Cold Weather Comfort Food- Shephard's Pie, Two Ways!

Two different potato toppings, I couldn't pick a favorite!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cups diced or thinly sliced carrots
1/4 cup diced onion
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 large potatoes
3-4 large sweet potatoes
*cranberry chutney (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In separate pots: Peel and cut the potatoes in large, similar sized chunks and boil until tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, saute onion, celery, garlic and carrots for about 5 minutes, then add the turkey. Cook until the turkey is browned. I had this cranberry honey chutney that I thought would go well with the turkey, so I dumped in about 1/4 cup to the meat mixture. This is optional, but it was sure delicious. If you don't have anything like this, add some of your favorite savory spices like thyme, sage, even poultry seasoning would be good. Once the meat is done, evenly distribute it into two small baking dishes.

Mas your cooked potatoes in separate bowls or pots. I like to add a little butter and milk to mine. A good tip is to make sure your milk is warm when you add it to the potatoes, it mixes better and does not cool the potatoes down.

Put the white potatoes on top of the meat mixture on one dish and then the sweet potatoes on the other. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes. Try to enjoy it while one kid whines they don't like onions. Then lie to them and tell them its not onions. If they continue to whine, tell them some kids' mothers' don't even cook or make their lunch and what do they think of that? This meal has been brought to you with a side of guilt. Then go find the open bottle of wine and finish it off.

Pizza Friday!

Growing up, Friday night was always pizza night. Sometimes we got take out, but mostly I remember sitting at the kitchen table grating the cheese (and stealing bites!) while my Mom and Dad made the pizza dough. My Mom was ahead of her time and was making whole wheat pizza dough when no one else I knew did it. To this day, I still love pizza on a Friday night. The kids love to get involved with the toppings and we are lucky if there are leftovers for a midnight cold pizza craving!

Easy Peasy Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups purpose flour
1 1/2 cups 100% whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon cornmeal

Directions:
(I make this with my kitchen aid standing mixer)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, olive oil and 2 cups of flour. Attach dough hook to mix and mix for about a minute on speed 2. Gradually add the remaining flour and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm spot until double in bulk, about an hour. Then punch dough down and divide into two parts, I was able to cover two small baking sheets with the dough- I like my crust thin so if you want a thick crust you could just use all the dough on one baking sheet or pizza pan. Be sure to sprinkle the cornmeal on the pan before putting the dough down.

Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 450 for about 15 minutes.

TIP: I like to pre-bake my crust before I add my toppings. Just for about 5 minutes, otherwise I find that the top looks done but the dough is a little undercooked.