Day After

After a short weekend of eating, playing games, more eating, laughing, spending time with our large family of parents, siblings and grandchildren, aunts and cousins, it was time to go back home to the real world.

This time of year is always magical, special and stressful and always is over to soon. We normally stay until after Christmas to help clean up, but this year we left on Christmas Day. We wanted to beat the rain and that didn’t work. We ended up driving home in the rain going only 45 miles an hour and sometimes slower due to it raining so hard. It took 1 ½ hours longer than it should have to get home. The kids were very good throughout the whole trip, so that really helped. Because we were trying to concentrate on the road and other cars and it doesn’t help when we have to turn our head around to yell at the kids.

Tired from all the overly rich food we had, I decided to make a turkey pot pie. Since it was a cold and lazy day, some comfort food sounded really good and my family loves turkey pot pie. I just use the basic turkey pot pie recipe and tweak it to our taste. I always add parsley and celery leaves and if I have any small amounts of vegetables in the refrigerator, I add them into the pot. This time I added bell peppers and broccoli.

Recipe

3 c. water (can also use broth – vegetable or chicken stock)
2 carrots, chopped
2-3 T. chopped parsley
4 potatoes, chopped
1 ½ c. – 2 c. shredded or chopped turkey
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 T. chopped celery leaves (or whatever is on the stalk)
1 ½ t. salt
¼ bell pepper, chopped
1 ½ c. broccoli, chopped
1 T. – 1 ½ T. cornstarch (thickener)

Add all vegetables and spices to 3 c. water and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes. If to high, lower the heat. Add cornstarch to thicken broth. How juicy or thick you want the stock is a matter of choice.

Preheat oven to 425º. Put into a Pyrex pan (9 x 13 or 8 x 10) and cover with unbaked pie crust. Cook for 30-35 minutes, let rest for 5 minutes and enjoy.

I used the basic turkey pot pie recipe and pie crust recipe from the Betty Croker Cookbook. This can be a little fattening, but everything in moderation and it will be fine.