The Winter Blues

I woke up this morning to see that more snow had indeed fallen, just as the National Weather Service had promised. I'll have to remember to cross them off my Christmas card list.

Since some of my readers seem to like seeing this stuff, I present snow for your enjoyment.

Looks like we have just over four inches of snow on my back deck.

I'm sure the birds appreciate the fact that I filled the bird feeders yesterday.

Of course, all this snow on the outside has led to me staying inside. Whatever shall I do? Oh, let's just go into the kitchen and start cooking.

Hmm, it's cold and snowy outside, so something warm and soothing and comforting sounds like just the thing to make. I decided that I wanted to make turkey potpies. This ought to be fun.

I opted to work off of yet another Barefoot Contessa recipe. However, I knew after reading the recipe that I would be making some changes. More on that later.

The mise en place consists of Half and Half, kosher salt, black pepper, turkey stock, turkey cutlets, carrots, celery, garlic clove, onion, butter, green peas, green onion and flour.

Obviously, the first substitution was the turkey and turkey stock for the chicken and chicken stock. I also decided that the recipe, as written, would be a bit bland, so I added minced garlic. I don't have fresh parsley on hand and I don't have (or like) frozen small onions, so I changed out the green onion for those items. I only had Half and Half in the fridge, so that replaced the heavy cream in the recipe. Finally, the recipe called for 1-1/2 sticks of butter and 3/4 cups of flour. I cut those amounts down to 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of flour.

And here we have the mise en place for the crust. Black pepper and sea salt to sprinkle over the crust, flour, baking powder, kosher salt, egg, ice water, butter and shortening.




The dry ingredients are mixed in the food processor before the shortening and cubed, cold butter are added.

It is important to not over-process the dough. This looks good.

The dough is wrapped and sent to chill out in the fridge for 30 minutes.

And now it's time to move on to the filling. The butter is melted and the onions are cooked until translucent. Meanwhile, the stock is heated. Just before the onions are finished cooking, the minced garlic is added.

Here comes the roux. The flour goes in and the cook goes to work, stirring constantly for two minutes.

See, I'm fast.

Then the hot stock goes in, along with salt, pepper, uncooked diced turkey cutlets, carrots, celery, green peas and green onion.

The filling continues to cook over low heat while the Half and Half is added.

The filling is ready for the next step. Looks good already.

Half the dough is rolled out and circles, about 2 inches larger than the largest oven-proof bowl I'll be using, are cut.

Now, I knew that the recipe would make far more dough than I would need, but I also knew that my daughter would appreciate a sweet treat when she got home from campus.

Some Half and Half is poured over the dough, before granulated sugar and ground cinnamon are generously added. The dough is then rolled up and cut into 1-inch slices.

These baked for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Okay, back to the pot pies.

The filling is portioned between the bowls and the circles of dough are placed on top. The edges are sealed and an egg wash coats each pot pie. Sea salt and black pepper are sprinkled over top before small vents are cut into the tops.

The cinnamon rolls are ready. And just in time for the dear daughter's return home.

Well, these didn't last long, did they?

Finally, the pot pies are ready.

Very nice, indeed.

While the daughter and I thought that the amount of butter in the filling could be reduced even more, the husband thought it was just right. In the end though, we all agreed that this dinner was a winner.

This certainly is not a diet dish, but it was good and filling and comforting.

Now if it would just quit sleeting and even more snow doesn't come as promised.