Turkey Pasta Casserole

8 oz penne pasta or similar shape (we used our homemade pasta, so it weighed a lot more than 8oz)
5 TBS butter
5 TBS flour
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped (I used one whole pepper cause it was smaller)
1/2 TBS garlic, minced
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp season-all

asparagus, about 2 cups
3 cups cooked turkey, diced or shredded
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 TBS melted butter

Preheat oven to 350°
Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish.
Cook pasta in boiling water, about 10 minutes for dried, 4 minutes for fresh.
Meanwhile steam asparagus for about 10 minutes.
Then cut into 1 inch pieces.
In a large pan melt butter over medium heat.
Add bell pepper and saute until tender, about 5 minutes
Add garlic and green onion and saute for 1 minute.
Stir in flour, until blended.
Stir in chicken broth, cook until thickened a little.
Stir in milk, stirring frequently, cook until thickened.
Add seasonings, asparagus and turkey.
Heat thoroughly.
Stir in cheese and cook until melted.
Drain cooked pasta.
Add cooked pasta into mixture.
Pour into baking dish.
Melt 1 TBS butter and mix with bread crumbs.
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

Serves 6 to 8.

We used the leftover smoked turkey from our TBA sandwiches, and this turned out wonderfully. There was a little bit too much bread crumb on the top, for my liking, so I adjusted this recipe accordingly. We each ate a heaping helping and then we froze the rest.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich

Last week we decided to thaw some of our smoked turkey and make some delicious turkey, bacon avocado sandwiches. Although, I can't really claim to having "grown up" there, I did live there for 4 years, and the wonderful Fallbrook is the "avocado capital of the world".  So, naturally I love avocados immensely.

For Christmas I got Nate a panini press, which made it extra easy to have delicious hot sandwiches to eat, but if you don't have a panini press, do not fear, here's a link to help you.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Panini
foccacia bread (of course, regular bread could work too - we used round foccacia bread we found from target's bakery, it was about the size of a plate)
4 slices of cheese (we used cheddar, I think provolone would rock though)
6 slices of bacon
1 avocado (make sure that its ripe!)
turkey
ranch dressing


Cook bacon in a large pan on the stove over medium heat until slightly crispy.
Cut avocado in half, removing seed.
Cut slices of avocado (long wise), about 8 per half.
Scoop out slices with a spoon.
Cut foccacia bread in half, hamburger style (depending on the size of your bread you might have to cute it a few times hot dog style too, to get it the right size).
Layer bread with turkey, avocado, bacon and cheese.
Close with the top piece of bread.
Grill in your panini press (or other method) for about 5 minutes.
Dip sandwich in ranch dressing as you eat.

This sandwich tasted delicious hot, AND delicious cold the next day too. We didn't have any lettuce, so we ate these without, but I'm sure lettuce would be good to. And for those of you who like tomatoes, they'd probably be a good addition as well.

Enjoy.

(Will probably make this again soon, and will make sure to take pictures)