Chicken Pot Pie for Ms. J

Ms. J and I were discussing chicken pot pies last week, and I decided I would demonstrate the making of them (at least, how I do it) to encourage her to experiment in her kitchen.

so here we go - first off, I have here 3 small onions, chopped, 3 carrots, diced, and 3 celery ribs diced with a wee bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper:


Then, because in my mind, you can't have comfort food without butter, drop in a few tablespoons of butter (or just a bit more oil):


Let that cook up and soften the veg for a bit, then add in a large handful of flour and cook for 2-3 minutes to get rid of raw flour taste:


Then start adding liquid - in my case, I added a hefty splash of white wine then chicken stock - start out slowly - you don't want it too liquidy. I probably added 1 1/2 c of liquid total at this point.


R asked for some potatoes in the pot pies, so I obliged. I think I'll leave them out in the future. I also added another 1/2 c or so of stock.


Then herbage - thyme, salt, pepper, some dill. You definitely MUST use thyme - I made a chicken pot pie without it once and it tasted disgusting. I also added some mushrooms at this point. In the future, I will saute them in a hot pan first - they didn't really add a lot of flavor to the party.


Then, because I wanted to, I added about 1-2 tbsp of cream


Then added in my previously cooked chicken and let 'r rip for a bit until the potatoes were soft.


Then, in my messy/rustic way, I lined 3 oven-safe bowls (in this case, little Fiesta pie plates) with some puff pastry and baked that at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Roll out the puff pastry first, as thinly as you can. It goes a lot further that way!


Then I ladled in the pie filling and topped them with more puff pastry (very rustic, right?) and gave it an egg wash (egg/water, beat, brush). You CAN, of course, roll the puff pastry out and cover and seal the entire pie, but I find that you end up wasting delicious puff pastry that way - some sticks to the cooking vessel and it is always too hot to peel off. Anyways, that's my two cents on that. I'll take an ugly pot pie over one where I lose puff pastry. Anyways, these also baked at 400 degrees, and took about 25 minutes (I threw on the broiler for a minute to get them really browned). Also, I added broccoli to my pot pie which was delicious. Broccoli is, however, the devil incarnate to Mr. R.


Voila (ignore the nasty baking sheet). My pie filling was a bit dry, I must say. I tend to overthink the runniness factor and then leave things too thick or dry. So, when I make these again, will reheat with more stock.


These were pretty tasty - be sure to taste your filling along the way and adjust for salt and other seasonings.

R's mushroom birthday cake

Mr. R decided to try a different cake for his birthday this year ( the standby being German Chocolate from a box). We went for the Chocolate/Peanut Butter creation that I found on Smitten Kitchen a while back.

For whatever reason, I didn't think to take pictures until well into the cake creation process. So for example, here's the basic iced cake - a really moist and delicious chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting. The recipe calls for 3 layers, but I opted for 2 mainly because I didn't have 3 8 inch pans and didn't want to bake in batches. So I made 2 9 inch layers and let them bake slightly longer. The dog really enjoyed licking the frosting bowl. Pay no attention to the cake's precarious position on the counter.


Once chilled, it was ganache time. Peanut butter, chocolate chips, corn syrup...with some 1/2 and 1/2 mixed in at the end.


Problem was, I didn't add enough cream/corn syrup. So 1) it wasn't shiny and 2) it was too thick. Hence, we have a giant chocolate/peanut butter mushroom cake. I should have captured a more aerial shot to show off its mushroominess.


Regardless of how it looked and the strange texture of the ganache, it was a really good cake. The frosting had really good peanut butter flavor without having a gross overly-buttery taste that happens sometimes with frosting. The cake was VERY moist and delicious. I may or may not have eaten two pieces on the birthday night. Next time I make this, I will definitely take more care with the ganache so it behaves as it is supposed to!

R birthday dinner

Mr. R wanted tacos for his birthday, so tacos he got. He did let me "glam" them up a bit by using a flat-iron steak for the tacos and jazzing up the plate with some beans and spanish (ish) rice. I know I've written of our taco/fajita/burrito love before, but I don't think I've ever covered my loves for flavored rice AND cast iron. So off we go!

First, for our fiesta rice, take a bit of olive oil and a diced bell pepper and onion and let that sizzle away until softened.


The add your rice (I usually let that tan up in the hot oil before adding liquid) and water or water-like products - in my case, half water, half tomato juice and salsa juice


20 minutes later, voila!


Now, onto cast iron. Mrs. Elle has a fine envy-inspiring collection of cast iron now, but for me, I make do with my one large skillet. Hello friend. Here, my friend is heating up.


And gets wicked hot! In you go, friendly flat iron steak - sizzle!


I served the steak very thinly sliced with onions and peppers and the traditional sides of cheese, sour cream, and salsa. It was a very tasty dinner!