I usually make this the day after Thanksgiving. This year I waited two days, because we had so many other leftovers to eat yesterday. It is my take on one of my favorite comfort foods, Turkey ala King.

I start with a medium white sauce, or Béchamel. I usually make twice the standard recipe:

Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in a heavy sauce pan, over low heat.
Whisk in 4 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour.
Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Continue whisking over low about 4 minutes. This will cook out the raw flour flavor.
     NOTE: If you have leftover turkey broth, substitute broth for one cup of the milk.
Add 2 cups of whole milk, whisking to achieve a smooth consistency.
The white sauce will gradually thicken. I add additional broth and milk to taste, as well as course ground black pepper and sea salt.
Add at least one cup of diced leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Sautee 8-ounces of sliced baby **portabella** mushrooms in some butter. Once they have softened a little, I add the mushrooms and the butter to the white sauce. Add about 6 ounces of frozen green peas and allow the entire mixture to heat slowly. Once all of the added ingredients have become hot, the ala Angie is done.
I serve it over biscuits or rice.

You will find this recipe most often as Chicken ala King. It is the more traditional incarnation, but I find that the turkey broth has a flavor more fitting for the mild richness of this dish. I also think it is important to use portabella mushrooms, rather than the bland canned muchrooms most recipes call for. Portabellas have an earthy, full flavor that is deepened with a good sautee.

I think I mentioned that last weekend I finally braved my storage unit. I was looking of my design samples so I can talk to a guy about a magazine he wants to publish. If all works out the way I would love it to, I would be able to pick up some work designing it and writing for it.

Anyway, I took out a few bins of clothing. One was absolutely stuffed with old sexy lingerie. I have no idea why I am saving it. Most of it has a memory or two attached and there is no good reason to hang onto it. A good bit of it never ever got worn. That is because buying it is half the fun – or, having someone else buy it for you.

With that philosophy firmly in mind, I called a friend who is about the size I was when I bought most of it and I am dropping it by her house next week. She has only been married about a year and I am assuming she swill get a lot of good wear of it of the pieces. God knows I have no use for it at this time in my life.

One of my old friends from high school just got re-married. She and her husband are both in high-paying careers, so they have spent the last year or so having their dream house built. She just sent me pictures of the house, room by room. I remember her style as being classic and just a little bit cluttered. Her new house, though, is very modern and spare, with clean lines and trendy color schemes. All of the bedrooms have modern platform beds and she actually has someone who comes in to care for her orchids and other houseplants, which is why they all look so perfect I asked if they were real. The pictures reminded me a lot of something you would see these days in Architectural Digest.

I love her house, but where she put chrome, I would have put wood. Where she used lime and fawn, I would have used moss and cream. My taste is just a little more soft and lived-in. Of course, my style this very minute is 100% storage unit chic. I am living with a minimal number of my belongings at hand.

Congratulations on your new house, Dawn. And, I wish you the best on your marriage.

The Incredibles is on television tonight. Unless you have a DVR and plan on watching it later, though, it is hardly worth your time. The movie is slotted for a 2-and-a-half hour timeslot. The movie itself is only an hour-and-a-half long. That’s a full hour of commercial advertising. I refuse to sit through that much in-your-face product selling.

Hogfather, the movie based on the 20th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, makes its US television premiere on ION tomorrow night. It is a 3-hour movie that has a four-hour time slot. So, again an hour of commercials, but at least in this case the proportion seems a little more even-handed.

In both cases, I plan on using my DVD to record the movies. Then, I will wait to begin watching them about 15 minutes into their start-time. I should be able to stay ahead of the commercials and forwarding as I go, miss most of them and still finishing the movies about the same time they end on television.

Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR?