Turkey Pot Pie

I've presented several versions of pot pie before.  In the past, they've always been a "cheater" version that uses canned/frozen ingredients, which is a departure from my usual style of fresh produce and "from scratch" sauces.  The notion of a truly homemade pot pie has been on my mind for a while, and though this one is a step closer, I did still take some help from the store in the form of a refrigerated pie crust.

I don't believe in a bottom crust on pot pies.  Maybe you like it - if so, more power to you.  But in my opinion, the bottom crust is just a soggy, floppy mess.  That's no way to treat good pastry!  Plus, omitting the bottom crust makes me feel better about the fact that there's half a stick of butter in this pot pie.  (Although, on second thought, half a stick of butter spread out over 6-8 servings of pie barely counts, right?)


Turkey Pot Pie
adapted from All Recipes

4 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, minced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 c. chicken stock
3 tbsp. dried parsley
1 scant tsp. oregano
1-1/2 c. cubed turkey
3 tbsp. flour
1/2 c. skim milk
salt & pepper
1 refrigerated pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a large skillet, melt two tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat.  Add the onions, carrots, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Cook until onions are translucent and carrots are slightly softened.  Stir in the chicken stock and bring mixture to a boil.  Add the potatoes and cook until they are just fork tender.

In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter.  Add the turkey and the flour.  Pour in the milk and heat the mixture.  Combine the turkey mixture with the vegetables in the large skillet.  Cook until the sauce has thickened a bit.

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart oven-safe dish.

Top with the piecrust.  Slit holes in the top for ventilation.  Place on a cookie sheet in case of spillover.  This also makes moving the pie in and out of the oven much easier.

Place pie in the oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes.  Slice and serve.  We used bowls to catch all the delicious sauce!

I'm tagging this post for turkey and chicken because you could easily sub the latter into this recipe!

Pecan Tartlettes

My mom always makes pecan pie for Thanksgiving, and it's one of my favorite desserts.  Thanksgiving is the only time of year that I eat pecan pie, so I look forward to it in the weeks leading up to the holiday.  This year, Andrew and I will be celebrating here in Ohio with his family.  We're looking forward to a quiet holiday with great food and some of our favorite people.

I am in charge of the desserts, and in order to capture my love for pecan pie, I decided one of my offerings would be Pecan Tartlettes.  (More to come on the other desserts!)  I know Andrew's family likes pecan pie, but it's not their favorite, so they'd be unlikely to take a large slice of pie.  These mini tarts let people have a bite or two of pecan pie flavor without committing to a whole slice.  The best part is, if there are any leftovers, I can easily freeze them for future desserts.

I used a recipe I found on Cooks.com for Pecan Tartlettes.  I followed the recipe exactly, adding about 1/2 cup of pecans, but ended up having about a cup of filling leftover.  Not sure how that worked out, but I saved the extra pecan filling to add to vanilla ice cream next time I make it.

Once I made the dough, I split it into 24 pieces per the recipe.  Press the balls of dough into a mini muffin tin.

In order to make these blobs of dough into pretty little tart shells, I had to get resourceful.

I used my plastic ice cream scoop to form the tarts.  Pressing the scoop against the sides helped even out the sides of the shells.

I filled the shells with the pecan mixture, being careful not to get any of the sticky syrup on the muffin tin.

These pecan tartlettes are adorable AND delicious.  The shells are flaky and not too sweet, a nice contrast to the sugary pecan filling.  What a great addition to our Thanksgiving dessert table!