Turkey Pot Pie

So at the end of the weekend my fridge was packed. The trouble being, there wasn't a whole lot that lent itself well to being pawned off on people at work. There was about 1/4 of a pie, 1/3 of a cake, a few slices of banana bread, assorted things my parents brought and so on and so forth. Enough stuff you couldn't fit another bottle of water in there, let along anything else.

So I've been conscientiously trying to eat what I had rather than cooking or baking more stuff. I ate thanksgiving leftovers meals several times. But that got old. And I've had dessert with every meal which is kinda nice but also kinda weird. And I still have lots left.

So I decided to make Turkey Pot Pie. I used up what was left of my roasted onions, smashed potatoes, the carrots that weren't looking their best in my produce drawer, some of the celery, a quart of turkey stock, the maybe cup or so of chicken stock that was left in the box .... and just about everything else that was left from Thanksgiving dinner. This worked quite well as a cleaning out the fridge meal.

So I sweated the carrots and celery first. The onions were already softened so I figured I would hold off on those. I added a couple tablespoons of flour when the carrots and celery were softened a bit to form a roux. Then I dumped in a whole bunch of containers from the fridge... some listed above and some that I've probably forgotten. Milk. Milk was another thing I had added. Mixed it all up, brought it up to a simmer and let it cook for a bit. A bit meaning when I realized I was hungry and didn't want to wait any more.

Then I filled a bowl up (I don't have any fancy ramekins or anything so I just used a ceramic bowl) and stretched puff pastry over the top. The first one I did didn't work out so well. I didn't get the puff pastry stuck on the bowl enough so it ended up falling in and getting all soggy. It was OK but not quite right. The next one I pulled the puff pastry tighter and made sure it stuck to the bowl just about the whole way around. Bake until golden brown. I just turned the oven on, didn't worry about the temperature too much.

It came out quite good considering it was just me dumping all the scraps from my fridge into a pan, putting puff pastry on top and calling it a pot pie. It was nice and warm and filling, warmed me up nicely from the lack of heat in my house. Warm enough that I could feel my fingers again after chopping vegetables straight from the fridge and puttering around in my unheated house trying to figure out why it was unheated. I could have taken a pic but... well... cold and hunger won.

So what's left: 1 serving of turkey pot pie, cranberry sauce, a little bit of whipped sweet potatoes, some rolls, bits of cakes and pies and other sweets, still some turkey, mac and cheese... when I started this list I was trying to show how much progress I had made and how there really wasn't much left. Now that I am writing it out it doesn't seem so impressive.