Submitted by: Tonya Wagner

Ahh pot pie! It’s such a warm comforting food.  To make my pie easier, I just buy ready made pie crust and it works perfectly.  My husband likes to eat his slices of pie with a side of steamed rice. This was new to me but I guess this is how his mom served it and its pretty good.  This recipe uses chicken but you could always substitute turkey. When I feel really lazy, I buy the turkey strips already cut up. Super simple.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk  
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

This traditional Filipino dish is offers a nice mild broth with hints of ginger in the background. It is a recipe that is truly simple to make.  My mom has often had to substitute fresh spinach leaves in place of the sili/pepper leaves (which is the original ingredient) because it is not always found in normal grocery stores.  I use spinach as an ingredient in this recipe because this is how I am so used to having it nowadays, but please, if you have an asian store nearby, grab the pepper leaves for a more authentic taste.  The chayote squash can be substituted with one green papaya and in true Filipino fashion, we wash the rice before cooking it and use the water from the 2nd washing for this dish. It gives the dish a bit more flavor.

Ingredients:

• 3 pound whole cut up chicken, or any part of the chicken you prefer
• 2 chayote squash, peeled, centers removed and sliced lengthwise in half, then cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 thumb-size ginger root, peeled and cut into strips
• 2 tablespoons patis/fish sauce
• 4 cups of water or the 2nd washing of rice water
• 1 bunch of spinach leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a casserole heat oil over medium to medium high heat and sauté garlic, onion and ginger until soft.
2. Add the chicken pieces and stir fry for about 5 minutes or until the chicken turns white. Remove from pan.
3. Add the chayote squash and simmer until the vegetable is tender.
4. Season with the fish sauce (patis) and salt and pepper to taste.  The recipe has 2 tablespoons of patis listed, but please feel free to adjust to taste.
5. Pour in the water and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. Add chicken back into the pot and lower heat. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked.
6. Taste the broth and re-season with salt, pepper and fish sauce (patis) to taste if needed.
7. Add the spinach leaves and cook to soften, about another 3 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and serve over steamed rice or eat alone as a soup.

Chicken Tinola

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These whole wheat pancakes are full of flavor and are very healthy. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute regular milk soured with about 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to curdle the milk.  These cook up a bit delicately so make sure you don’t have your heat up too high or they will burn. Mix in some blueberries into the batter for homemade blueberry pancakes. YUM!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup oatmeal or wheat germ
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon cinamon (optional)
• butter flavored cooking spray, butter or oil

1. In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, wheat germ or oats, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt.
2. Add the canola oil to the flour-mixture and mix thoroughly.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour-butter mixture, and add the buttermilk and eggs. Stir until the liquids are fully incorporated.
4. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and grease the surface with a spritz around the pan with cooking spray, or 1 tablespoon of butter or oil. Ladle the batter onto the surface to form 4 inch pancakes. Once bubbles form on the top of the pancakes, flip them over, and cook them on the other side for about 2 minutes.

This is a great Thanksgiving Day stuffing that combines sausage, herbs, dried cranberries and apples. It may look complicated but it really is very simple to make…and tasty! If you cannot get fresh herbs, dried may be used but fresh is so much better. If you’re feeling really lazy, you can use the pre-packaged cubed “stuffing” bread which can be found at many local supermarkets. Play around with the breads if you like. You can even use cornbread if you prefer. This stuffing/dressing recipe is so good, you won’t be disappointed and you will have people hitting you up for the recipe left and right.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cubed stale whole wheat bread
• 2 cups cubed stale white bread
• 2 cups cubed stale sourdough
• 1 pound sage pork sausage (i.e. Jimmy Dean’s)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 1 2/3 Tablespoons fresh sage or 2 1/2 teaspoons dried
• 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 1 Fuji or Braeburn apple, cored and chopped
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (i.e. Craisins)
• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 cooked turkey liver, finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cup turkey or chicken stock (if placing the stuffing inside the turkey, use only 3/4 cup)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. To prepare the bread:  Leave out the slices of bread for a day to dry out and stale.  For the sourdough, I find that the baguettes, sliced then left out, work well.  Cube the bread once dried. Option 2: Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Cut the bread into cubes and then spread in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Set bread cubes inside a large mixing bowl.
2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, until sausage is browned and onions are soft.  Break up the sausage while browning. Drain excess grease.  Add the sage, rosemary, thyme and celery and stir well to incorporate the flavors of the herbs. Cook together for about 3 minutes.
3. Add the sausage mixture to the bread in mixing bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, parsley, and liver. Drizzle with turkey/chicken stock and melted butter, and mix lightly.
4. If you prefer to bake stuffing outside of the turkey: Spoon stuffing into a 13×9 baking dish and bake at 350 F covered for 45 minutes.  Stir the stuffing slightly after 30 minutes to spread the turkey/chicken stock.  If the stuffing seems too dry for your tastes, add a bit more stock.  If the stuffing is too wet, bake uncovered for the rest of the time (15 minutes).

If you want to stuff your holiday turkey with your stuffing: Spoon the stuffing mixture into your turkey to loosely fill.

Submitted by: Tonya Wagner

My cousin Pat gave me this recipe in November of 2004. It is a favorite at my house. I double this recipe with no problem at all.  You can vary the degree of spiciness of this recipe by the type of Rotel tomatoes you use as they come in different styles.  This is great for Super Bowl Sunday, gang get-togethers, and family dinners.  I will usually serve with oyster crackers, grated cheese, sour cream.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 2 cans black beans, drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• 2 cans Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup water
• 1 pkg Hidden Valley dressing mix
• 1 pkg taco seasoning

In a medium to large pan or skillet, brown ground beef. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft.  Drain any excess fat.  Add and mix rest of ingredients to the pan and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour.  This soup is very spicy!

If you are looking for a fail safe Thanksgiving turkey recipe, this is it. This recipe is tried and true and super simple to make. The chicken stock can be replaced with champagne or a white wine, if you prefer. To free up my oven, I made this in an electric roaster last year and it still turned out beautifully. If you want a really nice browned exterior, I would recommend doing this in the conventional oven. Be forewarned, this makes for such a moist, juicy turkey that the meat will fall off the bones, especially in the turkey legs. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ingredients:

• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
• 8 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 (14 oz.) can of chicken broth (or 3 1/2 cups of your favorite champagne/wine)
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons seasoning salt
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Remove the giblets from the cavity and If unwanted, discard them. If you want them, add them to the pan or reserve them for your gravy.
  2. Place turkey in a roasting pan or electric roaster. Make little pockets under the skin by separate the skin over the breast of the turkey. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on each “pocket” between the skin and breast meat and rub it in as best as possible. Take the other 2 tablespoons of butter and rub all over the outside of the turkey.
  3. Combine the chicken broth with the parsley and minced onion and pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt and garlic powder over the turkey.
  4. Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.

I often make this easy dish for brunch get togethers, baby showers, and potlucks. The spinach, mushroom, and bacon quiche is super easy to make and always gets rave reviews. The recipe is pretty forgiving and can be altered to suit your tastes as it is a great base recipe. If you don’t like bacon, you can omit it and instead just use butter as your base for sauteing the garlic and onion. One stick of butter should do it.

Ingredients:

• 3 slices bacon
• 4 Tbls butter (or omit bacon and use 8 Tbls butter)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 4 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 1 (6 ounce) package feta, crumbled
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place bacon in a medium skillet and turn on stove to medium heat. Pan-fry bacon until crispy. Remove bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and drain excess oil.  Crumble when cool enough to touch.  Reserve 1/4 cup bacon grease in pan and add  4 Tablespoons butter. Saute garlic and onion in bacon grease and butter until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in spinach, mushrooms, crumbled bacon, feta and 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture into pie crust.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into the pastry shell and with a fork, stir spinach filling to allow egg mixture to thoroughly combine with spinach filling.  The eggs will act as the binding for all the filling ingredients.
4. Place a cookie sheet in the bottom rack of your oven to catch any fluid that may drip from your quiche.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle top with remaining Cheddar cheese, and bake an additional 40 minutes, until set in center. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving.