Turkey Pot Pie - RV Kitchen Recipe

What a great Thanksgiving 2012 we had in my RV kitchen! It was such a beautiful day out that I got the turkey into the crockpot and then headed out to play. I returned a little later than I'd hoped and it was time to take the bird out of the crockpot...but nothing else had been started! Yikes!

I covered the turkey breast with foil and got down to business. It took us about an hour and a half to get everything else prepared and cooked. I was a little concerned about the turkey but that was for naught. It was fabulous...moist, flavorful, and sliced like butter.

Today, like so many of us, I made a delicious turkey, cranberry and stuffing sandwich on sourdough bread with a little mayo, salt, and pepper. Devine! But also like many of us, I've got a lot of turkey leftover - even after a couple more sandwiches. Fortunately, I have an amazing, easy-peasy pot pie recipe that will make quick work out of your leftover turkey. I use all store-bought ingredients in this dish and believe me, it's a comfort food favorite recipe in my RV camper! Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Thanks for letting me join you on this wild RV ride! 

Evanne and the RVCookingShow.com gang

RV Cooking Show's Turkey Pot Pie

Ingredients:

2 frozen pie crusts - pot pie needs a top crust

16 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables (as upscale or basic as you wish)
1+ cups of chunked turkey or chicken (I use half of a rotisserie chicken if it's not turkey season)

2 T butter
2 T flour
chicken broth
1/4 c dry white wine
1/4 - 1/2 c Parmesan or Romano cheese - grated
salt and pepper to taste

How-to:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Set one pie crust out to thaw.

In a large saute pan cover frozen vegetables with water and allow to simmer until cooked. Remove from pan.

In the same pan, make a roux - melt butter, add flour, stir to combine, allow to brown. (Watch me make a roux in this year's Thanksgiving show - How to Make Gravy)

Add chicken broth. It will seize into a paste at first, continue adding until it's a thick liquid. Add white wine and allow it to bubble about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add more broth if it's thickened too much for your taste.

Add turkey or chicken and veggies to the sauce, allow to warm. Add cheese, allow to melt in.

Pour turkey or chicken/veggie/sauce mixture into frozen crust. Top with thawed crust - you'll probably have too much, trim as needed and press edges together with fork tines to make it look pretty. Cut a few vent slits on the top in an attractive pattern.

Place on a foil covered baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes then decrease heat* to 350 and bake until the edges are brown and the top is golden.

Remove, allow to cool slightly so the liquid thickens a bit and enjoy. Serve with a fresh green salad and a beverage of choice.

Cheers!

*begin baking at a higher heat to avoid a soggy bottom crust

RV Cooking Show's Thanksgiving Episode: How to Make Turkey Gravy (and very versatile roux!)

Happy Thanksgiving...and what would the big meal be without gravy?!? In this quick 2-Minute RV Kitchen Tip episode of the RV Cooking Show learn how to make gravy using a roux! Easy, delish, and down right good to know.

Who among us does not like gravy, that thick, rich, velvety liquid that graces mashed potatoes and makes everything taste even better? Unfortunately, making gravy has the reputation of being difficult and labor intensive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The secret to making good gravy is in its foundation - the roux (pronounced "roo" - like kangaroo). Roux is cooked fat, in this case butter, and flour, browned to a particular color, thus imparting a particular flavor. This is the thickening agent in your gravy and you can control just how thick - or thin - you want to go.

And guess what? Roux isn't only for gravy. It's the base for sauces such as bechamal (white sauce), soups like New England-style corn or clam chowder - even a fantastic sauce for chicken pot pie.

So stop right there, put down the jar of gravy or the powder envelope, and spend a quick couple minutes watching this RV Cooking Show 2-Minute RV Kitchen Tip episode - How To Make Gravy.

We've also got a nifty little archive of turkey dinner episodes and recipes for your holiday pleasure:

Crockpot Turkey Breast
Gourmet Trash Can Turkey
Aunt Lucy's Stuffing
Mom's Famous Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potato Fries

This RV Cooking Show episode is different from others we've produced - just barely over 2 minutes and all cooking, no travel talk. How do you like it? Thumbs up, down or other comments to share? Drop me a line, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Meantime, Happy Thanksgiving, RV Cooking Show friends. I wish you an abundance of people, places, and things to be grateful for this holiday season.

Evanne and the RVCookingShow.com crew

Quesadilla RV Recipe and Saguaro National Park

Tucson, Arizona is bookmarked by the two units of Saguaro National Park. On the east you'll find the Rincon Mountain District and on the west it's the Tucson Mountain District. I wintered just a few miles from the gorgeous East District and spent many a day at the park - hiking, taking photographs, and simply sitting quietly atop a stone outcropping surrounded by silence and beauty.

The park's namesake - the giant saguaro cactus - can take on many shapes but the one it's most known for is the classic 'two arms up' version seen on many a western sign. You know exactly what I mean, don't you :>

In this episode of the RV Cooking Show: Saguaro National Park and Quesadillas, I'm delighted to have you as my guest as I take a turn around the park and a closer look at the remarkable saguaro - found only in the Sonoran Desert.

Later, we'll head back to my RV kitchen and make one of my go-to dishes - perfect for an easy meal after a full day of hiking or driving - quesadillas. In fact, they are such a snap to make once you watch this show you might never order them in a restaurant again!

Watch the video here, learn more about the park and the recipe at RVCookingShow.com and get ready to go to the grocery. I couldn't help myself...had these last night for dinner.

Enjoy and happy camping - Evanne - RVCookingShow.com 

RVing, Regional Foods and My Trailblazer Chicken Recipe

One of the simple joys of RVing is exploring the different and delicious regional food specialties that our great country has to offer. From the north to the south – the east to the west, everywhere has a specialty. Often times, you’ll even find a “local” willing to share their recipe simply for the asking. Be sure to carry a pad of paper and a writing utensil for just those occasions. These recipes are priceless souvenirs.

I love to chat with the locals, make up a shopping list, pick up the items needed, and try my hand in my own kitchen. I have a few favorites – direct from the road. For instance, the New England Fish Chowder recipe I got from a real Maine native – a fisherman’s wife who overheard me asking the clerk in a lobster market how many cans of evaporated milk were needed for a good chowder (the answer is one), the unbelievable and authentic Cuban Black Bean recipe I got from my Cuban neighbor while visiting the Florida Keys or the wacky but fabulous Trailblazer Chicken that will have your guests raving about the dish and guessing about the ingredients (don’t tell them until they begin eating) that came from a Trailmanor RV rally in South Dakota.

And then there are the regional specialties that are better left to the pros – soft serve custard at the old Victoria’s Sweet Cream in Glens Falls, New York, gulf shrimp fajitas at San Juan Taqueria in Port Aransas, Texas or barbeque at the Whole Hog in Little Rock, Arkansas – each one a small gem not to be missed (in my humble culinary opinion).

Don’t be shy to ask around about the local specialties and the best places to enjoy them. In most cases, if you talk to those that live in the area they’ll point you towards the lesser advertised, more reasonably priced places – some you’d never find on your own. Some are dives, some are posh – but all will be authentic. It’s a good idea to ask specifics about recommended restaurants. A friend of mine was told about a well regarded (and rather pricey) lobster pound in Maine, looked forward to it all day, dressed for a fancy dinner out, and arrived to find picnic tables near the saltwater boiling pot overlooking the ocean – a typical lobster pound. Who knew? Wonderful but not ritzy. 

When you find something you just love, haunt the groceries and specialty food shops for spices, marinades, or sundry ingredients to take home with you. Chances are the ingredients needed for a regional dish won’t be available in a store halfway across the country. Don’t be afraid of ethnic stores – see something interesting? Ask, they’ll be happy to help you learn. Bringing home recipes and ingredients can make your vacation memories rich and oh, the stories you’ll have to tell to guests when you serve your unusual dishes.

Try this Recipe

To get your juices flowing and your imagination running wild, here’s a recipe for Trailblazer Chicken I know it sounds a little different but trust me – it’ll turn into a “company dish”. Case in point: We were visiting cousin Jeanne and offered to make dinner for the four of us one evening. As I prepared the dish, everyone looked on – drinking wine and chatting. Once dinner was served Jeanne’s friend took a petite portion, tried it and came back for a more manly sized scoop. He joked that when he saw the ingredients he thought, “I’ll be polite, have a taste and say it was very good…no matter what.”

But the joke was on him…it’s a keeper…try it…everyone will like it!

Trailblazer Chicken

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or stoke your camp cooking fire). Can also be prepared in a crockpot but be careful not to overcook the swift cooking chicken breasts. 

6-8 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 small (8oz) bottle of catalina french salad dressing
1 envelope of french onion soup mix
1 can (16 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce

Combine salad dressing, onion soup mix and cranberry sauce in an oven proof dish with lid (or dutch oven) or high-sided tin pan. Mix in chicken breast being sure to coat and if possible cover each piece. Cover cooking vessel and cook approximately 25-35 minutes or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees.

Serve with rice topped with a ladleful of sauce, a salad with french dressing and crusty sopping bread.

Surprise…it's delish!!

If you give this a go, leave a comment below with your experiences and that of your other diners. I'd love to hear about it.

Evanne
www.RVCookingShow.com

Lighthouse Themed Summer RV Vacation

Do you love lighthouses? I admit, I'm a lighthouse lover. Not only do these long standing historic beauties guard some of our most pristine shores, a lighthouse tour trip is a very alluring theme for a summer RV vacation. Let's explore a few fabulous lighthouse destinations – a great way to enjoy breathtaking countryside and see some amazing sights.

Lighthouses grace our east and west coasts, the Great Lakes, the gulf coast, Alaska, Hawaii – wherever there are rocky coast lines and river mouths. Their bright beams, flashing at intervals forming a “characteristic light” or a pattern that identifies each specific light – warned mariners of dangerous conditions. These romantic sentinels were once lived in, loved and cared for by lightkeepers and their families. Today, lighthouses are automated and maintenance is carried out by members of the Coast Guard’s Aid to Navigation teams. None the less, they make great vacation memories and fantastic photo opportunities.

Lighthouse Lovers Love Maine

Portland Head Light - thanks jimmywayne

The great state of Maine is ideal for your lighthouse-themed RV vacation with an eye-popping 60 silent sentinels to explore. You might begin at the West Quaddy Lighthouse, the red and white striped easternmost light in the US then mosey south on Route 1 toward Acadia National Park visiting the Bass Harbor Light on Mt. Desert Island, further down the road ferry out to Monhegan Island, 11 miles from the mainland and marvel at the Mohegan Island Light. A little south of Portland stands Maine’s oldest light, Portland Head, completed in 1791 under the presidency of George Washington. 

While there do not miss the Cliff Walk Trail along the rocky coast. Wrap up your lighthouse RV adventure at one of Maine’s most photographed lights and it’s southernmost light - Cape Neddick Lighthouse in the charming town of York Beach (this light is sometimes referred to as the Nubble Light since it sits on Nubble Island). Cape Neddick's lens flashes red every six seconds – helping captains recognize where they are in a storm.   

California Lights Call

Alcatraz Island Light - thanks Chris D 2006

Without doubt, California is blessed with over 1,200 miles of fantastic shoreline. With the explosion of the gold rush it became quickly apparent that navigation aids were needed. Alcatraz Island is home to the West Coast’s first lighthouse, which met its maker in the 1906 earthquake. A new lighthouse was erected in 1909 and can still be seen from the mainland or up close on an Alcatraz Island tour. 

Futher south on US 1 in the small town of Pescadero stands the Pigeon Point Light which is also home to a youth hostel. Near Monterey, your lighthouse RV trip may take you to Point Pinos Lighthouse – the oldest continuously lit light on the west coast. Just north of picturesque Cambria (enjoy a stroll on the Moonstone Beach boardwalk) visit the Piedras Blancas Light – recently in renovation. At the southern end of the state in San Diego sits the Old Point Loma Lighthouse known as the nation’s tallest light built on an often fogged in point...making it relatively ineffective…thus the New Point Loma Lighthouse.

The Great Lakes and the Gulf Shores

Two Harbors Light - thanks puliarf

When I first set eyes upon Lake Superior it reminded me of an ocean I’d not yet seen. Waters that day were calm and lovely but the lake can become an enraged body of water swallowing up ships such as the Edmond Fitzgerald. Visit Two Harbors Light near Duluth or the spectacular lights of the Apostle Islands on Superior, the famous Grosse Point Light near Chicago on Lake Michigan (the lake with the most lighthouses), follow the Seaway Lighthouse Trail along Lake Ontario or plan a trip along Lake Huron or Erie for more spectacular lighthouses.

Louisiana, Texas, and Florida’s Gulf Coast sport the majority of lighthouses from Key West, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi to the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse in Madisonville, Louisiana there’s so much to see.

What’s Your Pleasure?

The Carolinas, the Chesapeake Bay, Oregon, and Washington have several noteworthy lighthouses for your visiting pleasure as well. Pack your camper, mark your map, and set out on your uniquely-you themed RV vacation. These memories last a lifetime.  

Learn more about these and other remarkable lighthouses at PBS's Legendary Lighthouses and the follow up Legendary Lighthouses II.

Have you had a memorable lighthouse themed RV vacation? Do tell...leave a comment below. Meantime, happy camping everyone!

Evanne
www.RVCookingShow.com