April 24, 2011

Today is Easter Sunday and millions of people are gathering across the country and eating their Easter lunches. There are also millions of people who are going out to eat lunch instead of being stuck at home making food for everyone. I think that more people tend to go out to lunch for Easter Sunday than on any other holiday. Of course I could be wrong, but the grocery stores were all open and restaurants were open, ready for the influx of people. I planned on staying home, in fact I had a tri-tip all thawed out and seasoned ready to be bar-be-queed. However my husband had other ideas. He planned on going to Costco to do a little shopping. Costco had other plans, they were closed. So he had to nix those plans. We always take a drive, always near lunch time or after lunch time and inevitably we are always starving. So we have to drive around looking for someplace to eat (actually we don't, but I think that it is his way of letting me not cook once in a while). Then comes the question - "Where do you want to go for lunch?" At this point when he asks, we are so hungry that we can't think straight and we (meaning me and the kids) could go anywhere. Our son chooses to go home and eat, my daughter chooses to go to her grandmothers' and make her cook for us. Me - I don't care, just give me food before I fall over. This is how my husband is different than us. He can go all day without eating and the rest of us need to eat every hour. And how come you might say haven't I figured this out and bring food with us? Well most of the time I honestly think that it will be only 1 hour that we will be out, so I am still learning.

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.