Turkey Pot Pie

I had just enough turkey left over from our Christmas Day dinner to make Turkey Pot Pies.

A warm, comforting meal is just the perfect thing for a cold, snowy day.

I made more than a few tweaks* to a Barefoot Contessa recipe for Chicken Pot Pie to come up with this winning dish.

*What's that?

You want to know what changes I made to Ina Garten's recipe?

Well....

First off, it was a chicken pot pie with chicken and chicken stock,

but since I am famously allergic to chicken, that had to be changed to turkey.

Ina's recipe also called for 5 cups of stock, which made entirely too much filling for four normal sized portions.

She also directed that one add:

2 chicken bouillon cubes (yuck!)

12! tablespoons butter to the filling!

frozen small whole onions (which I hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns)

heavy cream rather than Half-and-Half

and twice as much pastry as is needed for the recipe.

I added celery to the recipe as I wanted a bit of crunch in the filling.

*

See, no recipe is really set in stone.

Rather they are all stepping stones.

As long as you understand the basics of cooking,

you can substitute and adapt to suit your needs and tastes.

The ingredients for this dish start off with:
onion
carrot
celery
flour
unsalted butter
turkey stock
kosher salt
black pepper
Half-and-Half
cooked, diced turkey
frozen peas
fresh parsley leaves

While the stew simmers, the Foodie Daughter got to work on the pastry part of the recipe.
She gathered:
all-purpose flour
kosher salt
baking powder
vegetable shortening
unsalted butter
ice water

*

The Foodie Daughter decided that she didn't like working with the food processor.

Next time she will do it the old-fashioned way.

*

Kids these days are so resistant to technology, don't you think?

An egg wash was applied to the tops of the pot pies and they were baked for an hour in a 375 degree oven.

And just how did they rate?

The Foodie Daughter and her boyfriend each gave the pot pies 4-1/2 stars. My husband gave them 4 stars while I gave them 5 stars.

Standing Prime Rib update:

Remember that rib roast for which I was overcharged?

I returned to the grocery store a couple of weeks later with my receipt and was able to get a refund from the nice service counter attendant.

Thank you, Marsh!

Of course, I ended up spending that $8.70 for more groceries,

so I guess it was the principle after all.

Standing Rib Roast

A couple of times a year my go-to grocery store, Marsh Supermarkets, has prime standing rib roasts on sale for $9.99 a pound.*

So of course I have to succumb.

Can't you hear the siren's song?

*Wait, what is this? $14.29 a pound?

Me thinks a visit to the service counter is in store.

After all, we are talking about a $4. 30 a pound difference here.

Screw principle, this is about money!

All bets are off and the gloves come off!

At any rate, let's get to the food.

I allowed the meat to come to room temperature before patting it dry.

Then I liberally seasoned all sides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

For those of you who are afraid of all things saline, relax.

Not all of this salt will actually 'stick' to the food, thus being consumed.

After searing the rib roast over high heat on the stove, I placed it back on my new, smaller roasting pan.

Perhaps this is actually a "lazy rib roast"?

The standing rib roast doesn't want to stand up.

I washed, cut and microwaved some potatoes in salted water for 5 minutes and 55 seconds.

Hey, it's just easier to keep hitting that "5" button than to hit the "6" button and then the "0" button twice.

What, me lazy?

Well, okay, you caught me.

This time.

I then added one thick-cut slice of yellow onion and two slices of bacon, chopped.

The oven was set for 400 degrees and allowed to come to temperature before the food was added.

I inserted the remote digital temperature probe in the thickest part of the meat.

The alarm is set for 140 degrees.

I never cook meat by time.

There are just too many variables.

What is the starting temperature of the meat, what is the mass of the meat, is the oven properly calibrated, are the planets in alignment, am I holding my mouth right?

Go by temperature, instead.
You won't be disappointed, though it does take some getting used to the timing.

I told you this was a "lazy rib roast."

It fell over again.

I removed the rib roast to a platter, covered it with aluminum foil and then covered it with two kitchen towels so it could rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

I put the potatoes, onion and bacon back into the oven for the duration.

I sliced the meat after it had rested.

Note to self:

Next time set the timer for 135 degrees to allow for carry-over heat.*

*This time I set the alarm for 140 degrees.

This resulted in having the meat range from medium-rare to well-done.

Yes, I was playing it safe - eh, everybody has an off day.

As a compromise (since we had been out of state yesterday, I am sick and I'm just plain tired), for the last side dish I just opened a can of french-cut green beans, drained them, added a splash of white vinegar, a dash of sugar and a slice of cooked bacon that was diced.

Once again I asked for ratings from the family.

Surprisingly, the husband gave this 4-1/2 stars.

Somebody take his temperature.

The Foodie Daughter gave this 4-3/4 stars as she would have rather had "real" green beans.

The Foodie Boyfriend and I both gave this 5 stars.

Yes, it was that good.

Thanksgiving Day Treats

A couple of days ago, I promised an update on the preparations for Turkey Day. Your patience has finally been rewarded. My lovely daughter finished classes prior to Thanksgiving break and immediately set to work in the kitchen.

Kelley has the ingredients ready for pumpkin muffins. Our friend, Jen, graciously gave us this recipe.

Kelley begins the mixing process. Can I tell you that she is very meticulous about everything being just right?

She's mixing in the flour - slowly.

Now Kelley has decided to add cinnamon to the mixture.

After making 2 dozen mini muffins, Kelley makes some regular sized muffins.




The finished product. So tender and moist. What a terrific recipe!

Kelley is using all the space available for her mise en place for Snickerdoodle cookies.

The Snickerdoodles are being mixed together.




Kelley uses the classic method to shape her cookies. Meanwhile, I roll the balls in a cinnamon sugar mixture and place them on the baking sheets.




The cookies are baked to perfection.

Earlier, Kelley made a coffee cake. I missed the chance to document the process. This too was delicious and was eagerly devoured. My daughter made all of these dishes from scratch. I'm so lucky.

What was I doing during this time? Besides taking pictures, I acted as sous chef, readying ingredients and cleaning up after my daughter. Aside from that, my husband had volunteered my services to the bank where he works as they needed a bow for a 5 foot diameter wreath. As my first job included bow making - hundreds of bows - I am quite good at this. There are 30 ten-inch loops in this bow with 6 tails. This bow had to be made in two stages as my hand was cramping quite badly.

Later I prepared a garlic studded standing prime rib roast. The roast apparently got tired after cooking because it fell over.

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes accompanied the beef.