December 1st is Pie Day. I didn’t realize this until late yesterday evening, but there was still plenty of time to bake a pie—or two. Luckily, any type of pie works for celebrating Pie Day, so the wide world of pie was open to me. I cooked Thanksgiving Dinner at home, so had plenty of leftovers to play with. When I make mashed potatoes, I always make a lot of them, so there were mashed potatoes to spare for both my dinner plans and my pie. I had planned to fry them in butter until golden brown to make a mashed potato hash cake for supper, which I did (and it was delicious). And I thought I also had enough for a Shepard’s Pie.
The base for my Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepard’s Pie was chopped turkey, gravy and a 1-pound bag of frozen mixed vegetables. The leftover gravy was sweet and salty, as I had used the drippings from cooking the turkey, which was brined in a sugar and salt solution. I mixed all this up then realized that there wasn’t quite enough mashed potatoes for the nice thick pie topping I wanted. A quick peek in the fridge revealed the last of the maple-and-butter-glazed sweet potatoes, however. They mashed up nicely with the whipped Yukon Golds for the perfect topping mix.
After making the Shepard’s Pie, I realized that I really still needed to make a dessert pie for the perfect Pie Day celebration. More pies are always better.
Blueberry Pie is one of my favorite pies. This goes back to my days as a Boy Scout. My fondest memories of being a scout are from our campouts. During one of those campouts, my friends Kim and Kevin Frederick made blueberry campfire pies with blueberry pie filling sandwiched between buttered slices of Wonderbread, put into a campfire pie press and baked in the coals. It was love at first bite.
Now I always keep a can of canned blueberry pie filling in the pantry for any opportunity that may arise.
I only had one crust, so I prepared a streusel topping of brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon and butter, with a pinch of salt.* I blind-baked the crust just a bit then filled it, topped it and baked it. Easy as pie!
In case you want a full recipe for my Shepard’s Pie, here it is. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepard’s Pie
2 cups diced cooked turkey
1 cup gravy or more, as desired
1 pound bag of mixed vegetables
1 cup mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes with butter and maple syrup
Salt and pepper to taste
Method: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the turkey, gravy and vegetables in a bowl. Mix well and season as desired. Place in a greased baking dish. Combine the two mashed potatoes and mix well. Place on top of the turkey mixture and bake covered for 25-35 minutes until bubbly. Remove the top and bake until lightly browned. Enjoy!
Chef Joel
*(I made too much of the topping so now I am going to make a Cranberry Streusel Coffee Cake with some of the leftover cranberry sauce.)