Turkey pot pie

Well, I still needed to use up that turkey so I decided to make turkey pot pies. You can use your favorite crust recipe or used a packaged crust mix, or even some nice flaky biscuits from a can. I finally discovered that making crust is really a lot easier than I thought, and I don't think I'll ever go back. I'll post that recipe later though. Let's get started!
First, brown up whatever meat you're using, I used my ground turkey of course. Once it started to brown up, I added 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and half a red onion finely chopped, Pappy's seasoning (I love this stuff!), and about 2 tbsp of fresh ground black pepper. Once that browned up I made some gravy in another pan. How lazy are you? You can use the stuff from a jar, or you can use a packet, you can add some corn starch to some canned broth, or you can make your gravy the way I do. I make my self a little rue in another pan (flour & some type of fat), stir it until it's nicely browned and add a box of broth. I just don't like how gravy turns to Jello when you use corn starch. Add your meat to the gravy, and throw in some veggies, I like to use frozen mixed veggies, but I didn't have any, so I used canned sweet corn, chopped carrots & canned green beans. You end up with something like this:

Then I divide it into individual size pans, I used some Corningware, and mini cast iron pans. Then I baked it at 350 until the crust was nice & brown about 10-15 minutes or one chapter in the book I'm reading. I ended up with this:

You can also make it into one big pie like this:

This took about 15 minutes to put together, and another 15 minutes to bake. It took about 30 minutes to eat, because gravy maintains the temperature of lava forever!

Chinese Dumplings

So this week my freezer was mysteriously unplugged. Luckily I discovered it when I went out to pull something to defrost for dinner. Guess what I didn't have to do? You guessed it! But what I had to do was scramble to figure out new creative ways to eat a ton of ground turkey. My fried brain = your gain! I was going to make won ton soup, until I pulled out my wrappers and discovered they were way too thick to make won tons, so I enhanced my recipe and decided to make dumplings. I experimented with a few ways to cook them too. Trust me, just follow my directions. The experiments were ugly!
First gather up the ingredients you think you would like in your dumpling. I used 1 lb ground turkey, 1 egg, 2 cloves of smashed garlic, 2 scallions or green onions, 1tbsp fresh cracked black pepper, and a can of shrimp. Mix it all together in a bowl, and set aside. I then set up my little wrapping station, which consisted of a mini cutting board, a bowl with 1 beaten egg, a fork, and a plate.
Then I laid down a wrapper:

Put about a teaspoon of meat in them:

Brush one edge with the beaten egg:

Fold over & crimp with a fork:

Spray your frying pan with some olive oil or spread about a teaspoon of olive oil around. I like to put a drizzle of sesame oil in there for added flavor. Turn your pan on medium heat, I find a nicely seasoned cast iron pan works awesome for this. Then lay all your dumplings down:

After they've browned (about 1-2 minutes) flip them over & cook them for another 1-2 minutes:

Then add a spot of water, I think I used about 1/4 cup. Cover & let cook for another 2 minutes:

Pull the lid off, let the water evaporate away, and serve them up!

You probably want the sauce recipe too, FINE! HERE!
I used Maggi seasoning, but usually use Golden Mountain Soy sauce (about 4 tbsp), rice wine vinegar (about 3 tbsp), sesame oil (about 1 tbsp), stone ground mustard (about 1 tbsp), a touch of hoisin sauce (about 1 tsp), and hot chili oil to taste.