#1 Comfort Food

There's always things like stew or chili or chicken noodle soup as comfort food, but growing up my favorite was always Cream Turkey. Not it's real name, not even a real, written down recipe. But it was always my favorite. A creamy sauce, lots of turkey, all poured over buttered bread. And if mom and dad were feeling especially like messing up the comfort food, add peas.

Now that I'm the grown up, I only remember to make this every now and then, but it's always a hit with the boys. Short Stuff eats an adult-sized serving and the Small Person is still on a half serving, but there's never any complaining. Mr. G. prefers it with corn and peas, so he gets a little side dish to pour on top.

We only used to have this near Thanksgiving when there would be fresh turkey, but now that Costco sells pre-cooked turkey breasts, we can have it anytime. A batch of this uses half a Costco turkey breast and will make at least two meals for the four of us.

Cream Turkey

1 stick butter
2/3 cup flour
2 cups water w/Better Than Bullion
4 cups milk
half a Costco pre-cooked turkey breast, sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
sliced bread
butter for the bread
frozen peas and corn (if desired)

Melt the butter in a medium pot. Add the flour. Stir until it's made a nice solid paste with the butter. Keep stirring and cooking for about a minute. Add the chicken stock (water and Better Than Bullion) and milk to the pot all at once. Stir constantly (in a figure eight shape) while cooking on medium to medium high heat. Keep cooking and stirring until the sauce starts to thicken. It should start to look like white gravy. (Don't get impatient. Give it time - probably about 5-10 minutes.) When it's close to gravy thickness, add the turkey (and the corn and peas if that's in your plan) and keep it on the heat (and stirring!) until the turkey is heated though - another 5 minutes maybe.

If you have a second person, you can toast and butter the bread while you're cooking the sauce, but do not skimp on the stirring. If you have to, just wait until it's all done cooking and off the heat, then take care of the bread. Once the bread is toasted and buttered, lay it flat on a plate and ladle out a scoop or so of the sauce and turkey onto each slice of bread. Sometimes a little salt and pepper on top can be extra nice but not necessary. Use a fork and knife to cut into bite-sized pieces so you can soak up plenty of sauce on each piece of bread.