Pasties

If my family could eat these everyday, I think they would! The are relatively easy to make... BUT they are very time consuming. There is a LOT of chopping and dicing involved. You can use a Pampered Chef food chopper for the onion and carrot, but you will want to chop the potato and rutabaga yourself.  Chopping the veggies up to a day in advance and storing them in tupperware until ready to bake may help.
This is something we make in a big batch and freeze individually. The recipe below makes 16. So for my family of 4, that will give us 4 meals.  My mom gets together with a friend once a year and they go halves on the ingredients and they quadruple the recipe. They each take about 30 home. My mom used to give me 4 or 5 per batch, but I love them so much I decided to make them on my own.  They are great for a last minute meal since all you do is take them out of the freezer and cook them for 30 mins! I serve them along side a green veggie or salad, but they really could be a meal in themselves! My mom's friend makes her own pie crust, I don't. I think Pillsbury's crust works wonderfully and saves a TON of time:)
Sorry if the recipe is a bit confusing. It's hard to explain, but the pictures I think explain the directions better. Email me if you have any further questions!

Thank you Carrie and Mom for this awesome recipe!

Ingredients:
*5 lbs russett potatoes- cubed (we used yukon gold this time) (don't cut these as small as the other veggies)
*1 lb carrots- peeled and finely chopped
*1 LARGE or 2 medium sweet onions- diced
*1 medium rutabaga (or half a large one)- peeled and FINELY chopped into cubes
*2 lbs LEAN ground chuck (93% or leaner)
*salt/pepper (I used Nature Seasoning and pepper)
*butter (aprox half sick cut into 16 slabs of butter- (1/4 T slabs))
*4 boxes Pillsbury Pie Crust (found in fridge section). Each box has two pie crusts. You will cut each crust down the center. This will make 16 pieces of crust. (See picture below)

1) Preheat oven to 375. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper

2) Mix all the veggies, the meat and the seasoning together in a large bowl. Make sure it's mixed really well (using your hands works best) and make sure the meat breaks apart and is not left in large clumps. I used aprox 1 T Nature Seasonings and 1 T (or a little more) of black pepper.

3) Take your crust and place about 1 cup full of the mixture in the center of the lower half (See picture) Then top each mound of mixture with a slap of butter.

4) Fold crust over and pinch sides together. Cut one inch slit at top of each (just over the butter slab).

5) Place 5-6 pasties on each cookie sheet. (You will have to bake these in two batches. Put second batch in fridge until you are ready to bake them.) The first batch, I did two cookie sheets of 6 and par-baked them for only 30 mintues since these were the ones I was going to freeze)

6) Fully bake the ones you will eat that night for about 45-50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

7) If you are having some for dinner that night, serve while hot and serve with ketchup!

8) The ones that you will freeze... let cool until completely cool (at least an hour) Place a towel over them while cooling. Then wrap each individually first in press and seal and then in tinfoil. Freeze for up to 3 months!

9) To make them once frozen- take directly from freezer. Unwrap tinfoil and press and seal. Wrap each with a paper towel and microwave for 3 mintues. Then bake them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Dice rutabaga in SMALL cubes 

add diced onion and carrot and cubed potatoes (Make sure carrots and rutabaga are chopped smaller than the potato since they take longer to cook)

notice potato is larger chopped. Add your meat and mix well

Once it is completely mixed (use your hands) add your seasonings and mix some more

Two round pie crusts come per box (if you get the pillsbury ones) Cut each down center. (So each box will make 4)

Take one cup of the mixture...

And place in center of bottom half of the crust.

Place slab of butter on top and fold top half of crust over. Pinch sides together (Kind of like if you were making ravioli- roll over sides and pinch)

Cut one inch slits on each (above butter slab)

Bake until golden brown.

Serve with LOTS of ketchup!!

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!