Turkey Pot Pie

A traditional pot pie would be at least 8 servings an a lot of cooking time. While cooking other items I made an ingredient pre-prep with 1/2 celery stalk, 1 carrot, 1/2 onion and 1 garlic toe. 

I  cooked 1 Tbs butter with the onion, and later the garlic.  Added 1 Tbsp of flour.  After it'd cooked a while, I added the carrot & celery.  Then Tsp bouillon powder, 1 cup milk and after thickened, 8 oz peas and  8 oz of diced leftover turkey from the freezer. 

I cooked the cheesy biscuit earlier when I had the oven on for a birthday cake.  This recipe is amazing.  I made 1/2 batch.  But because it's hard to add 1/2 egg,I did whole and is was wet.  So I treated it as a giant drop biscuit.  Look at this beauty!!! Here's the recipe. 

 

Pizza Perfection

 

Round 1, Pizza 1

My husband loves pizza and rarely complains about any style crust.   On the other hand, I am a total crust snob.  Inspired by a TV show where they were making Naples style pizza, I started researching. 

Round 1, pizza 2

I read several articles on Cold Fermented Pizza Dough.   Here's the link to the recipe and directions that I mostly followed (I used 4g yeast).  After reading several articles, one secret is the timing.   The dough must be made 3-5 days before use.  I did Round 1 (pictures above) on day 3, round 2 (pictures below) on day 4. 

Secret # 2 is heat.  Pizza ovens are 900 F.  My oven maxes out at 550.  I followed suggestions and bought a pizza stone, bringing it to heat from a cold oven.  Middle rack  (some instructions say top rack).  I tried using the broiler on round 1, but it turned off the oven heat, so didn't do that round 2

Minute 6 of baking pizza 1 of round 2 I heard a bang.  The pizza stone broke. 

Undeterred, here's the hubby's pizza, perfect at 7 minutes.  He added pineapple after the photo.

I probably overloaded the cheese by Neapolitan standards.  Which prevented as much rise in the dough at the center.  

By the 4th pizza, I did get some bubbles in the center.

Amazing bubbles on the edges. 

I also found that it helped to roll out the crusts as much as they would go without bouncing back to a smaller size.   Then I let them sit for 10 minutes and rolled again, which increased the size and thinned out the crust. 

Fortunately, the broken pizza stone was still big enough for the mini pizzas. 

Round 2, Pizza 2 was everything I'd hoped for.  Pesto & fresh basil with ham & fresh mozzarella. 

YUMMY!

Four 9 inch pizzas for under $10.

Discount Tacos

Tacos are a great bargain.  They only take small amounts of ingredients and are a great way to use up leftovers.  One of my goal words for 2022 is Reduce.  Which when it comes to  food means lower cost, but also less food wasted.  With only 2 people too cook for, I never seem to make it through a package of tortillas before we're tired of eating tacos.  Or I put it in the freezer, only to throw them away months later.   

I searched for a corn tortilla recipe on line and made a 1/2 batch with some masa I had on hand.  Total cost was 10 cents and a few minutes at the stove.   I definitely need more practice.  And I prefer flour tortillas.   Maybe next time. 

I bought a tomato just for this but only used 1/2 so a cost of $ .50.    With some leftover precooked burger, and hot sauce and cheese I always have on hand, this meal was all in for $3  to feed 2 people well with 3 street tacos apiece.