Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Pot Pie #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #Thanksgiving

 Libby Klein Thanksgiving is upon us! It's really late this year too. I know you're probably in the midst of planning and shopping. Maybe things are hectic for you, or maybe you're sitting back, reading a book, and letting someone else do the cooking. Either way, I hope you enjoy your holiday. I always make way too much food. The problem is, I have a big crowd and we each have our favorites. All the holiday favorites have to be represented. We have to have chunky cranberry sauce with oranges and cloves AND the one that comes out the shape of the can. Holidays can be complicated. One thing that I'm going to make easy for you is the leftovers.

I give two days to take the victory lap around the big meal with a leftover plate of all my favorites, and the very important turkey sandwiches. After that I need to do something with all this food. My favorite solution is pot pie. You can use almost every leftover from the typical Thanksgiving dinner and put it in pot pie. I bake mine in little single-serving ramekins, but you can make one big pie - or - you can dish yours out into single-serve freezer proof dishes to bake later. Just thaw and warm in the oven. No need to fuss with a tricky pie crust, just top your warm pot pies with puff pastry and you've got a tasty meal.

Thanksgiving Pot Pie

Filling

2 cups Leftover Turkey, chopped or cubed

Veggies – whatever you have. I used 1 bag frozen peas, 1 bag frozen carrots, and 2 cups leftover green bean casserole. If you have roasted potatoes or brussels sprouts throw them in here!

3-4 cups Leftover gravy. I used the Kevin's Gluten Free Turkey gravy and it was AMAZING!

1 cup leftover stuffing - yep. It will make a nice thick gravy.

Frozen puff pastry, thawed and set up to room temperature. Below you'll see I have both gluten-free and glutened for the lucky folks. 

1 beaten egg for egg wash or 2 TBSP heavy cream for cream wash.

NOTE: ONLY THE SCHAR PUFF PASTRY IS GLUTEN FREE! THE PEPPERIDGE FARM HAS GLUTEN. I GIVE THAT ONE TO THE FAMILY.

Directions

Warm all the above on the stove until hot. Spoon into a casserole dish or individual casseroles - or into freezer proof dishes to thaw and bake later. 

Either bake the frozen pastry by itself on a cookie sheet (which will create a higher lift) and top the finished pot pies when ready to serve. Or cut into rounds to cover individual casseroles. Brush with beaten egg or heavy cream. Bake according to package directions.

Serve right away. If you make a large frozen pot pie to serve later, this makes a great solution for when you need to take something to a party, or make a meal for a friend at the last minute. Just be sure to do the pastry after the pot pie filling is hot.

 

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all.

 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her 
classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Turkey Pot Pie with Mashed Potato/Rutabaga Crust #transformingleftovers #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm not going to lie, making low sodium gravy last week with low sodium chicken broth was an exercise in frustration. I ended up adding a tablespoon of very low sodium soy sauce and two teaspoons of Annie's low sodium Worcestershire sauce, which is really quite good. But we did have yummy leftovers and I did find a tasty way to bring them to life...And here it comes, just when you think you can't look at another plate of turkey and potatoes again!

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/2 cups bite size turkey pieces
About 1 cup leftover gravy or a cup of white sauce made with 2 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, and one cup low-sodium chicken broth or milk
1 cup frozen lima beans
2 to 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 to 1 cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 to 2 cups potatoes mashed with rutabagas

Grease a round soufflé pan. Steam the limas and carrots until just tender. 


Layer the gravy or sauce, vegetables, and turkey into the prepared pan. 

Cover the top with the mashed potato mixture. Grate parmesan cheese over the top of the potatoes. 

Bake at 3:50 for 30 to 40 minutes, until the gravy is bubbling and the potato layer is browning.  Serve with a green salad.

(Here's my sodium seasoning count: 1 cup chicken broth, 130 mg, 1 Tbsp House of Tsang low-sodium soy sauce, 320 mg, 2 tsp Annie's worcestershire sauce, 150 mg. For the mashed veggies, I used Benson's Table Tasty no salt, no sugar seasoning, which I like a lot. John says it tastes like old-fashioned Knorr's vegetable soup.)

And tomorrow you can have steak or fish, anything but leftovers:).


Don't forget that mysteries make great stocking stuffers! (Here's my Pinterest board with tons of suggestions...)

Turkey Tetrazzini #recipe @LucyBurdette

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

LUCY BURDETTE: okay, so this isn't technically a Thanksgiving recipe, it's a what-to-do-with-leftover-turkey recipe. (Should you be so lucky!) And everyone probably has their own version of this same dish. 

I wanted to squeeze in some extra vegetables, so I added spinach along with the peas. There will be a million variations you can try--leave out what you don't like, adjust the cheese, replace some of the milk with extra gravy or low sodium chicken broth, add mushrooms, add sliced olives if salt isn't a worry. Once you've put it together, you can add a salad or other green vegetable and you've got a wonderful, comforting meal for your leftover guests:). It feeds a good group (6-8 with a salad) and can be made ahead of dinner time and refrigerated. Because this version of the recipe uses Swiss cheese mostly, with some Parmesan as topping, it ends up in the low-sodium range.

 
INGREDIENTS


2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
Half a cup chopped pimento (next time I'd use more!)
Four celery stalks, chopped
One onion, chopped or 3 leeks, cleaned and chopped
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
2 cups milk
1 cup leftover chicken or turkey
One package frozen peas
One and a half pounds good spaghetti or other pasta
2 cups fresh spinach
Season with a little salt and pepper if you think it's needed
3-4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9 x 13 pan well. Melt the butter and saute the celery, onions, and leeks for five minutes. Add in the flour and mix well, cooking for a few extra minutes on low heat. Slowly stir in the milk, whisking away lumps and allow the sauce to thicken. In a separate pot, cook the spaghetti--I like to break the strands in half. Drain and set aside in a large bowl.

Mix the peas and spinach and pimentos and turkey into the cream sauce and simmer for a minute. Add the shredded cheese and stir until melted. Mix the creamed ingredients with waiting spaghetti. 

Spread this into the prepared pan and top with Parmesan. Cover with foil. Bake until bubbly--about 40 minutes. Remove the foil for the final ten minutes to brown the top.

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