Savoring Thanksgiving with..... Two more things to be thankful for

November 9, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature WriterThis month’s featured recipe turns your Thanksgiving leftovers into another delicacy.  Of course, as with most such culinary tips, you can make it anytime of the year, but this one is special! Jodi Wiese, along with her husband, Ken, and daughter, Paige, opened their kitchen to us with a delicious meal of a hearty pot pie, green bean casserole, creamed corn and two types of pumpkin pie. The evening was full of delicious food and great company.

Jodi grew up in northern Michigan, and learned to cook there from her mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friends in the community. She learned the following recipe for her Leftover Pie from her neighbor, Jeanie Pearala.  An interesting recipe she learned from her mother was a type of empanada called pasties (PAST-ees). Pasties are meat-stuffed pastries that can be baked or fried. Pasties was the name given to these little meat pies that could easily be stuffed into work clothes of miners for lunch, snacks or dinners.

Jodi and Ken have been married for 12 years.  During that time, she has done a great deal of volunteer work in Del Rio. In addition to the time she spends with her family, she has come up with many recipe adaptations using SPLENDA® in place of sugar for those who folks who have to limit amounts of sugar intake with excellent, healthful results!

Leftover Pie (which Ken refers to as “Kill Me With Love Pie”) is a type of pot pie using a variety of ingredients from your refrigerator.  We enjoyed a pie with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, served in a flaky pie crust. This dish can be made and frozen for up to eight months, and then baked on those evenings when you’ve had a hard day and just need some good ol’ comfort food.

Leftover Pie (“Kill Me With Love”)

Pie crust:

*3 cups of flour
*1 cup of Crisco® (Jodi says that Crisco® is a MUST to obtain a flaky crust)
*½ teaspoon of salt
* 2/3 cups of water

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in the Crisco® until pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle this mixture with the water and gently toss with a fork until all is moistened. Form the dough into two equal-sized balls.

On a lightly-floured surface flatten the dough with hands. Then, roll the dough with a rolling pin from center to edges, forming a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Wrap the pastry around the rolling pin and unroll it onto a nine-inch glass pie plate, or lift it from the rolling surface, folded into quarters, easing the pastry over the pie plate, being careful not to stretch the pastry, and unfold to cover the plate. Trim any excess dough that overlaps the pie plate.

Turkey pot pie filling:

*1 to 1 ½  cups of cooked turkey, shredded by hand (dark meat is generally moister than white, but you can use whichever you prefer)
*1 to 1 ½  cups of leftover stuffing
*1 cup of mashed potatoes
*1 cup of gravy

Note: You can adjust the amount of the various ingredients according to what leftovers you have and your taste preferences.

Once you have the bottom pastry dough placed in the glass pie dish, shred or pull the turkey from the bones or sliced pieces, layer the turkey first, stuffing and mashed potatoes, and pour the gravy over the filling. Use the second pastry dough to cover the dish, again folded into quarters and unfolded over the filling.  Then crimp the edges to seal in all of the delicious flavors.

At this stage, you can either bake the pie at 350 degrees until crust is golden brown or freeze for use at a later date. If you freeze the dish (Jodi uses the “press and seal wrap” when sealing the dish for freezing; be sure to remove the wrap and replace with tin foil prior to baking!), it takes about 1 hour at 350 degrees covered with tin foil, then remove the tin foil and cook for an additional 30 minutes until golden brown.  

That’s it! Comforting and just waiting for you. Not to mention that now you can have something other than turkey sandwiches for a week after the holiday festivities.

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While Jodi and Ken were serving up the two types of pumpkin pie (one with regular sugar and one with Splenda), Paige, their five-year-old daughter showed us some of her tap and ballet dance steps which she has been learning at Georga's School of Dance.  Paige is a kindergartner at Little Red Schoolhouse.  The entertainment was great, and both of the pies were delicious.  The SLENDA® pie is a great low-sugar alternative for those with dietary restrictions.


SPLENDA® Pumpkin Pie

*¾ cup SPLENDA® sugar-free sweetener
*2 tablespoons light molasses
*¼  teaspoon salt
*2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
*4 egg whites
*1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
*1 ¼  cups nonfat evaporated milk
*1 (nine-inch) unbaked pie crust
*2 cups fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F  

In a large mixing bowl, stir together SPLENDA®, molasses, salt, and cinnamon. When these ingredients are well mixed, stir in the egg whites followed by the pumpkin and evaporated milk. Pour into the pie crust.

Bake for 1 ¼  to 1 ½ hours in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the pie comes out clean. Cool then top with whipped topping before serving. Sugar free toppings are also available to keep the sugar-content in check.

I hope you are able to put these recipes to use, and have a wonderful, healthy holiday season. Please feel free to contact me with any questions and I will do my best to find the answers.