Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza

A night when I would have loved nothing more than to order in pizza rather than cook, but sadly there are absolutely no good pizza joints in town and it wasn't exactly in the budget either. Wasn't going to give up on pizza, but wasn't feeling making dough. Luckily we had some Pillsbury crescent roll dough in the fridge and some leftovers, so I got to do a minimal amount of work and still have some sort of pizza.

Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza


makes 4 pieces, serves 2 as a main or 4 with a side

1 tube Pillsbury crescents
1 1/2 cups fried ground beef crumbs
1 cup grated cheese ( I used a blend of cheddar and mozzarella since there was some leftover cheddar)
1/2 cup cooked mushroom pieces (about 100g raw)
1 med onion, chopped and par-cooked
3 Tbsp tomato paste
pinch each of garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a baking sheet.
Unroll dough on sheet and press together seams.
Mix spices and tomato paste together and spread over the crust.
Sprinkle with half the cheese.
Top with the burger, mushrooms and onion.
Add rest of cheese.
Bake about 12 minutes or until toppings warm and crust brown and crispy.

A new and interesting way to get rid of crescents when not craving their sickly sweet plain flakiness.

Enjoy!

Turkey Pot Pie I

Puff pastry and turkey; what else do you need? Well, veggies help, and these were what we had on hand. And since we didn't have any stock, homemade or canned, kicking around, I used the instant powder. The only thing to remember with that is it can be salty, so only salt at the very end, and it has a bit of sweetness, so it's not always a good addition to savory things.

Turkey Pot Pie I


serves 4

2 1/2 cups cooked turkey
2 small onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 small head broccoli, stems sliced, 1/2 inch floret pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups hot water
3 Tbsp chicken stock powder
a splash of cream
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb thawed puff pastry

Roll the puff pastry into a 10" by 10" square and cut into four pieces.
Cook according to package directions.
Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
Fry the onions and mushrooms until onions are soft and mushrooms are starting to brown, about 6 minutes.
Mix in the broccoli and garlic and cook about 2 minutes.
Stir the chicken soup powder into the water and set aside.
Evenly sprinkle the flour over the veggies in the pot and stir to get rid of any white spots.
Gradually stir in the chicken stock mix and cream and cook until it coats the back of a spoon.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into four over-proof ramekins and put a piece of pastry on top of each.
Lower the oven temp to 350 F and put the pies into the oven for about 15 minutes or up to an hour.
Serve after cooling slightly and with pot holders and trivets if vessels are still really hot.

I thought there were going to be 6 pies until I portioned it out, so I cut the puff pastry into sixes, and hence it's a little smaller than I wanted. Probably could have made 6 but I had no idea where the mini-bowls were and since there were no potatoes in the mix, it wasn't hearty enough to be smaller.

Enjoy!

Turkey Tetrazzini

Leftover turkey is yummy, but you can get sick of it after a couple days. That's okay, because the meat takes to freezing pretty well. Of course, it's a little gummy when thawed, which might make something like a turkey salad sandwich not that appealing, but it's perfect in pies and casseroles.

So we had leftover turkey in the freezer and wanted something simple: turkey tetrazzini came to mind. It's been one of those things we discovered a few years ago when we wanted something different with our turkey leftovers. The veggies vary (mushrooms work quite well, the peas, broccoli or something different) but the cream sauce remains the same. Of course, you don't have to leftovers to do this. If you score turkey parts on sale and just cook them to put in the casserole, that would work too.

Turkey Tetrazzini


serves 4

350g pasta, went with spaghetti noodles snapped in half this year
2 1/2 cups cooked turkey, in 1/2 inch chunks
1 large onion, diced
14oz can of peas, drained
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
a splash of sherry
1 can condensed mushroom soup
4 cans of milk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Start prepping the pasta.
In a large saucepan (big enough to combine everything), heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and cook until soft, but not brown.
Add the turkey and cook about 1-2 minutes to start warming it up.
Sprinkle the flour over the turkey and onion and stir to get everything wet.
Add the mushroom soup and splash of sherry and combine. Cook a minute to burn off the alcohol.
Mix in the milk and spices and bring to a boil.
Add the peas and drained pasta and stir to coat.
Serve (or bake in a 350 F oven for 30 minutes up to an hour)

Filling and creamy, a nice alternative to a weekday default meal.

Enjoy!

"Leftover Rice" Balls

What do you do with leftover rice? Well. whatever you want, but I usually get around to making rice balls with it! Now, I don't really have a recipe, but I have a minor guideline for doing it. This time around, since I was using the leftover rice from the Turmeric "Chicken" recipe, I didn't add my usual spices. Of course, you could make rice to just make these, but it's up to you.

"Leftover Rice" Balls


makes 14 medium balls, depending on how big you want them and how much dough you make

leftover cooked rice
1 egg for every two cups of rice, more or less depending on how sticky or dry your rice is
salt and pepper to taste
spice for every two cups of rice: (pick and choose to your taste/mood)
   -1/2 tsp garlic powder
   -1 tsp oregano
   -1/2 tsp paprika
   -pinch of cayenne powder
   -1 tsp chili powder blend
1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour, depending on how dry it is already, again for every two cups of rices
oil for frying

Put rice in a big bowl (need the room for stirring).
Mix in the egg(s) with a fork.
Sprinkle spices evenly over the rice and then mix again.
Switch to a spoon and stir in the flour.

If you want to be exact, you can heat the oil in a medium to large frying pan (depending on recipe size and ultimate ball size) while making the balls and putting them on a plate. I just make them into the cold oil and then let them all cook evenly. Don't put in the pan while heating the oil since it leads to uneven cooking times and sometimes burning.

With constantly wet hands, take a heaping teaspoon to max a heaping tablespoon of rice and roll into balls. You can get 3 to 4 balls done before your hands get too sticky depending on end dough consistency.

Today I was feeling more authentic, even though the rice was Indian, and went with a small cube of mozzarella in each ball. You take the cheese, put it in a flat bit of rice and fold the ball around it.

Put completed balls in the pan (whatever you chose to do), and put a lid on to help steam through the middle, or leave uncovered over a lower heat so they cook and don't burn. Takes about 5-10 minutes a side depending on how big they are and how brown you want at a medium-high heat.

 Yummy little golden balls with the melted mozza peeking out of the middle.

Enjoy!