How Do I Love Thee....

Let me count the ways....

your Buttery...Flaky...melt-in-my-mouth-crust
your chunky...fresh...creamy...filling
Oh, Chicken Pot Pie you are my one true comfort food!

I was scared of you for so many years...thinking that your perfection would be impossible to re-create...

but there was no need to fear you my belove-ed....
not only are you oh so delicious, but you are oh so easy to make...

just remember the one thing that makes this dish 'hard' is the prep...there is chopping and dicing and measuring....
but if you have everything prepped ahead and in bowls it goes fast and smooth...
and then you can have the bonus of feeling like a food network star as you make dinner....

this is also a wonderful dish to double and either freeze the 2nd one for later, or take to a family in need (new baby, surgery, sickness, moving, etc...I recently took to a friend whose family was quarantined with the POX...Chicken Pox...and we coined the name...Chicken Pox Pie....)

Chicken Pot {Pox} Pie
1 cup frozen peas (optional...I don't like peas...only veggie I can't stand!)
1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup onion-chopped

2-3 stalks celery chopped

1/3 cup flour

½ tea salt

½ tea pepper

2-3 carrots peeled and chopped

1 potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes (don't make them too big!)

1 ¾ cup chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

1-3 chicken breast, cooked and cubed up

Pastry for 9-inch Two-Crust Pie (recipe follows)...or you could go for the store bought kind....

1. Rinse peas in cold water, drain, and set aside.
2. Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions and celery to butter and sauté until tender.  Stir in flour, salt, & pepper.  Cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat.  Stir in broth, milk, and carrots.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Stir in chicken and peas; remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Heat oven to 425.
4. Prepare pastry (recipe follows).  Roll two-thirds of the pastry to fit a 9-inch pie plate & gently place into pan.  Pour chicken mixture into pastry lined pan.
5. Roll remaining pastry into 11-inch circle.  Cut out designs with 1-inch cookie cutter.  Place circle over chicken mixture.  Arrange cutouts on pastry.  Turn edges of pastry under and flute.
6. Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown; you may need to protect edges of pastry crust with foil.

Perfect Pie Pastry

¾ cup butter flavored Crisco

2 cups flour

1 tea salt

5 Tbl cold water

1. Mix together flour and salt.  Cut Crisco into flour using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the size of coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle with 5 Tbl water, and mix using fork until flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of bowl.
2. Gather pastry into a ball.  Cut dough in 1/2 shape into 2 flattened round balls...
3. Roll out to the size needed and place in bottom of pie pan...and roll out second ball for the top of pie.

serve up warm...and also wonderful as a leftover....

It's a Chocolate Kind of Holiday

a favorite recipe around holidays at our house is the Chocolate Pie recipe...

This is more of a Thanksgiving tradition, we always had it at our Thanksgiving gatherings as a child, and I usually make it every Thanksgiving, and it has become a favorite with my father-in-law! I always forget every year how incredibly easy this pie is to make for such a yummy dessert, and so many different ways to change it up! I hope you enjoy it also.
it's a very simple...fast...sinfully good pie...Think I'll make one for Christmas this year...

Hershey Bar Pie
1 Oreo Cookie Pie crust (store bought or homemade)
1 ex large Hershey Bar (I think it's around 7 oz)
1/4 cup evaporated milk
20 large Marshmallows
1 pint whipping cream

Break up Hershey Bar and place into large microwave safe bowl, add evaporated milk and marshmallows. Heat for 40 seconds and stir, continue until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth, about 2 1/2 minutes total, , (this can also be done on the stove top using a double boiler, but why?). While mixture is cooling whip up the whipping cream until still peaks form (using an electric mixer), fold into chocolate mixture, pour into crust, refrigerate 2 hours before serving, top with sweeten whipped cream.

Options:
*Use Hershey bar with almonds, or dark chocolate, or another type of chocolate bar...
*stir in 1/2 tea of mint extract
*omit evap. milk and use 1/8 cup coffee and 1-2 teaspoon instant coffee whipped into whipped cream
*add 1/4 cup peanut butter to the chocolate mixture and melt