Homemade Pot Pie (with Turkey leftovers)

I am a little late getting this post out as I'm guessing most of you will have already come up with a means for devouring your leftover Turkey by now.  That said, Jeff and I were trying to figure out what to do with his on Sunday and we decided to use it in a Pot Pie.  I've never made one from scratch before, but it was pretty simple and I had a lot of fun with it!  I think this might become a post-Thanksgiving tradition for us.

I did a little pot-pie research and ended up kind of winging it based on some simple principles.

1. Decide whether you want the pie-crust kind of pot pie or the biscuit-kind of pot pie.  If you want the biscuit kind, you'll have to look elsewhere.  Jeff and I are both definitely pie-crust pot pie kinds of people!

2. Decide whether you want to shave a few calories and just top your pie with crust or whether you're going to go all out and make this like a real pie with a top and bottom crust.

3. Once you have those very important pot-pie decisions made, proceed with making or buying a single or double version of your favorite pie crust.  You can find mine HERE, although for pot pie, I left out the sugar and I mix by hand instead of using a food processor.

4. Prepare your filling.  I chopped up about 2 cups of turkey leftovers and set them aside.  Then I diced 2 carrots, 1/2 onion and about 6 or 7 mushrooms and sauteed them, in that order (spaced about 2 minutes apart) in some butter.  Meanwhile, I defrosted 1/2 bag of frozen peas under some cool water.

5. Prepare your gravy.  For this I melted 5 T of butter in a sauce pan.  When it was just barely starting to brown, I added in 6 T of flour.  Stir constantly until smooth.  Slowly, stirring constantly, add 1 3/4 cups chicken broth and 1/2 cup of Half & Half.  After combined and smooth, add whatever seasonings sound good to you.  I did: 1/2 tsp salt, a few grinds of fresh pepper, about 2 tsp of italian seasoning a few hearty shakes of garlic powder and a dash of Marsala wine.  Stir over low heat until the gravy thickens.

6. Assemble.  Mix the gravy with the turkey and veggies.  Roll out your pie crusts and assemble the pot pie.

7. Bake at 425 F for 35-40 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

8. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes and dig in!

I think this would be a little bit easier to eat if I could make individual pies next time.  But I didn't have any oven safe bowls on hand.  And this was still lovely.

If any of you have creative ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers, I would love to hear about them!

Thankful!

Thanksgiving was amazing for me this year for a couple of special reasons.

1. Jeff and I hosted it together.
2. I got to prepare most of the dishes myself and I had a BLAST!!
3. Jeff took me to Walmart at 11:45pm on Wednesday night so we could buy stuff to make the table pretty  (that man knows how to make me happy!)
4. Most amazing of all, I ate everything that I made and did not get sick!

Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I have had some health issues for years and have been on a long journey, particularly in the last year and half.  It has been a very difficult road for me.  Many many times I have wrestled with the Lord over my struggle with daily pain and fear of food and His "seeming" silence and inactivity in the middle of what has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life.

The thing is, He wasn't being silent or inactive.  He just wasn't taking it away like I wanted Him too.  Two weeks ago, I had a small surgical procedure and we found that my primary issue was actually not food at all!  My doctor found what she suspected might be the cause and was able to remove what appears to have been the primary source of my pain!  I was a bit sore recovering from surgery but I am thrilled to share that I have now spent 4 days in a row with no pain whatsoever!  Its been over a year and a half since I could say that and I don't know how to express the gratitude that I feel!

I am incredibly thankful that on Thanksgiving Day, I had the simple joy of being able to eat a dinner roll and a piece of pie.  But I am even more thankful for a God who has shown me, vividly, that although He doesn't always take away difficult things in the way or the timing that I want, He will forever show Himself to be FAITHFUL to carry me through them.

My camera ran out of space about 1/2 way through so I am missing pictures of us with one of our guests (Sorry Emmie!!)...  But here is a peek at our day.  Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season!!

Getting the Beer Brine ready!!  (And of course taking a few swigs in the process)

Prepping the dough for some Parker House Rolls from one of my favorite bloggers.

Getting that bird prepped for the Weber to do its magic...

Enjoying the lovely warm day while we wait for the last few dishes to finish cooking...

Aren't those pretty??  I was quite proud of them...

My mom brought her award-winning Apple Bavarian Pie and also a Pumpkin Bourbon Pecan Pie.  She is amazing!!

No caption is really needed on this one.   This was our bird taking a little rest before we dove in...

Happy...

Ready to give thanks and EAT!

Honey Butter

Honey Butter.  Doesn't that sound sweet and endearing?  Like it should be a term of endearment for someone you love?  (Don't be alarmed Jeff...  I'm thinking more along the lines of a little kiddo nickname!)

Or if you are not a nickname person, maybe you can just spread it on your toast and be satisfied with that.

There is nothing profound about this post.  You can find hundreds of posts with the same recipe on the web.  But I made a little batch of this to go on some homemade Whole Wheat Maple Oatmeal bread last week and it was tasty!  I'm planning to make a little pot of this to go with dinner rolls on Thanksgiving and thought I would share the idea.

So here you go:

Honey Butter
1 stick, salted butter, room temp
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp orange zest  (the secret ingredient!)

- Using a hand mixer, blend all ingredients together until smooth.
- Store on the counter to preserve fluffiness!
- (And if you allow it to sit very long, you may need to stir it again because the honey tends to separate from the butter)
- Consume within 2-3 days.

Wild Rice Stuffing (w/ Cranberries, Pecans, Fresh Herbs and all kinds of deliciousness!))

The holidays are coming!  And I am oh, so excited for them this year!

Adding to my excitement, Jeff and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at his house this year for my parents and a couple friends.  I've helped my mom prepare the meal for years and my old roommates and I used to put on a Thanksgiving meal for friends, but I've never actually been the hostess for the whole meal before.  Of course, I do have a partner in crime!  I've been trying to decide whether to rely on some tried and tested family-favorites or bust out and try some new things.  Regardless of which way I go on other dishes, one dish will not be changed.  And that is my Wild Rice Stuffing.  A friend of mine shared the recipe with me a few years ago and it has become my family's staple stuffing recipe.  It is gluten-free but even my family members that don't need to eat GF, really enjoy this.  It is nutritious and colorful and full of flavor!

Here you go!

Wild Rice Stuffing (w/ Cranberries, Pecans, Fresh Herbs and all kinds of Deliciousness)

1 32oz container of chicken broth

1 cup wild rice (uncooked)

1 1/4 cups brown rice (uncooked)

1 stick butter (I sometimes sub with olive oil, but butter gives a richer flavor)

1 sm. yellow onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 cup fresh parsley

1/4 cup fresh sage

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 cup dried cranberies

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- In a large pot, bring the broth and 2 cups of water and rice to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is cooked (about 45 minutes to an hour).

- In a large skillet, melt butter and cook onion and celery for 10 minutes.

- Add cooked veggies to rice, along with herbs, nuts, cranberries, salt and pepper.  Stir.

- Transfer to a buttered casserole dish.

- Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.

- Voila!

One year, I add some Italian Sausage to this recipe when I brought it to a Thanksgiving potluck at work.  It definitely added richness to the dish.  I like it just fine without it.  But consider it an option if you like sausage in your stuffing.

Also, don't fudge on the fresh herbs for this and try to sneak in dried ones instead.  The fresh herbs add beautiful color and bright, vivid flavor!

Hope you enjoy a lovely holiday season!

Whoopie!

A few weeks ago, after watching a special on the Food Network while jogging at the gym, Jeff put in a special request for some Whoopie Pies.  Do you know what they are?  It's essentially a grow-up sort of Oreo Cookie:  two rounds of chocolate cake-meets-chocolate-cookie with a thick filling of vanilla creme!

Most of the recipes that I found called for Marshmellow Creme in the center and I'm not a huge fan.  So I settled for one that uses some shortening, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and corn syrup.

This first attempt turned out pretty darn good, according to Jeff and the kids.  However, I need to perfect the cookie part a little bit more before I post the recipe.  The requests were:

Could the cookie-part be a little fudgier?
Could you make them bigger and a little more flat (Because the creme is really what I care about!)?

I'll be working on these and when they are perfect, I'll post the recipe.  But here is a peek at round one!

"There is a fine line between a pumpkin and a cupcake..."

(This morning, in the kitchen at work, said with great confidence) Jenny to Tarah:  "There is a fine line between a pumpkin and a cupcake"

Wait.  Stop.  There is a red flashing light going off somewhere in my brain.  Something in what just came out of my mouth was not quite right.  Thinking...  Thinking...

Ah, silly me!  What I meant to say was "There is a fine line between a muffin and a cupcake."

And there is a fine line.  I made some pumpkin muffins for the office this morning (with leftover ingredients from the Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter Frosting that I made on Tuesday for an office birthday party).  The muffin recipe I found online was titled:  Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Now, am I totally off or is that just a bit delusional?  I call anything with frosting a cupcake, all the way.  And without frosting, it can totally be a muffin.  But thats just my opinion.  If you disagree on the line between cupcake and muffin, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

This was a big pumpkin week for me.  Apparently the passing of Halloween flipped a switch in my mind and with one 26oz can of pumpkin, this week I made a birthday cake, a batch of muffins and a very tasty breakfast of Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes.  In case you find yourself in mood for some pumpkin, here are a few ideas...

Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter Frosting
(Slight adapted from Shutterbean.com)

Cake
1 2/3 cup flour (+ 3T)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (just under)
1/2 tsp baking powder (just under)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup warm milk (+ 2T)

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease and flour a 9 inch x 2 inch cake pan (I used a Springform pan and it worked beautifully)
- Mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat to combine.  Add pumpkin and milk and mix to combine.
- By hand, add the dry mixture and stir until just incorporated.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 55 minutes.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes.  Remove.  Top with frosting and enjoy!

Browned Butter Frosting
4 T butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 T milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

(Parenthesis reflect high-altitude adjustments!)

- Melt butter in a pan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently until the butter turns medium brown.
- Remove from heat and add to sugar, vanilla and 1 T milk.  Stir.  If you think it is too thick, add the other tablespoon of milk.
- Allow to sit for 5 minutes and then spread over the cake.  The consistency will be a little bit like a glaze.  And don't worry that it doesn't make much.  All you need a is a little!

I took pictures of this cake but they turned out a big "gray".  Not quite blog-worthy.  So you'll have to use some imagination...  Or go to the link above under the recipe name.

Okay.  Deep breath.  I know this is longer than most of my posts.  But I have one more yummy recipe for you.

Here we go:

Pumpkin Spice "Muffins"
(Slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman blog)

After looking over a couple web recipe for pumpkin muffins, I chose this one because amazingly enough, in the full batch, it only calls for 1/2 cup of sugar.  Another recipe I saw called for 3 cups!  And this one has no oil and just 4 T of butter.  So as far as muffins go, this one is a bit healthier than some.  Hope you enjoy!  (And reference her beautiful blog for pictures!)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
4 T butter
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon Sugar, optional

- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Grease 12-cup muffin tin or use paper liners
- Mix dry ingredients: flour - salt
- Cut in the butter using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Separately, mix the pumpkin, milk, egg and vanilla.
- Add to the flour/butter mixture and stir by hand until just incorporated.
- Pour into muffin cups.  Top with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.
- Bake 25 minutes.  Allow to rest 15 minutes.

And enjoy!