Homemade Turkey Pot Pie with Biscuits

I have made a homemade, from scratch pot pie before but I didn't save the recipe. I have blogged about it before and it was quite a time consuming recipe (about 3 hours if I remember right). I would've gladly made it again because my husband had rated it a 10/10 but no matter how I searched, I was unable to find the recipe again.

Because the crust is the hardest part for me and we had a biscuit mix to use up, I decided to top it with biscuits instead of a full crust. This is a common thing but I'm not sure if you can still call it pie then but oh well. For the first time ever, I made up my own recipe for something complicated (I've done pasta dishes, stir fries, soups, etc before but the pot pie seems more difficult).

Ingredients:

• cooked turkey (I used our leftover shredded turkey from Thanksgiving. I'm not quite sure how much turkey it was but it's up to you how much you want to use. I will guess about 1 1/2-2 cups)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or whatever cream of you want), not diluted
• 2-3 good sized potatoes, chopped in bite size pieces
• a can of peas (I actually don't really like canned peas but I had bought them once when frozen just wasn't going on sale. I ended up not making the recipe I had bought them for so now they were just taking up space in the pantry. You can easily substitute in frozen)
• corn, about 1/3 of a bag
• 1 cup water or broth
• carrots, about 2 whole (chopped)
• garlic, to taste
• salt, to taste
• onion powder (I was too lazy to chop up an onion. You can use either)
• biscuit mix

Directions:

1. Add the potatoes, water, and frozen ingredients (for us, this was the corn, carrots, and turkey) to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. Cook until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes. 
2. Add remaining non-frozen vegetables or meat (for us, just the peas).
3. Then stir in the seasonings and cream of mushroom soup. Stir until everything is well coated. Be sure to taste for the seasonings. I ended up using a lot more salt than I thought I would. (I assumed the soup would take care of the saltiness but it didn't work out that way). 
4. Turn down to a simmer and continue to stir occasionally.
5. While that simmers, make your biscuits according to the mix directions.
6. Grease a 9x13 pan. Preheat oven to 375.
7. Add the soup/meat/vegetable mixture to the pan and top with biscuits. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until biscuits are browned. Enjoy!

I will admit this reicpe wasn't as good as our original (about an 8/10) but it took about half the time to make and tastes fantastic leftover, even the biscuits!

Homemade Cream of Celery Soup

Today for lunch, I made cream of celery soup. I was a little leery of it because I wasn't sure how much of a meal it was going to be. I still don't think it had enough protein, since it just came from dairy products, but it was much better than I was expecting. It is definitely not the same as heating up a can of cream of celery soup and adding the milk or water. Even though I use the cans in recipes, eating them plain just seems too gross to me. Also, this recipe can easily be modified to make just about any cream of soup you want. It is of course more time consuming than opening up a can but because it tastes so much better and is arguably healthier, it might be worth it. However, by no means is this soup healthy. Yes, it has celery in it but that's about it. It also has lots of butter and other fats.

I made a few adjustments to the original recipe so I will write mine out for you.

Ingredients:

• 6 stalks of celery (non-organic but we don't buy organic anything), chopped small (and next time I will chop them even smaller)
• a couple shakes of garlic powder
• a couple shakes of onion powder (I got too lazy after chopping all the celery to find the energy to cut the onions too but I may change that for the future)
• I misread the directions and used 1/2 cup of butter instead of 1/4 and next time, I will cut it down (although this way was delicious too)
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups of water with the chicken flavoring from a ramen mixed in (usually what we use for chicken broth)
• 1 cup 1% milk
• about 1/4 cup sour cream (to make it thicker since we didn't have cream or whole milk and we had this on hand)
• a pinch of salt (I was careful not to use too much because the ramen is so salty)
• a pinch of sugar

Then I followed the same directions as the original but I only simmered for 7 minutes instead of 15. I also turned the heat down to medium-low instead of medium because mine kept sticking. I think the full 15 minutes would've made it took thick.

The recipe said that it makes the equivalent of two cans of cream of soup but I have to disagree with this. We barely got 3 servings out of it (and that's food pyramid servings, not what people actually eat servings). It was very very good, even on its own and we will definitely make it again. We also think it might make a good sauce for something or be good if you add some potatoes. 

Meat and Potato Casserole

I know the title of this post sounds so bland but this casserole was quite delicious! We are kind of a potato kick lately because we have over 30 pounds of potatoes to use. I know they last forever but we've also had them forever. We also love casseroles because you can fill them with whatever you want, including other vegetables lurking in your vegetable crisper.

This recipe is pretty easy to make but does require a bit of multi-tasking. We also used real potatoes (obviously) instead of frozen ones so the author recommended dicing them and soaking them in water for ten minutes first. We weren't sure the casserole would have enough liquid in it to cook the potatoes but they turned out so good! They were chewy instead of mushy. You could top this casserole with mashed potatoes or something of the like but the chewy fry-ness of this gives it a different taste. We baked it for 40 minutes because the cheese sauce was starting to burn but the potatoes were still pale.

I will admit the sour cream and onions in the ground beef makes it taste a tad like stroganoff so at first it tastes a little off with the mixed vegetables (we used green beans, corn, carrots, and broccoli). But the flavors come together and taste even better as leftovers (like most things). Next time, we will also add more cheese on top of the potatoes, probably within the last 5 minutes of cooking. 1/2 cup for a 9x13 pan really isn't that much. I'm not sure, even without the extra cheese, I would call this casserole healthy (or in the author's words, "Good for you") but it could be worse. I also wonder how this would taste with a cream of soup instead of the cheese sauce. Of course, that makes it even unhealthier but possibly tastier!

So the first night we had this, I would've rated it a 3.5 out of 5. As leftovers, I rate this a 4.5 out of 5. We will be making this again!

Shepherd's Pie with Ham

Hey everyone. Once again, I apologize for not blogging in a while. Especially with the holidays, time just got away from me. As usual, I will try to blog more in the upcoming days but we will have to see how things go.

A while ago, David and I were looking for a new recipe that used ham and potatoes. David wanted a shepherd's pie sort of thing but I had never heard of one made with ham. I figured it was possible but you'd have to alter most of what was in it to make it taste right (in my opinion). I googled for one and found this recipe. It turned out great! David did most of the work because Baby was not cooperating and needed more attention. The only thing I would change from his recipe was the amount of black pepper he put in the potatoes. He didn't measure but it got kind of spicy. Well, I don't know if spicy is the right word but it was just too much pepper.

As we normally do, we made a couple changes to the recipe. First, we didn't put the cream cheese in the mashed potatoes. We didn't have any on hand and we don't really like the texture it gives them. Second, we used water instead of broth as a time saver (we don't buy broth. We sometimes have bouillon but then you have to boil water and stuff). Third, we used cream of chicken instead of cream of celery. In our small town, I don't think the grocery store even carries cream of celery. We have VERY limited cream ofs. I think everything else, including the directions, remained the same.

This recipe did take a while, especially because we didn't have leftover mashed potatoes so we made them from scratch. I think it was worth it but I would wonder if you could prep it ahead of time and put it in the fridge before baking. I will also mention that it tastes great leftover too!

My Daughter's Stocking

Back in October, I made my baby a stocking for St. Nick but I, without thinking to blog about it first, put it with Christmas storage. Well, it's finally back out again and I have pictures!

It was so much fun to make. I pulled out all my red, green, winter, and Christmas themed fabrics. Then, I found a pattern for a stocking I liked (but in reality, it's a really odd shape and I wouldn't use it again). I made all my strips of fabric, sewed them together, and then cut out the stocking pattern. The inside matches the top fold over fabric and the back is just a solid piece. My strips are all about 2 inches (with seam allowances) but some got a little skinnier, depending on the size of the fabric I started out with. This was a great scrap buster!

My mother in law has an embroidery machine so she embroidered my daughter's name on it but for her privacy, I have covered it up with some tracing paper (so it may look a little strange in the picture). The white looking fabric (for the fold over and inside) is actually a creamish-white with gold dots on it. This whole thing turned out wonderful. It wasn't too much work but the end result is huge. I will definitely find a different pattern for my future kids.

Here are the pictures!

This is the front, with the piecing. Sorry it's sideways.

This is the plain back. The white specks are actually stars.

Mush Soup

Last night, I made a really simple, cheap dinner. It ended up being delicious, despite its appearance. It was all cooked in one pot, which is extra convenient.

Ingredients:

• about a pound of green or yellow beans
• half pound of cubed, cooked ham
• 4 cups of water
• half a packet of onion soup mix
• garlic
• 1-2 pounds of potatoes (any kind but we used russet), skin on, cubed
• half an onion

Then you mix it all in a skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, put a lid on for about 20 minutes and turn down the heat to a simmer. After that, take the lid off and continue to cook until it thickens (about 10-15 more minutes). The potatoes and beans get really soft. You can play with the seasonings and vegetables. This is quite a versatile dish and also really cheap. We got the beans for free from David's grandma's garden but even with that, it came out to about $1 for the entire dish. That's only $0.25 a serving!

Hosting Thanksgiving

This year, I hosted my very first Thanksgiving. On actual Thanksgiving, we went to David's family's house and my family drove up. On Friday, we had our meal with my side of the family. I have never hosted before or cooked so many things at once. I also have never made a turkey before.

I bought everything about a week and a half in advance because that was when I found the prices to be the cheapest. I will admit, I bought a few convenience items (like boxed stuffing) to speed up the cooking process.

Our meal consisted of:

• sparkling grape juice (a must have for holidays in this family)
• a 15 pound turkey
• stuffing
• green bean casserole
• mashed potatoes
• cranberries
• rolls
• gravy
• apple pie
• pumpkin pie
• a strawberry jello dessert (family recipe)

That may not sound like that much work and I did manage to find some time (between starting the turkey and having to start everything else) that I could mingle and hang out but it was more exhausting than I anticipated.

I received many compliments on how moist my turkey was--dark and light meat. I also cut the cooking time in almost half according to how long it should've taken on the package.

First, I thawed the turkey 5 days in advance. You have to remember that turkeys take A LONG TIME to thaw in the fridge. Then I put the turkey on the counter for about 45 minutes, letting it come up to room temperature. Then I unwrapped it, checked its insides for the gravy packet and such, and put it in my roasting pan. Then I put it in the (preheated) oven at 475 degrees for a half hour. After that, I turned the oven down to 325 and checked on it about another half hour to hour later. Any spots that were getting too dark, I covered in foil. (Eventually, I covered the whole turkey but I started with things like the wings first). At this time, I also put in my meat thermometer to keep an eye on the temp. About two and a half hours in, I turned the temp up to 350. Then I waited until the thermometer read 165 in more than one place, but especially in the thigh because that's the thickest part. I took out the turkey and let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving it.That's it! I know it sounds complicated but it's not as bad as it seems. It took 3 hours total, instead of 5. The only reason I put the oven back up to 350 was because that was the temp the oven needed to be for the green bean casserole so I'm not sure if that's a necessary part of this or not.

The one complaint I received about the turkey was that the white meat was so moist that it was hard to cut into pieces because it just kept falling apart. The turkey was that good!