Turkey Pot Pie

Well, I think we're all recovered from Christmas.  And on New Year's Day we went to my Great Aunt's house for dinner.  And she sent us home with a ziplock bag full of leftover turkey. SCORE!

I made pot pie, at the request of the boy.

I use this recipe here with just one small change.  We love it. However, I'm pretty sure it is NOT very good for you, as far as calories go.  But it's good for a special treat every now and then.

This may be a post without pictures.  My computer is being a complete butt-head.  Of course, it may be Blogger, but I'm going to go with the computer.

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OK, the nice ladies at www.cookiedecorator.com (aka Cookiers R Us) told me to upgrade to a new browser to make Blogger work again.  So, one Google chrome update later, and I am in business.  Sorry you have to look at my photos again.

So let's get started, shall we?  Dice some onions,carrots and celery and saute in butter.  Mmmm...butter...

Add salt, pepper, parsley and oregano.  Now, here's the important part...you don't want to miss this step: Drop your brand-new bottle of Penzey's oregano that you got for Christmas into the pan full of vegetables, spilling about half of it.  D'OH!

Oh, and here's where that small change comes in.  The recipe calls for 3 Tbs of parsley, but that made the finished pot pie look kind of funky. So I reduced it to 1 Tbs and it's fine.  (Of course, 3 Tbs of oregano may very well be just as funky, but we'll not think about that, ok?)

Scrape out as much of the oregano as you can and soldier on valiantly.

Add water and chicken bouillon cubes, followed by cubed potatoes.  Cube the potatoes fairly small, so they cook quickly.  Otherwise, your other veggies may get mushy.  Simmer until the potatoes are cooked but not soft.

Oh yeah, at the beginning of this process, you should pull a top and bottom pie crust out of the freezer and let them thaw.  If you forgot, you can microwave them on defrost.  Not that I would do that.

On a side note, I hate making pie crust.  I have a fabulous pie crust recipe that I use, and it comes out perfectly each time, but I HATE making it.  It's not hard.  It doesn't take an inordinate amount of time.  I just hate making pie crust.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe for make-ahead pie crusts, I was all over it.  To be honest, it's not as good as my other recipe, but it's better than others I have tried.  And the make-ahead part is the best.  I have two 1-gallon freezer bags full of pie crusts in my chest freezer right now.  WooHoo!

*ahem*

Roll out the pie crust.  A pastry board really comes in handy for pie crust.

Use the rolled crust to line a very deep 9-inch pie plate, or, if you have one, a 10-inch pie plate.  I don't have one.  I always have a little extra filling.

Tell yourself you're going for "rustic".

In a separate saucepan, add the turkey, some milk and butter.

Stir that up and heat it through.  Add it to the cooked vegetables and stir it all in.

I sometimes throw in a cup of frozen peas right before I add the turkey.  Peas are not in the recipe, but the boy LOVES peas.  And so do I, really.

Cook the whole she-bang until the broth thickens and then pour it into the prepared pie shell.

Put the top on, vent, and pop it in the oven.

Cook for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and delicious.

Slice and serve to your hungry family!

Turkey Pot Pie

1 recipe double pie crust

4 Tbs butter                                        salt and pepper to taste

1 small onion, minced                          2 cubes chicken bouillon

2 stalks celery, chopped                      2 cups water

2 carrots, diced                                   3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 Tbs dried parsley                             3 Tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp dried oregano                             ½ cup milk

Preheat oven to 425.  Roll out bottom crust and place in pie plate.  Set aside

Cook onion, celery, carrots, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper in 2 Tbs butter until soft.  Add water and bouillon.  Bring to a boil and stir in potatoes.  Cook until tender but still firm.

In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 2 Tbs butter.  Stir in turkey and flour.  Add the milk and heat through.  Stir the turkey mixture into the vegetables and cook until thickened.  Pour into unbaked pie shell and top with second rolled crust.  Flute edges and vent for steam.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Seriously, this is so good you won't believe it.  We use leftover turkey or chicken, but if you have leftover beef (or any other hoofed mammal) I'm sure that would work, too.  Try it sometime, you won't be sorry!
Enjoy!