The Meat Pie Adventure and Bad Weather

Hello dear readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.

Welcome to all the new subscribers, and a very heartfelt thank you to my paid subscribers for helping me get thru another year. I am grateful that you value my writing with your hard-earned money.

The expected cold weather has arrived at the farm. The newest cold front came in a few days ago, with rain, and then snow on top of it. It looks like we are not going to be getting above 28 degrees for the rest of this week. The weather folks are also saying that there is going to be a polar vortex coming in with a very cold air mass. I’m hearing temperatures 20-22 degrees below our January average. So basically -10 to +10 range, with windchills too.

It’s going to be fun, but it’s not our first rodeo as they say.

The sheep will do fine thru this. They just turn their backs to the wind, chew their cud and let their rumen keep them toasty warm. Brandy can go in the barn if she starts showing any distress. So far, she is doing quite well and has put on a nice fluffy coat of hair. The dogs will curl up in their house in a big guard dog cuddle pile and enjoy every minute of the cold. Sometimes they even manage to get a sheep in with them as a wool blanket. They are built for this.

There is plenty of hay out for everyone to munch on and the dogs got a bump in their rations also. Food equals heat!

The tank heaters will keep the tanks ice free as long as the power stays on. Otherwise, well, it’s going to be rough to keep water to everybody. Same thing for the house. I’ll be swabbing out the outhouse today so that is ready for unexpected use. Times like this I’m glad to have one!

Here’s a throwback if you want to see how I have to dress for this stuff.

I hope you get a kick out of that one.

Onto the meat pie adventure.

I saw on FB around Thanksgiving a person who made a Scottish meat pie using leftovers. It looked absolutely delicious! I just knew I had to try making them for myself with the Yule leftovers.

I dug out my set of 4” springform pans for this endeavor. They are the cutest thing going and just perfect for this.

I lined the bottoms with parchment paper while the Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry sheets thawed out.

Once I was able to unfold them, I cut out the two circles for the top and bottom crust, plus a few small rounds to make the leaves on top. I had to roll out the remaining dough, so it was long enough to make the sides.

Got the bottom in first, put a few dabs of water on the inside edge of that and put the side strip in and pinched the two together so it would not leak.

I added about 2 tablespoons of mashed potato on the bottom, then 2 tablespoons of stuffing, then came the turkey and gravy on top. I gave it a good mash down to pack it tightly.

Put on the lid, which I had punched out a vent hole, and pinched that around the best I could. I didn’t leave myself enough side edge to do this very well.

Once all four were filled and topped, I brushed the top with egg wash and stuck in the little leaves.

I baked them in a 375-degree oven for 50 mins.

They came out beautifully!! I didn’t eat any of them yet, they went into the freezer for grab and go meals for myself and my son for work lunches.

I am so looking forward to eating one, and I think the best way to heat them back up would be in the air fryer, so the crust stays crispy and not get all soggy on me.

I hope you will give this a try!

I also got 16 pints plus a bit extra of turkey stock made and canned up this week for the coming year’s needs. It came out so rich and fragrant!

Did you have leftovers this year? What did you do with them? I look forward to hearing what you created with them!

Blessed Be!