room to hold the vacuum).  Place this jar in your canister and attach the vacuum lid.