Sick of Turkey? Pot-Pie It.

Ugh, I am so full. But there is still a LOT of food in the refrigerator and there comes a time when one simply cannot bear the thought of eating the same (albeit delicious) meal again. And that is the time when I remember the adage they taught us in elementary school, "Recycle-Reuse-Reduce." Mashed potatoes can become potato pancakes, but there are even more uses for leftover turkey.

If you're over the turkey sandwich and you aren't into the turkey tetrazzini or turkey noodle soup, how about turkey pot-pies without the pot? These single-serving pies are perhaps a little more like empanadas than pot-pies but are easy to make and create delicious individual portions that use up that turkey in no time.

 Mini Turkey Pot-Pies
--1 tbsp olive oil
--1 small onion, diced
--garlic, minced
--8oz. frozen peas and carrots
--1 cup shredded cooked turkey meat
--1 cup chicken broth
--1 tsp. flour (or corn starch, if needed to thicken)
--salt & pepper
--1 package of refrigerated pie crusts (contains two pie crusts)
--cooking spray

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Sautè the onion and garlic for a few minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the onion is translucent. Add the frozen peas and carrots mixture and stir heartily to mix together.

Add the chicken broth and the shredded turkey and combine well. Season with a little bit of salt and black pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Depending upon the turkey (how it was cooked, how old it is, how much it has dried up), the mixture may soak up more or less broth. Use flour or corn starch to thicken the mixture so that it is less liquid.

Spray a baking sheet with the cooking spray. Lay out the pie crusts and cut into quarters (you can cut into halves if you want bigger pies). Place a large dollop of the filling onto the center of the pie crust quarter and fold up the edges to create a little purse or dumpling. You may need to wet your fingertips a little to create a good seal on the folds.

Cook at 325 degrees for 15 or so minutes or until the crusts are golden brown. Use a spatula to remove from the baking sheet so the bottoms do not continue to brown.

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8 mini pies
Calories: 297 per pie

Crisper Drawer Ham & Black Eyed Pea Stew

Who snagged the ham bone after this year's Christmas dinner? This girl.

Traditionally a lot of folks prefer to make some version of split pea soup, but I decided to make something I call "Crisper Drawer Stew." What exactly is in Crisper Drawer Stew? It's not quite everything but the kitchen sink...it's actually all the veggies left in the crisper drawer that need to be cooked. Plus, it being New Years and all, it's tradition to eat black eyed peas for good luck in the coming year.

So below is the recipe I made, but look inside your own crisper drawer. There's veggies in there crying for help.

Crisper Drawer Ham Bone Soup
--1 ham bone, some ham left on it
--32 oz. Chicken Broth or Stock
--Carrots, sliced and chopped
--Celery stalks and ribs, sliced and chopped
--Turnip, sliced and chopped
--Onion, chopped into larger chunks
--3 Bay Leaves
--Garlic Salt
--Collard Greens, stems removed and roughly chopped (I just rip with my hands)
--1 bag frozen black eyed peas, thawed



Place the ham bone in a large stock pot and cover it with chicken broth/stock. Add the bay leaves, garlic, chopped carrots, onions, celery and turnip (insert-your-own-root-veggies-here). Simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours, until the ham is falling off the bone and the marrow slides out easily.


Remove the ham bone and remove any remaining ham from the bone. Fish out any other large chunks of ham and chop or rip (again, I use my hands) into smaller pieces.

Return the ham to the pot and add the ripped greens and black eyed peas.

Continue to simmer until ready to eat.

Remember, soups and stews almost always test better the next day!

Everything Tastes Better In A Pie Crust

I had a pie crust left over from Thanksgiving living in my freezer. I used to make my own crusts from scratch, until I discovered that the ones I bought from the store tasted exactly the same. (What? Sometimes you have to cut corners).

I also had steak and chicken thawed in the refrigerator. And buttermilk left over from mashed potatoes and pancake making. I also had a very pregnant, very hungry, sister and her very tall, always hungry, husband to feed.


I decided to make some sort of version of Shepherd's Pie based on the ingredients we had handy. I'd never made one before and just sort of, well, was winging it based on what I remembered from dining at many a fine Irish establishment.

Upside Down Shephard's Pie:

--chicken, sliced into bite-sized chunks
--steak, sliced into bite-sized chunks
--olive oil
--1 onion, diced to your size preference
--garlic
--sliced mushrooms
--beef bouillon
--Worcestershire sauce
--1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
--tarragon
--parsley
--flour
--3 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks for mashing
--buttermilk
--1 stick butter
--1 pie crust

The Meat & Gravy:
Cook chicken in olive oil over medium to medium high heat until free of salmonella. Remove to plate. In same pan cook steak in olive oil over medium to medium high heat until outside is brown but inside is still mostly rare. Put with chicken.


In same pan, melt 1/3 of stick of butter. Add garlic and onion. Cook 2 minutes until fragrant and onion begins to get translucent. Add mushrooms and cook down. Add 2 spoonfuls of bouillon paste (or 1 bouillion cube). You do NOT need to melt the bouillon first. We are making gravy with it! Splash in some Worcestershire sauce and shake in parsley and tarragon.

(I'm terrible at measuring, so here's my tip: don't over do it! I just shake it a little at a time until it tastes like delicious).

Add the can of diced tomatoes and scrape all the bits together. Add the cooked chicken and cooked steak back into the mix. If mix seems too liquid, add a tsp of flour and stir it all up. The flour will thicken the gravy.


The Mashed Potatoes:
Cover the chopped potatoes in large pot with cold water. Heat on high heat until water is boiling. (I'm at altitude so I don't know how long it takes potatoes to cook at lower elevations). Let potatoes/water boil for a few minutes. Potatoes are ready to be mashed when you can easily stick a fork into them.

I used a hand held potato masher to smash up the potatoes. Then I added the other 2/3 stick of butter and a few splashes of buttermilk. Pregnant sister mashed her little heart out and added buttermilk as needed to make the potatoes fluffy but not too creamy.

Then I added it one TBSP of flour to make them thicker and sticky for the pie.

We put the potatoes in the bottom of the pie crust (or Shepherd's Pie was upside down, remember?!) and smoothed them around to make a nice potato bed for all the meat mix to live inside of. The meat/gravy mix went on top of the potato bed.


Bake in the oven at 350 until the pie crust is golden on the edges.

Mashed Potatoes Get A Second Life

By now you're probably sick of eating leftovers. You've gotten creative and made turkey noodle soup, turkey tetrazinne, turkey casserole. I'm over cranberries and pecan pie. And one person can only eat so many mashed potatoes in one setting!

This year Kathryn and I both decided to make mashed potatoes with bacon included. And once she returns from Thanksgiving in New York we'll all get to see and read about what other goodies she made.

I attended multiple Thanksgiving celebrations and schlepped the potatoes with me to each stop. But with so many other options and all the side dish competition, a heavy portion of those pork mashers came home with me. Cooked bacon gets chewy after a time and these potatoes are past their prime so it's time to get creative.



Potato Pancakes
--vegetable oil
--leftover mashed potatoes
--salt & pepper
--flour

I took my trusty cast iron skillet and added about a 1/2" of vegetable oil and heated it over medium heat.

If the potatoes are plain I'd add salt, pepper, fresh garlic, onion, cayenne or whatever you like to make 'em pop a little.


While the oil heats, fashion the mashed potatoes into cakes. Dredge the cakes in the flour so they are covered in flour (this gives the oil something to stick to and helps keep the potatoes from becoming a hot gooey mess).


Fry pancakes til golden brown, turning so both sides are nice and crisp. Drain on a paper towel and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Great for breakfast!