Bad Kitty! My Pot Pie!

"Mom! Kitty is being a..."

Alright, if you are my age (I just celebrated the 12th anniversary of my 21st birthday. And I'm not in denial, that is a river in Egypt I like to drink gin & tonics on), then you know how this ends, but the kitty seriously needs to remember that he doesn't get people food, no matter how tasty it is. Today can be summed up in a single word: funky.

And the metric ton of rain doesn't help the issue today, all I want to do today is curl up with a good book, some hot chocolate (which a smidgen of peppermint schnapps) (when you pretend you are a grown-up, you get to flavor your beverage like this), and hide inside watch the new Harry Potter (finally!). With that said I've been dragged outside into the cold, harsh world against my will to suffer unimaginable horrors (aka, at the coffee shop drinking my daily gallon of coffee so I'll actually get some writing done). I did spend the morning before I left the house throwing together some leftovers into one of my favorite winter dishes to bake when I get home: turkey pot pie.

Bad Kitty Turkey Pot Pie

Tools:

Knife and cutting board

Baking pan

Ingredients:

1 cup of pre-cooked (cough...leftovers again) turkey, chopped up into small bits

1.5 cups of leftover turkey gravy

3.5 cups of chopped veggies (I selectively cheat, especially for food like this, I bought a pre-chopped bag of soup veggies and a bag of frozen mirepoix mix from my local supermarket when it was on sale for a buck a bag. Measure out two cups frozen of each and let thaw, the veggies will settle more when unfrozen and you don't want the excess water in your pot pie.)

1-2 cups of leftover mashed potatoes

2 tsp dry thyme

1 deep dish pre-made pie crust in its own pie tin (don't use a gram cracker crust! If you do I can't be responsible as your family looks at you like you are insane.)

Welcome to Rocket Science 101, today we will be making one of the most difficult meals in the world (note: massive sarcasm right here) Take your pie crust and let it thaw for about 10 minutes if it is frozen, this will help keep it from cracking when you put it into the oven. Take the turkey, veggies, gravy, thyme, and pour it all into the pie crust. Take the potatoes and cover the top of the pie in a mashed potato shell (yes, this is more like a shepherd's pie, but shut it, I have left over taters!)

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees and place the pie on the baking pan in the oven. Let cook an hour or so, you will want the top crust of potatoes to brown, but take out if the crust starts to burn.

Take it out and let it cool for about 10-20 minutes, remember that gravy at 350 degrees leaves the same kind of scarring that a good cheese pizza will on the roof of your mouth right out of the oven. This particular recipe mixes well with a good stout Guinness or something in the Irish Coffee category of adult beverages.

Bien Camino!