This year I made a big, fat boo-boo. I had in mind to fix a ham for dinner. Ham is something we rarely have, so it sounded appealing—a treat in this year that has been no treat. So I bought a ham. Jack, at nearly the same time, said that a local grocery had turkey thighs and breasts on sale. Since he doesn’t like white meat and I don’t care for dark, and there are only two of us, so we didn’t need a whole bird, that seemed like a great solution. Without conscious thought, we ended up with both turkey and ham for Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about a plethora of goodness! We’ll have a little of each for dinner and then I will cut and package the rest to use in leftovers or to freeze.
So for ham leftovers, I’ll make bean soup, ham and potato soup, 
ham and mac & cheese, and of course sandwiches. But with the turkey I’ll make turkey pot pie. Here’s my recipe, give or take. I kinda make it up as I go along but this is a reasonable facsimile. I make two—one with white meat and one with dark. I know, I know. I spoil the man but what can I say? I love him.
TURKEY POT PIE
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
Filling:
- 3 cups (or so) of cubed turkey
- 4 carrots (peel if you like. I don’t) roughly chopped
- 1 med onion, roughly chopped
- 2-3 celery sticks, sliced
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup peas
Sauce:
- 6 Tbl butter
- 6 Tbl flour
- 4 cups chicken/turkey stock
- 1-2 cups milk, heated until warm
Crust:
Enough dough for top and bottom crust (you’ll have too much for a regular old pie plate. I use a large casserole dish for the white meat pie and a pie plate for the dark meat. This recipe makes a lot!)
Instructions:
- Sauté celery, carrots, and onion until soft. Add mushrooms and continue until they give up their liquid.
- Add salt and pepper to taste if desired. I don’t add either but that’s just us.
- Set aside.
- Melt butter in a 4 quart pan.
- Add flour and stir for about two minutes, cooking the flour and making a roux.
- Add stock, whisking as you do to avoid lumps.
- Just when the sauce starts to thicken, add milk and whisk until thick and smooth.
- Remove from heat.
- Add the peas.
- Add remaining vegetables and meat and stir to mix. (This is where I divide the mixture to add the different types of meat.)
- In your baking dish(es), place the bottom pie crust. (Okay, I’ll confess to using Pillsbury…)
- Pour in the filling with sauce and top with the second crust. Crimp the edges closed. Slice two or three holes to release steam.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the crust turns golden and some of the filling shows around the slits.
- Let cool 10-15 minutes and then spoon out into a bowl.
I cover with foil and refrigerate for several days. It gets better and better!
What is your favorite holiday leftover recipe?
Hoping your holidays were–and continue to be–wonderful!
Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist
One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers
On the 25th April 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula—Turkey. These became known as Anzacs and the pride they took in that name continues to this day.
both Australia and England, where 2,000 Anzac troops marched through the streets of London. A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey, attended by King George V and Queen Mary. Since then, on every 25th April except 1919 when the Spanish flu was rampant, services are held in every city and town in Australia and New Zealand, the Casey research station Antarctica, the very moving dawn service at Gallipoli in harmony with the Turkish people, Belgium and France and the UK. While checking my facts before writing this tribute I was surprised how many other countries acknowledge this day.
Writer, photographer, social critical artist, musician, and occasional actress, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a Hungarian mud house, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave-dwelling, on a Dutch canal, and in a haunted house on the English moors. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest and, much to local dismay, protects all creatures, especially spiders and snakes. She particularly enjoys incorporating into short stories, mysteries, narrative non-fiction, and romances, her experiences in out-of-the-way communities, and her conversations with strange characters.