Surprise Turkey Pie

We are having for us a treat for supper, turkey pie. I had forgotten that after Christmas I had made a double batch of turkey pie filling. Luckily my wife hadn’t forgotten it was in the freezer. Normally there is just enough leftover turkey for only one turkey pie, this year with all the other leftovers there was enough for two. Turkey pie is just a perfect meal, especially with my wife’s pastry. Every year I am tempted to buy an extra turkey just to cook for turkey pies, might just do it one of these years. The pie filling recipe is a Jan.12, 2019 post. With supper we are having a salad, with a honey lemon salad dressing. I have gotten over my white wine vinegar kick and am now back to my usual salad dressing. It is just a very good salad dressing that can be used for all kinds of different things. It works well brush on cooked fish or chicken. Very good with roasted asparagus, carrots, onions, and even beets. Makes a good marinate for chicken and shrimp.

Everyday Honey Lemon Salad Dressing

This salad dressing I have been making for years because it is a favorite of my wife’s, will admit I like it also. It comes in third for me behind blue cheese and ceasar, but first for its multiple uses. I rarely buy salad dressing because it is such an easy thing to make. You need a small jar to make it in but nothing else special. It will keep for a week in the fridge so you can double or triple this recipe.

1 small jar with a tight fitting lid

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

2 teaspoons grainy mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 large clove garlic grated with a micro grater or put thru a garlic press

Put everything in the jar, put the lid on and shake it as hard as you can. I do this 3 or 4 hours before I am going to use it. Everytime I am in the kitchen I give it another shake just for fun. Tonight it’s just going on a vegetable salad.

Our Busy Day Supper

We had a busy day today, so supper needed to be something simple. Thigh on chicken legs we on sale, so it came down to the keep it simple stupid for my decision on what to do with them. Roast them make some gravy, do lazy potatoes and have green beans. This is really simple so no real recipe, just get them in the oven with some potatoes at 350 for an hour and a half. Take them out, make some gravy, scoop out the potatoes, add some green beans and you have supper. It was nice to have the hour and a half to do other things. Chicken isn’t something I like much but it was still a good supper. My wife on the other hand thought it was a very good supper. So if it’s a busy day for you this is a simple supper to make.

Quesadilla Tricks

I was in the grocery store picking up things to make pizza for supper, ran into a friend and his wife. They follow my blog and commented on my Quesadilla post. His wife had tried making them both my way and the fold over way. She said with the fold over style the tortilla was crisp but the filling wasn’t melted, by the the the filling melted the tortilla was burnt. With my way everything fell apart when she tried to flip it, so they never tried again. They both really like them but they thought they were way to hard to make at home. I asked exactly how they had made them, seen the problem and explained exactly what went wrong. They understand and are going to make quesadillas for supper. When I got home I read my original post and realized that why they failed was my fault. There are some tricks to making them that I failed to explain. I don’t know how others make theirs but I like easy and this works for me. These tricks will make it easy to get a consistently good quesadilla.

Will start with the fold over style because it is the easiest one to make. Place the tortilla in a cold pan then turn the heat to medium. Place half the cheese on half of the tortilla, add the rest of the filling and top with the rest of the cheese. The tortilla will now be warm enough to fold over easily. Once folded press down gently and cover, every 30 second press down gently. After about 3 minutes you will feel it is starting to melt, check to see if it is brown enough, if not check every 30 seconds until it is. Flip it over and press gently cover and continue pressing every 30 seconds until the second side is brown. For the first side the best tool to use is your hand, the second side may be a little to warm for your hand. This works everytime and gives you a very good quesadilla.

Now for the quesadilla my way, which has a trick to the flip. Again start with a cold pan with the first tortilla in it then turn on to medium heat. Add half the cheese, then the filling, then remainder of cheese and the second tortilla. Press down gently cover and repeat pressing down on it even 30 seconds. After about 3 minutes check and see if it is brown and crisp. Now the trick to flipping it. First time I made a quesadilla the filling went everywhere when I tried flipping it. Like with anything else I thought about the solution not the problem and figured out the simplest possible solution. Take a dinner plate and turn it over, lift the quesadilla a little,put the dinner plate on top and hold the quesadilla tightly to the egg lifter. Flip the quesadilla and the plate together, this way everything stays together. Slide the quesadilla back into the pan, continue cooking pressing down covering and checking every 30 seconds. When brown enough remove cut and enjoy.

 

Chicken Quesadilla For Valentine’s Day

My wife loves chicken quesadillas, she asks for me to make them everytime we have leftover chicken. Still remember the first time she had one, it was in a restaurant in Calgary with our niece Dianne. Will admit I do enjoy making them but I prefer fajitas over quesadillas. It’s Valentine’s Day so it’s what my wife likes that wins the day, as it should be. Normally I use leftover chicken but don’t have any, so just cooked 2 chicken breast and used them. Everything else I had in the fridge so no trip to the store. There easy to make as long as you have the proper sized frying pan. Since I have made them before the recipe is posted April 5,2019. I don’t make the fold over type mainly because I like the challenge of flipping it. It’s a way easier to make it doing the fold over method, that’s why you get them that way in restaurants. They are also a great way to use up little pieces of cheese you have in the fridge. Just about any mixture of cheeses will work. Anyway you make them they make a great meal. Whether it’s lunch or supper if you haven’t made a quesadilla you should. Somethings are just fun to make and fun to eat, quesadillas are just that good.

Valentine’s Day!

It’s Valentine’s Day, so a good day to make something for supper that my wife loves. What it is will surprise you when I post it. I honestly don’t think given all the things I make that anyone would ever guess what it is. I have know idea why she likes it as much as she does, it is fun to make. So I know she will enjoy her Valentine’s supper.

Over Sauced Stir Fries

I spent sometime this morning looking a the Chinese recipe books I don’t use anymore. Have 10 different books and they have lots of the same recipes in them. I still make the recipes, just make them a little differently. First difference is I don’t use a sauce with corn starch add to it. I put the corn starch in with the protein marinate, it works for two reasons. It helps the marinate stick to the protein and also will thicken the sauce. The second thing is I use about a quarter to a third of the sauce that the recipes call for. The reason is I don’t want it over sauced, I want the sauce to be a compliment not to over power the dish. Didn’t come to this idea on my own and that requires an explanation.

I really like Chinese food, it is what I would like to have everytime we eat out. The very best I have had in a restaurant was in Swift Current Saskatchewan. It had all the normal stuff you find but was just way better. The sweet and sour pork was crispy and the sauce was great. Same with the sesame chicken and the lemon chicken. Stir fry was the same, beef and broccoli, vegetables, everything. What was different about it is what made it so good. Nothing was over sauced, it just had enough sauce so you had the flavor but it wasn’t drowned in sauce. Best example I can give is the sesame chicken which is a favorite of mine. I have it everywhere I find it and complain about it except for one place in Winnipeg. It all has so much sauce it becomes soggy and isn’t very good because you just taste sauce. After having the Chinese food in Swift Current I immediately changed and cut the sauce down to a bare minimum. If you cook Chinese recipes from a cookbook try cutting the amount of sauce way down and see how you like it. Think you will be surprised at how good the result is.