The ultimate comfort food, chicken pot pie is surprisingly easy to make, and it freezes well! Here's the recipe I'm in the process of making and freezing right now, it serves our family of 2 adults and 3 young children - you may need to adjust the size and quantity for your family accordingly:
For the filling:
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen cut green beans
1/4 cup finely chopped onion, or substitute 2 tsp of the dried.
Mix all together in a gallon ziplock freezer bag, then make the sauce.
Melt 4 tbsp butter in a heavy saucepan, add 1/4 cup flour and cook for 30 seconds. Whisk in 2-1/2 cups of milk. Add 1 heaping tsp of instant chicken bouillon and salt and pepper to taste. When mixture thickens, allow it to cool and pour into the bag with the chicken and vegetables. Squeeze out the air, label and freeze.
When you're ready to make the pie, thaw the filling thoroughly and pour it into a 9" deep dish pie plate lined with a pie crust. Top with the second crust, seal, slice a few vent holes in the top, and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. You may need 1-1/4 hours if the veggies didn't get thawed enough.
I'll be putting four of these in the freezer, saving myself a lot of time later on when it's time to make dinner. I may even have time to try making my own pie crust instead of using the refrigerator store-bought stuff, that's something I've always wanted to do. With the filling ready to go, I can do that!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cleaner egg cracking
Did you know that if you crack a raw egg on a flat surface, instead of the edge of a bowl, that you'll actually get a cleaner break and no shells in your eggs 99% of the time? I didn't believe it either, until I tried it. Try it the next time you need to break open some raw eggs!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Lessons learned via pork roast
Add these to the list of "duh" moments while in the middle of preparing a roast pork meal for my family. Hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes, and not your own!
1) A bone-in pork loin roast takes twice as long to cook as a boneless roast. This is important to know before you cook the potatoes and veggies. It's also important to know if you'd like to feed your family before 7:00pm.
2) Dried, crushed rosemary is not a 1-1 substitute for fresh rosemary. Good thing we like rosemary, because it was...um...VERY aromatic! If the recipe calls for fresh, use less dried. I'd say probably half.
3) Gravy freezes REALLY well. Seriously. If you have leftover gravy, freeze it. I thawed some out last night that had been in my freezer for A YEAR - and it tasted like I had just made it. Score!!! I would have made fresh gravy from the pan drippings, but it was already 7:20 by the time we were sitting down to eat (see #1) so the thawed chicken gravy was a quick substitute.
4) Peeled, cut potatoes for mashed potatoes can easily sit in hot water after they're already cooked for an hour, maybe even more. How do I know this? Refer again to #1...
Happily, it all turned out well, Glen thought it was delish, my kids even asked for seconds, and Igor went for thirds.
1) A bone-in pork loin roast takes twice as long to cook as a boneless roast. This is important to know before you cook the potatoes and veggies. It's also important to know if you'd like to feed your family before 7:00pm.
2) Dried, crushed rosemary is not a 1-1 substitute for fresh rosemary. Good thing we like rosemary, because it was...um...VERY aromatic! If the recipe calls for fresh, use less dried. I'd say probably half.
3) Gravy freezes REALLY well. Seriously. If you have leftover gravy, freeze it. I thawed some out last night that had been in my freezer for A YEAR - and it tasted like I had just made it. Score!!! I would have made fresh gravy from the pan drippings, but it was already 7:20 by the time we were sitting down to eat (see #1) so the thawed chicken gravy was a quick substitute.
4) Peeled, cut potatoes for mashed potatoes can easily sit in hot water after they're already cooked for an hour, maybe even more. How do I know this? Refer again to #1...
Happily, it all turned out well, Glen thought it was delish, my kids even asked for seconds, and Igor went for thirds.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Cool way to chop walnuts
I'm not sure why it took me so long to figure this out. Who needs a knife, chopper or food processor to chop walnuts? Just get a plastic bag and a rolling pin - or something similar. Measure the walnuts into the bag, seal it, and pound it until they are the size you need for your recipe.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Blonde Joke #1
Hey - I can poke fun, 'cause I'm one! Enjoy a bit of levity today, I'm starting a "Blonde Jokes" category, and considering the title of my blog, I'd say it fits in well! :)
A blonde and her husband are lying in bed listening to the next door neighbor's dog. It has been in the backyard barking for hours and hours.
The blonde jumps up out of bed and says, "I've had enough of this." She goes downstairs.
The blonde finally comes back up to bed and her husband says "The dog is still barking, what have you been doing?"
The blonde says, "I put the dog in our backyard, let's see how THEY like it!"
A blonde and her husband are lying in bed listening to the next door neighbor's dog. It has been in the backyard barking for hours and hours.
The blonde jumps up out of bed and says, "I've had enough of this." She goes downstairs.
The blonde finally comes back up to bed and her husband says "The dog is still barking, what have you been doing?"
The blonde says, "I put the dog in our backyard, let's see how THEY like it!"
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