Well it's been seven weeks since Christmas, and being almost recuperated now, I thought I'd share a little post script holiday tradition in our house.

Every year, after we cook a turkey, Mike and I have the same debate over the carcass. I like to make soup out of the leftover meat only, Mike likes to boil the carcass and pick the bones. Prior to making the soup, Mike, in his mom's tradition, leaves the turkey carcass outside in a pot of boiled water to allow the fat to rise to the top. Maybe it's just my non-Julia Child-ness, but the idea of reboiling a sat-outside, dead, de-fatted fowl in my kitchen just grosses me out.

This year Mike won the annual turkey soup debate and proudly put the turkey carcass outside in a pot of boiled water, strategically on top of the planter (to keep it from the dog) where I grow summer herbs. And all I can say is, it's been 7 weeks and we still haven't made that turkey soup. Last week, feeling a little bored and adventurous, I began to wonder what a 7 week old turkey carcass floating in water might look like. And in case you're interested, it grew this amazing psychedelic purple mold that I would have liked to investigate further but my gag response kicked in. I left the pot, which was borrowed in the first place, (sorry, Scott, from you) on the deck in disgust for Mike to deal with.

A few days later, the turkey carcass pot vanished, much the same strange way laundry vanishes in our house. But growing underneath where it sat on the planter, are these amazing, bright green, summer chives - in February. I guess that psychedelic purple turkey carcass mold growing in the pot had heat qualities that enabled the chives to sprout early beneath it.

Now that I think of it, the pot vanished on the same night the dog was violently barfing in the basement, but isn't it amazing what can grow under a little forced heat?