Snowed In: Turkey Pot Pie

Chrissie and I have finally emerged from the blizzard that hit our area last week. It was a doozy. It started Tuesday night, got bad Wednesday night, and maintained that level of badness until Saturday. Chrissie and I were holed up in our house the whole time, except for the occasional snow walks with our dogs. We never quite got to the "cabin fever" point, but another day or two may have done us in. All in all though, it was a very pleasant experience for us. It could have easily been the opposite - we knew of several friends who lost power for several days and saw a fair number of people on our street fail to maneuver on the ice and snow.

We had done pretty well on the food front. We had leftovers of a few things that held us over for a couple days, but on Friday, we had run out of pre-made food. In our fridge and pantry were some mismatched staples that needed to be creatively combined in order to put out something that would be palatable. Working in our favor was that we had carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, and some protein (ground turkey). Working against us was that we didn't have any eggs or milk, and only half a stick of butter. Things had the potential to be pretty grim.

I'll admit, I was the one stricken with despair. I blame it on a craving for french toast that had been "inceptioned" into my brain by a sports-radio talk show I listened to the day before the snow hit. Apparently, there had been a tradition in New Jersey to stock up on eggs, milk, and white bread right before a big snow and people would make french toast. I did not stock up on those things and by Friday I was paying the price. I couldn't stop being fixated on what we didn't have and concentrate on what we did have.

Thankfully, Chrissie managed to take the bull by the horns and pull us through dinner that night. She managed to formulate a plan for turkey pot pie, improvising ingredients where we didn't have any. We found this for the base recipe on Tasty Kitchen. We didn't have any turkey gravy, so we substituted it with a can of Cream of Chicken soup. We didn't have enough butter to make the crust, so we used Crisco instead for one half and Krusteaz mix for the other. The end result was delicious and a testament to the power of improvisation.

The top layer of crust broke up as we served it. It held up better in leftover form. No, it doesn't look like much, but it'll make point five past light speed.

Recipe - Snowy Day Turkey Pot Pie
Adapted from Zina via Tasty Kitchen


Ingredients

• 2 recipes worth of pie crust
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Divided
• 1 whole Carrot, Sliced Or Cubed
• 1 stalk Celery, Chopped
• 1 whole Small Onion, Diced
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Thyme Leaves, Chopped or a dash of dried thyme
• ½ pounds ground turkey, browned with salt and papper
• ¼ cups Flour
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 2 whole Small Potatoes, Peeled And Cubed
• ½ cups Frozen Green Peas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Pre-prepare your pie crusts. Line your baking dish with one, refrigerate the other until it's time to put the pie together.

Heat 2 Tablespoons of the butter in a large, deep skillet and saute the carrots, celery and onion until until tender. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, but not brown.

Add the thyme and turkey and add salt and pepper as desired. Cook several minutes until heated through.

Add the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter and the flour. Cook, stirring frequently, for a couple of minutes, being careful not to burn.

Stir in the cream of chicken soup and the chicken broth and heat to a simmer. Add the potatoes and cook until tender, about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the frozen peas. Stir to combine.

Pour turkey mixture into the prepared pie crust and cover with the other pie crust. Slit top in several places to let steam escape.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, depending on your oven, until top is golden brown. Remove pie from oven and let stand a few minutes before serving.