About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

Leftover Pot Pie Recipe

By on January 16, 2013 in Recipes

During the holidays we eat pretty high on the hog.  Meats and foods that we would never eat during the year because they are very expensive and we tend to eat as economically as we can.  That’s OK with us, it makes the special days when we splurge that much more special and feeding prime rib to a dozen people would break our bank pretty fast.   Saving all the leftovers is very important but what to do with it?

We have leftover prime rib, turkey, ham, smoked turkey and roasted pork.  I cut up all the leftover pieces into small chunks and froze them.  You would not believe how much meat was leftover ven though it seemed as we had eaten most of it.

In order to stick to my intention this year of wasting less food, I came up with this recipe.  It’s easy and it does not use any canned soups just ingredients in your pantry.  This recipe uses little bits of meat which might not be enough to do much of anything else with it and it is a winner with my family.  Also, this is my recipe but it works with any veggies you might need to use up so use what you have.  The point is to not waste food.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty.  Just make your pot pie and your family will love it.

Leftover Pot Pie

Ingredients:

Leftover meats, cut into small pieces
2-3 medium sized potatoes, cut into small cubes
3 carrots, diced
1 cup peas
1 small onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tbsp or less if you like of salt
1 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 375.  In a large sauce pan, on medium, cook the diced meat in the butter and oil until warmed through (if you are using raw meat then continue until cooked through).

Sprinkle the flour over the meat and mix until all the meat is coated.  Let it cook for a minute or two and then add the veggies and onion.  Mix it all together and allow to cook for another minute.

Slowly add the milk, stirring to get the little browned bits of meat stuck to the pan (this is where your flavor is).   Add the salt and pepper slowly to taste.  Lower the heat to medium low and allow to cook for 5 minutes or until it thickens.

Roll out your pastry crust and line your pie plate or casserole dish with it.

Pour in the meat and veggies mix and top with another layer of pastry crust.

Cut a vent in the top (an x or slash will do)

Cover the top of the pie with aluminum foil so the crust does not burn. Bake for 25 minutes then remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Allow the pie to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

Comments { 0 }

Circle of life

By on January 15, 2013 in Farm and Garden

Living on a farm is our biggest dream come true (well more mine than Poppa’s).  It comes with great responsibility.  Responsibility for the health of the animals which provide us with food, entertainment and a greater understanding of living things.  The hardest part of that responsibility is when the circle of life comes knocking on your barn door and you answer.

In the past two weeks we have lost 2 of our chickens to a huge owl which has been stalking the chicken coop from the trees above and even sitting on the very top of the coop at times.  The first chicken we lost not even being aware that such a predator was in our midst.  Our chickens are released from the coop early in the morning after they are fed and then they naturally migrate back to the coop at dusk and by the time we go to lock them in they are patiently waiting at the door.  The owl waits until they are getting back into the coop and then swoops down to get his dinner.

The second time he actually took the chicken as Ronnie was putting her down onto the ground.  She came running in screaming after coming into such close contact with this predator.  When you have animals you have to be ahead of the animals that want a meal.  They only have to get lucky one time so we try to stay on our toes but sometimes it is inevitable.  The only alternative would be to keep them cooped up all their lives and I just can’t do that.  We are now coming up with a plan for the brood we will raise in the spring.

The adventures never really are very far on a farm as we find all the time.  Last night, Alex came to visit and called me from the driveway.  She said the owl was standing next to her car and she did not want to scare it before Poppa could get a good look at it.  Why would it be sitting on our front lawn??  It was not even scared of her car as it came up the driveway.  Two seconds later, my little ones came running downstairs to tell us that a little bird had flown upstairs.  The girls managed to catch the bird and that is when we put two and two together.  The owl had chased the little bird in front of our house and seeing the front door open, the little bird had flown inside to safety.   You could clearly see where it caught an owl talon to the head but we kept it overnight for observation and this morning it was released.

Sometimes, we get to save a little creature, even if it was not one that we feel responsible for.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

Comments { 2 }