Val Talks Turkey, and Hick Do-Goods Again

Tuesday dawned at -5 degrees, with 8.2 official inches of snow on the ground. Of course Hick took off for town. The good news is, he brought back Casey's donuts for The Pony and me, and he picked up some scratchers that I'd requested (and given him money to procure). So Hick was free of the bitter naggin'. For a day, anyway.

 

This was from Monday, after only about 4-5 inches had accumulated. The birds were having a Not-Heaven of a time perching on that rail, making sure the coast was clear enough to steal dog food out of the self-dispenser.

In another move of mind-boggling selflessness, Hick called neighbor Tommy on Tuesday morning, to make sure he was okay, and see if he needed a ride to town for groceries. He did not. However, Tommy asked Hick to plow his driveway. Which Hick declined, offering instead to drive him to work. That meant picking him up after his shift. Which turned out to be 8:00 p.m.!

 

Anyhoo... knowing the snow was on the way Sunday night, I dug into the mini freezer for some FREE food to use up. I chose a 2-pound roll of ground turkey. It took a day to thaw, and Monday night, I made a turkey pot pie.

 

 

It's not very photogenic, but it was crusty and delicious, a hot meal on a frigid day. Neither too runny nor too dry, but JUST RIGHT! We could have invited Goldilocks to dinner! The hardest part of making it was browning the ground turkey. The rest involved stirring ingredients in a bowl, pouring them into a dish, and sliding it into the oven. Here's my recipe, which I usually make with chicken, not turkey.

 

I used a 9 x 13 glass baking dish (coated with butter), and first mixed my ingredients in a large bowl (kind of like a plastic cauldron).

 

3/4 bag of thawed frozen hash brown cubes

1 1/2 bags thawed frozen peas/carrots

1 can cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

a couple of shakes of garlic salt

ground black pepper

 

I stirred that giant bowl of ingredients with a giant spoon, and poured it into the 9 x 13 glass pan, where it fit just right! Then I topped it with 2 store-bought pie crusts. The kind that come 2-to-a-box, in the refrigerator section. I poked some big holes in the crust by stabbing a knife in and twisting it. Perhaps i enjoyed that step just a bit too much, but a pot pie has to breathe, you know! I baked it at 425 for 35 minutes total. After the first 10 minutes, I covered the crust with foil to prevent burning, then took the foil off for the last 5 minutes.

 

Hick and I will be feasting on that for several days. The Pony will go without, since he's a pot pie snob. The turkey is not as good as using chicken, because turkey doesn't have much flavor. It's like the tofu of the animal world. This turkey pot pie was tasty from the other ingredients, though I wish I had added a bit of garlic powder as well.

 

Thanks, Ponytail Guy, for our FREE protein. I heard Hick calling his cronies on Tuesday afternoon, informing them that there WILL BE food boxes again this Friday. Hick had better not plan on bringing anything home! Unless there are those delicious crispy chicken patties, of course. Or the chicken nuggets. 

The sun came out Tuesday. Hick said the main roads got plowed after noon, but the parking lots were covered and treacherous. Maybe he's just trying to keep me captive. I have only his word for it. I DID see that temperatures rose into the low twenties. More snow is in Wednesday's forecast, but I'm hoping we're on the TRACE end of it, not the 2 inches.

I miss my daily 44 oz Diet Coke outings. Thank goodness I have a supply of bottled Diet Coke to make my own not-quite-magical elixir.