Leftover Beef Gravy- Make Mushroom Soup

When we have leftover turkey or chicken gravy, I'll usually use it to make a potpie (biscuit or cornbread topping if I want to be really fast).  For the occasional times that we have leftover good homemade beef gravy, I've figured out a pretty tasty way to use it to make mushroom soup. The amounts of these ingredients is flexible:

1 onion, diced and sauted in a pot
Add 8 oz of mushrooms, sliced (flavorful mushrooms are better) and saute until slightly browned
Add a can of beef broth, plus a little water depending on the volume of gravy, bring to a boil

Add leftover gravy, return to a boil while stirring, then reduce and simmer a while
Season with salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon, and any other herbs you like

Serve with quick popovers

Sauteing onions and mushrooms

After adding broth and gravy

Making Lefse

We eat store-bought lefse each holiday season, and I've been wanting to try making some for a long time. My friend Kristine came over, and we had a lot of fun cooking lefse while drinking mimosas.
We followed the recipe and instructions here. While the recipe indicated that 2 to 2.5 lbs of potatoes would yield 4 cups of riced potatoes, I found that 2.5 lbs yielded 6 cups, so I modified the recipe to make 1.5 times (Note- in 2022, 2.5 lbs of potatoes was close to 4 cups and I followed the recipe as stated). As instructed, I boiled (about 20 min) and riced the potatoes the night before, added the butter and chilled them overnight, then added the rest of the ingredients the next day. (In 2022 it was so cold on the porch I was able to chill the potatoes in about 30 min and proceed on the same evening.)

Lefse dough prior to kneading

 We pattied the dough as instructed, but since we were going to be using a smaller electric griddle rather than a lefse iron, we portioned the dough in 1/4 C portions (rather than 1/3 C in the instructions).

Patties portioned at 1/4 C each

We used a pastry cloth (laid out on a silpat mat to prevent sliding around) to roll out the dough with a rolling pin. You can see our lefse wasn't perfectly round, but we didn't care since it would still taste great. You need a lot of flour for this. The large frosting spatula is a great stand-in for a lefse stick.

My electric griddle's highest temp is 400 degrees, whereas lefse is to be cooked at up to 500, so the lefse took a bit longer to cook on the griddle than was indicated in the instructions- about 1.5-2 minutes per side. I like it a little more brown than the store bought variety.

It took a while to get them all cooked, but we could be a bit faster next time now that we know what we're doing!

We ate them warm with just butter- delicious! I froze the rest for Christmas dinner.

These are really yummy- I'll definitely plan to make them again.

Using a Pie Bird

I wondered if using a pie bird was worth it. I bought a ceramic one online for under $6 and used it for a double-crust apple pie. My fruit pies usually bubble over at least some, and in the past I've put a cookie sheet under them to catch spills. A pie cookbook I use recommends not putting a baking pie directly on a cookie sheet, since it impedes the browning of the bottom crust, I've read that a pie bird vents steam and helps prevent leaks and spills.

You place the bird on the center of your bottom crust

Then put in your filling. I like to use a lot of filling- my mom always says "don't make skimpy pie."

Cut a slit in the center of your top crust, and lay it on the pie, working the pie bird's head through the crust. Here I've brushed the top crust with a little milk and cinnamon sugar

I start baking with the little covers to protect the rim, taking them off part way through

The results? A wonderfully crisp top crust, and NO spillovers! My edges did sag a bit- I have more pie skills I can work on.

When you cut the pie, just lift the bird out.

Delicious!! I will definitely use the pie bird again.

June 2020
Blueberry rhubarb pie.. Whole beaten egg as pie wash before baking.