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Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Chicken Pot Pie

 I typically, just wing it when I make Chicken Pot Pie.  So here is my best attempt and documenting my receipe.  Fingers crossed.  Oh...how can it be bad, with all this good stuff in in it.




Chicken Pot Pie

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tsp olive oil

1 TBL butter

1 small onion or ½ large onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced

2 TBL flour

¼ cup white wine or sherry

¾ cup to 1 cup chicken broth

¼ cup cream

2 cups diced chicken (leftovers or rotisserie chicken)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn

1 or 2 pre-made pie crusts (feel free to make your own)

1 egg

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

Add olive oil and butter to a Dutch oven style pan.  Heat on medium heat until hot.  Add onion, celery and carrots.  (At this point, you can add any other diced vegetables you want.  I added diced zucchini and mushrooms.  You could also add butternut squash.)  Season with salt and pepper.  Sauté until onions are translucent and tender.   Add the garlic and stir until combined (about 30 seconds.)  

 

Add the flour, stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the wine and stir.  Let the wine cook off for about 1 minute.  Add the chicken broth.  Stir in, scrapping the bottom of the pan well.  Let thicken.  Add the cooked chicken, peas and corn.  Stir well.  Add the cream.  (Add more broth if the mixture is too thick.)

 

One crust pie:  Add mixture to pie plate and cover with pie dough.  Crimp crust to the pie pan.  Cut slits in top pie crust so it can breath in the oven.  Brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg mixed with about 1 or 2 tsp off water)

 

Two crust pie:  Place bottom pie dough in bottom of the pan.  Fold edges under to line up with pie pan. Add mixture to pie plate and cover with pie dough top.  Crimp crusts together to the pie pan.  Cut slits in top pie crust so it can breath in the oven.  Brush lightly with egg wash.  

 

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

 

If you would like to use uncooked chicken, diced 1 or 2 boneless chicken breasts.  Add them to the pot before you add garlic.  Brown the chicken.  Add the garlic and continue the recipe.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Custard Pie

My mother requested a custard pie.  So pulling out her old cookbook, I found a recipe.  With a few tweaks, here is the recipe.



Custard Pie

(For a 9” Pie)

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2/3 cup of sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups scalded milk (can use part cream or half & half for a richer pie)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with rack in the middle of the oven. 

In a mixer, beat eggs slightly.  Add sugar, salt, nutmeg and vanilla.  Slowly drizzle scalded milk into the mixture.  Pour into a pastry lined pie dish.  Bake the pie at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and cook for 15 more minutes.  Pie is done with a knife inserted into the side of the pie comes out clean.  Center my look a bit soft, but it will continue to cook.

How to properly scald milk:  (Just learned this yesterday)  Pour milk into saucepan with good conductive bottom.  Heat over medium heat until it begins to bubble on the sides and steam.  Just before it boils, around 181 degrees, remove from heat and let cool to 110 or 120 degrees before using.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Life and its Many Roads

So, I haven't posted anything in a couple years.  I thought I would dip my toe in the water and see how it feels.

I'd like to say nothing much has happened lately, but that wouldn't be true.  We lost out brother in late December.  His name was Bob, after our dad.  He was only 66.  He had been suffering from a neurological disorder, called Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy for many years.  It slowly took away everything from him until he finally wasted away.  It was terrible thing to witness.  I'm hoping that image fades away at some point.  As a family, I think we are all still coming to terms with the loss.  I still wake up every morning with the realization that he is gone.  Still seems unreal.

Here we are as kids.  I like to remember him this way.


 This is the four of us kids taken to celebrate my Mom's 80th Birthday.  That was 13 years ago.



And this is likely that last photo I took of him before we knew about the disease.  He had early symptoms, but we weren't sure what they were.


I want to keep focusing on these older memories of him as they are better than the more recent ones.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Roasted Eggplant Dip

Any party or get together requires some yummy creamy dips.  Dill dip, artichoke dip, pesto dip.  All delicious and usually starting with a mayo base.  If you are looking for something equally delicious, yet healthier...look no further.  I've got one for you.

Roasted Eggplant Dip.

It's all good stuff and works perfectly with crisp pita chips.  Although I would love to take credit for this recipe, I cannot.  It comes from the talented and wonderful Ina.



Roasted Eggplant Dip

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant
2 red bell peppers, cored
1 red onion, peeled
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the eggplant, peppers and onion into 1-inch pieces.  Place in a large bowl and toss with the garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper.  Spread out on rimmed cooking tray.  Roast for 45 minutes, stirring once half way through.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

Add all roasted vegetables into your food processor with the tomato paste.  Pulse 4-5 times to get a chunky texture.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.



That's it.  You now have a wonderful, healthy dip ready for your guests.



Enjoy!

Monday, June 20, 2016

Garlic Scape Pesto

I was just given a huge pile of garlic scapes from my niece Kelly...our farm manager.  It was time to trim them off the garlic so that the garlic bulbs could bulk up before their harvest next month.

Here's the bowl full of scapes:



Today I made a whole lot of garlic scape pesto.



And then I got it ready for the freezer.



One of these tossed into any pasta, soup or stew will be delicious.  I wonder how long it will last.

Here's the recipe I used.  Both a normal size portion and the bulk size portion.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Normal Size Portion:            
·      1/4 cup pine nuts
·      3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes
·      ½ cup basil
·      Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
·      1/2 teaspoon salt
·      A few generous grinds of black pepper
·      1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
·      1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese


Bulk Size Portion*:
·      1 ¼  cups pine nuts
·      5 cups coarsely chopped garlic scapes
·      1 + cup of basil
·      Juice and zest of 3 lemons
·      3 teaspoons salt
·      1 tsp black pepper
·      3 cup extra virgin olive oil
·      3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
·       
*(Makes enough pesto to fill 1 ice tray and 12 cupcake tins + 1 cup for the fridge)


Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 2-3 minutes.  Let cool a bit.  Put the scapes, basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper into your food processer.  Pulse until well mixed.  (About 20 pulses).   Turn the processor on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Remove the lid and scrap down the sides.  Add the cheese and pulse again to well mixed and the texture you prefer.

Enjoy.




Friday, May 27, 2016

Work in Progress

I'm working on a granola bar recipe.  Hope to have it perfected soon.  I started with a recipe from Ina, but that one just fell apart.  Intertwined Ina and PW's recipes, but I think I over cooked it and the sunflower seeds gave it a funky taste...although it's still getting consumed pretty quickly.

I'll keep you posted.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Saturday, May 14, 2016

My Lost Blog

I have not been able to access my blog since May 8.  In fact, no one could access it.  It seemed to have just disappeared.  Turns out I needed to fix something with my DNS CNAME settings.

ARGHHHHH!!!

I set this whole blog thing up back in 2009.  I somehow managed to purchase a domain name and get it to work with Blogger.  But that was back in 2009.  That is a long, long time in techno years when you get to be my age.  I have NO memory of what I did back then.  I do remember being quite pleased that I got it to work, but today, it's all a mystery.

Ended up calling technical support and was quickly able to resolve the issue.  Somehow an additional CNAME alias was set up for my www link.  NO FREAKIN' idea how that could have happened since I never touch it.  They had no idea either.

So glad it's all better, but has caused me some significant stress today.




Monday, May 2, 2016

Easy Peel Hardboiled Eggs

I can't tell you how long I have struggled with peeling hard-boiled eggs.  Seriously....it's been a long time.  I have been so frustrated while peeling an egg, as I remove shell bit by tiny bit resulting in a tore up ugly egg with a significant portion of the whites still sticking to the shell.

Every recipe I ever seen has called for starting the eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, turn off heat and cover.  Let the eggs sit for 10-12 minutes.  That is how I have always made my hard-boiled eggs which always resulted in a difficult peeling process.  I pretty sure I even watch Ina make them this way.

In desperation, I reached out to my Facebook community and I got a lot of varied answers.  Add baking soda to the water, put a pin whole in the egg before cooking, don't use fresh eggs, make sure you get them cold quickly in an ice bath.

Finally, finally, finally...with the guidance of my Auntie Mar and the ever helpful Pioneer Woman, I succeeded in making an easy to peel hard-boiled eggs:

Hard-Boiled Eggs


  • Bring a pot of water to boil, making sure you have enough water to cover the eggs.  When the water is boiling, using a slotted spoon to GENTLY place each egg in the water.  Return the eggs to a gentle boil.  Boil for 12-13 minutes


  • Immediately, place each egg in a ice water bath.  Let them cool in the water for 5 minutes.  Remove the eggs from the water, dry them off and cracked the shells to peel.
Perfect eggs.

And here's what I made with my eggs:



Egg Salad

Ingredients
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced
1-2 stalks of celery, diced
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dry mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and stir  to combine.   Spread liberally on two pieces of toasted wheat bread (buttered) with some crunchy lettuce and eat yourself happy.  I know I just did.