We're in the thick of it now. It's officially Thanksgiving week, which means my counters and fridge are overflowing with ingredients, ready to tackle the mountain of dishes I plan to cook up this week, including all the necessary ingredients to make and freeze some leftover turkey pot pies.

Despite *Science telling us otherwise, our favorite has continued to be the Alton Brown wet brine. We have made many birds many ways in our past 21 Thanksgivings as a couple, including the pre-brining years, dry brines and wet brines of various ilk, the miserably attempted smoked year (threw the whole thing out it was so bad), the amazing sous vide year, and various combos of whole, pieced, and spatchcocked.

Every year we don't make the Alton bird, we regret it. We go a couple years without it, trying new ways, then do the Alton wet brine and go "yeah, this is the best for us." We experimented the last two years, and had resolved to do the Alton method this year--our first in the new house. But never content to Just Do The Thing Already, I had a thought...We loved the meat of Alton's wet brine, but preferred the flavor and texture of the skin in the dry brine (not by much, but enough to notice). Could they work together? If we wet brine for 24 hr+ , then do an overnight light dry brine (with maybe some herbs?), to dry out the skin a bit and add flavor there, would that work? I can't imagine 8 hours in the fridge could undo all the moisture gains of the 24 hr+, but it would most certainly help the skin to dry and flavor up a bit more before roasting, right? Would it be TOO salty?I can't find anyone talking about this, so probably this is a Useless Idea, but now I kinda wanna try it.

Last year's impromptu Leftover Turkey Pot Pie was such a success, I looked forward to trying a different version of it this year. Chris wanted peas and potatoes, I compromised and did add frozen peas and used cream of potato soup. That's the other change--last year I didn't have fresh mushrooms, but this year I bought some baby portobellos especially for the recipe experiment, so the cream of potato took the place of the cream of mushroom I used last year. I also added some cheddar, which pretty much makes Chris' day any day of the week. This took a few more steps than last year, so not as "easy" as last year, but it was still really easy. Here ya go!

Ingredients
4 Tbsp butter
1 sweet onion, diced
1 large carrot cut into 1/4" half rounds
2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4" slices
4 oz baby portobello mushrooms (or mushrooms of choice)
8 oz frozen peas
1 can cream of potato soup + 1/2 can water
2 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste 
2 cups leftover turkey, shredded
1 cup cheddar, shredded
1 package of Pillsbury pie crust
1 egg for brushing top of crust


Directions
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
Melt butter in a sautee pan over medium heat.
Cook onion for about 5 minutes.
Throw in celery, carrots, and mushrooms and cook for 5 more minutes.
Add peas, cream of potato soup, water and flour.  Season with sale and pepper.
(I didn't add any herbs, but if you wish to add any now would be the time.)
Simmer for 8-10 minutes to thicken, stirring occasionally to blend everything well.
Remove from heat, add turkey and blend in.
Line pie pan with first half of crust.
Fill with turkey/veggie mix.
Top with cheddar, then top with second half of crust pinching edges closed.
Poke some holes in the top, brush with egg.
Cover edges with foil, bake for 20 minutes. The remove foil and back for 15-20 more minutes until bubbly and browned. Let rest for 5 minutes. Cut and serve.