Chicken Pot Pie

I had a harvest-themed party last fall and decided I wanted to focus on "comfort" food as my main dish.

And then I found myself craving pot-pie. Which is always nice, right?

And then I forgot about this damned recipe and forgot to post it. Forever. SO hey! How bout some winter comfort food instead?

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter (or less if you're anti-butter. I'm not, I may have used more knowing me)
2 cloves garlic
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped Onion
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped broccoli
1.5 cups chopped potato
2.5 cups chopped roasted chicken
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup half n half
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp italian seasonings

Pie Dough

Crust Ingredients
1.5 cups flour
1 stick butter - cubed and cold (or it sticks like whoa!)
2 dashes salt
1/4 cup ice water

Mix the flour and butter together until there's no large butter chunks in, it'll get kind of mealy. Then add in your water and kneed that in until you can form it into a ball. At this stage it's going to be real sticky, so if you're like my you can toss in a little more flour to make it manageable and then form it into a ball and cover it in saran wrap and set it aside for 15-20 minutes. Or however long the rest of this process takes you.



And back to the Pot Pie!

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and melt the butter in a large saute pan/pot. Add in the garlic when melted, a minute later add the carrots, onion, celery and broccoli.

2. Saute for a few minutes then add the mushrooms. Wait another minute then add the flour and stir til it's all mixed in and a little thicker.

3. Pour in the 2 cups of broth and 1 cup half n half. Bring to boil, then reduce down to simmer. Add potatos, chicken and spices. Cook for 15 minutes or so or until it thickens up. Taste test, add salt/pepper if necessary.

4. Pour into a large casserole dish or (I use a round one) and top with pie dough. Cut a few holes in the top and throw it in the oven.

5. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until crust is nice and golden brown. Consume when it ceases burning your tongue.

Ok...that's it. I have to start taking photos of food.

I'm sorry! I'm so neglectful I will be better going forward! I swear.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ok so I was craving sweets again, a repetative theme if there ever was one, and I decided to make Cupcakes!

Why? Well, because they're a recent obsession. It's a problem, really...I swear, I'll give them up soon. Right after I figure out how to make a good buttercream frosting.


Ingredients
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 Cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Firmly Packed Light Brown Sugar
4 Large Eggs, at room temperature
6 Oz Unsweetened Chocolate, melted (I think I'll try using 8 oz next time. I would have loved more chocolate, but I'm kind of a chocoholic sometimes...)
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract


Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 and line 2 muffin tins with cupcake papers

2. In a small bowl mix your flour and baking soda

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter til it's smooth and then add all your sugars. Beat until fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beat well so it stays fluffy. Then add the chocolate and vanilla and make sure it's all mixed in.

4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk. beat until all the ingredients are incorporated, but don't overbeat (or you end up with this really fluffy batter that looks like mousse. No...don't ask how I know).

5. Using a spoon or spatula, make sure everything's well blended then spoon the batter into the cupcake liners. You'll want to fill them about 3/4 full (unless you have the mousse...then just fill them up, they won't raise too much).

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutse in the tins, then move to a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

So tasty...

I got the recipe from here.
http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/01/magnolias-chocolate-cupcakes.html

Fried Tilapia

Ok...so, I have a confession.

Fish, fish intimidates me. Ok, well, any fish that's not wrapped in tinfoil with butter and lemon and then thrown in my oven.

I'm always worried I'll make it too dry or I won't cook it enough. Or the whole dish will just fall apart and I'll be stuck holding a bill for $20 and a rumbly stomach.

Well...NO MORE! Last weekend I sauted cod for the first time and I was stunned with the ease of cooking that fish. And tonight, I breaded Tilapia and fried it. Who knew breading was so easy to make too?




Ingredients
1 egg white
1/4 cup of water
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
4 fillets of tilapia (or cod, or whatever fish you want) About 3 oz each
1/2 cup - 1 cup oil for frying (be your own judge)

breading
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp italian seasonings
1/8 tsp dried jerk seasonings (or cayenne if you have it, I didn't)

This is the easy part!

1. Soak your tilapia in the first 3 incredietns (egg white, water and juice) for 5-10 minutes. While doing so, place the oil in the pan and turn it up to medium heat so it'll be nice and ready for your fish.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a long flat dish.

3. Coat the fish in the breading material and then place in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown (about 5-10 minutes tops really).

And... ta-da! All done. I'll never know why I was so intimidated! I also want to try this breading on Chicken. Something tells me it'd taste great!

Oh also, I found out how easy it is to make homemade Tarter Sauce.

Ingredients
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 tsp sweet relish (more if you want it)
1 tbsp lemon juice (if desired)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix and chill for an hour. Ta-da! You just saved $4 at the store.

Blueberry-POM Syrup

This was originally a recipe i found for blueberry sauce. When I made it the first time though, I was surprised with how sweet it was. Too sweet in my mind, luckily I'd been on a POM kick so i just added 1/2 a container from my POM source to the mix. Which cut down the sweetness and gave it this sweet-sour mix that i love. It was a big hit over cheesecake. And it goes just as well over pancakes, french toast, shortcake, really...anything that you want a sweet sauce for.

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup POM
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cold water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine the blueberries, 1/4 cup of water, orange juice, and sugar. Bring to a Boil

2. In a cup or bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cold water with the corn starch and stir til it's well blended. Because no one likes clumps in their sauce. At least, not corn starch clumps. Blech! Pour this into the saucepan, the original recipe said not to mash the blueberries...but i find that to be half the fun. So mash away if you want to. Simmer gently for 3-5 minutes

3. When it starts thickeining up and is about the consistency you want remove from heat and add the almond extract and cinnamon. Give it a taste test, if it's too sweet add more POM. (I usually add more at this point...never had an issue with it being not sweet enough).

If it's too thick, you can also add water.

You can serve this immediately or you can set it aside and refrigerate. You'll find the cinnamon and almond grow more pronounced the longer you let it sit. I prefer to make mine 24 hours in advance to get a nice blend of the flavors.

Roasted Tomato Bisque

So I had a craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup, but...I wanted to try and make my own soup. Mostly because I had about a pound of tomatos I needed to use up. So I poked around on the internet to see if there was a recipe I wanted to use (as normal, there wasn't 1 but I did mash 2 into 1 to come up with something I liked). I think I'll keep fiddling with this in the future, but it was quite tasty.

Ingredients
1 pounds plum tomatos - sliced in half
2 can of diced plum tomatos (with sauce)
1/2 cup sour cream
4 cloves of garlic
1 yellow onion diced
1 celery stalk chopped
1 cup basil - fresh
1/2 tsp dried thyme (since i had none fresh)
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup olive oil + 2 tblsp
salt + pepper to taste


1. Coat the fresh tomatos w/olive oil lightly salt and pepper.Bake at 400 degrees for 45minutes (I also drained the tomatos and roasted the canned tomatos for 25 minutes, saving the juice for later.


2. Saute the onion, celery, garlic, red pepper flakes w/butter and olive oil in a medium/large pot. Saute the onions until they're brown, about 10 minutes or so

3. Add the canned and roasted tomatos, along with any tomato juice on the pan. Add the chicken stock, basil, and thyme. Bring it to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 40 minutes.

4. Run it through your blender until you have the consistently you want (I go for fully blended)!

VOILA! You have triumphed over the tomatos and turned them into a delicious tomato bisque. Garnish it with a drop of sour cream and a fresh basil leaf or two.

Raspberry Brownies

I've been fiddling with this recipe for the last month. The first time I screwed up and used too much butter, so I had raspberry brownie cake (delicious!) and the second time I used a substandard Jam. Much to the detriment of the recipe...but this time. This time I'm on to something!

Raspberry Brownies

1 cup(s) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup(s) unsweetened cocoa + 1 more spoonful if you're a choco-holic like me.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup, aka 2 sticks, butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup(s) sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup raspberry jam
2 teaspoons vanilla

Now this is important, you must be using GOOD Jam (or preserves). I used a nice thick home-canned style of raspberry preservers. Do NOT use smuckers. Bad things will happen. Mostly the jam doesn't spread the way it's supposed to and you get weird lumps of jam in the middle of your brownie. Which will somehow be much sweeter than it should be also...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 baking pan.

2. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large sauce pan (no really, like 3+ quart large...cause you're gonna have all kind of goodies in it by the end of this) melt the butter over medium-low heat. You want it melted, not burned or scorched.

4. Remove the pan from heat, and with a wisk stir in the sugar. Add the eggs 1 at a time (or if you're like me...2 at a time), you want these beaten in well.

5. Stir in the jam and vanilla, once again whisking until it's all well blended.

6. Now add in all those dry ingredients you set aside earlier (you know, the flour and salt and cocoa and all that). You can use a spoon or wisk, you want to stir until it's all just blended (not sure what that means really...I just stirred til I ran out of white stuff showing up in my pan).

7. Drop it all in your greased pan and pop it in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick/fork/knife comes out almost clean. Cool it in the pan and wait at least 20 minutes before sampling.

Trust me, it matters! Mine were rather cake like at first, but once I let them set...omg, sooo delicious. I ate half the pan all on my own. I may need to make another batch in fact...

I got this recipe from Delish.com
http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/raspberry-brownies-1188?click=recipe_sr

Ginger-Vodka infusion

Someone recently left a very large bottle of smirnoff vodka at my house, which...isn't my preferred brand of vodkas. Though it's a definate step up from the rotgut they serve as house vodka in many dive bars.

So...I decided to give a try at infusing with it. Because 1, it was free and 2, why not?



Recipe 1
1 cup of freshly chopped ginger (I left it in fairly large chunks)
Large mason jar
Lotta vodka

1. Peel and chop your ginger
2. Throw it in a jar
3. Fill that jar with vodka and put a lid on it

now for the fun part
4. Wait a few days, shake your jar once or twice a day just to get that ginger all infused like.
5. After you feel it's properly gingery. Strain the ginger out and return your now amazing vodka to a storage container of your choice.

I'll let you know what kind of nifty martini we come up with...just as soon as we get to drinking it in a drink. Currently I just keep sneaking sips from the jar...well, I mean not LITERALLY from the jar. But you know what I mean.

Curried Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

This is possibly, one of the most time-indusive recipes I've done. But I'll be honest, I'm not what you call a quick chopper. Nor a quick peeler...and onions make me cry. But I persevered anyway because I just knew this tasted delicious and that it'd all be worth it at the end. And it was.

I found this online when I was poking around MSN, which isn't my normal method of finding a recipe but it just sounded good. I mean, curry? Ginger? Sweet potatos??? How could this go wrong?!?


A few modifications and a few hours later and all was delicious in my world.


Ingredients
3 medium sweet potatoes
2 tablespoon(s) vegetable oil
1 pound(s) ground turkey or chicken
1 teaspoon(s) salt
1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon(s) curry powder
1 cup chicken broth (and maybe a little extra if it seems dry)
1 pound(s) carrots, peeled and chopped
1 pound(s) parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger (well, more if you really like ginger)
1 medium zucchini squash, chopped
1/2 package (10-ounce) frozen peas
1/4 package frozen corn
1/2 cup milk, warmed
1 tablespoon margarine or butter




If you want to try it from the original recipe, here's a link.
http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/curried-sweet-potato-shepherds-pie-ghk0308

Choco-Chip Banana Bread

Taking these photos has reminded me I really need to get a loaf pan already...

Ingredients

1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg (or...2 dashes...whatever makes you feel comfy)
1/8 tsp salt
3 medium ripe bananas (I'm talking almost black people, that's how ripe they should be)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
3/4 cup chocolate chips (or more...or less, depends on how much chocolate you're craving)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter your baking dish.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flower, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Make a whole in the middle

In a seperate mixing bowl, combine the bananas, sugar, oil, and egg.

Mix the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, stir until everything's all mixed up.

Add the chocolate chips.

Pour into your baking dish and put it in the oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick/fork/knife/whatever comes out clean.

Garlic-Ginger Green Beans

This is something I picked up in college when trying to figure to figure out how to add a new veggie dish to my kitchen skills. I think it worked out fairly well. Though...the acorn squash looks a little suspicious after cinnamon gets added to it.

Ingredients
1/2 pound of green beans (tips snipped, unless you like your tips then leave em unsnipped)
3-4 garlic cloves (I love garlic, I love it so much you might want to use less)
1 inch section of fresh ginger, chopped somewhat finely (about 1 tbsp when done, i suggest going with 1 tsp and then adding more to taste if you're not used to fresh ginger)
1/4 of an onion, diced so it's still fairly chunky
ginger powder - cause I wanted more ginger
salt & pepper
small sprinkling of red chili flakes (and then i remembered fresh ginger is spicy)
1/4 - 1/2 lemon (to taste)
Cooking Oil - just enough to lightly coat the beans.

Normally I'd add balsamic, but I just realized writing this up that I forgot it last night. Still tasty though!

This one's a pretty simple recipe...and I say this because I make it up each time I go, the spices are known to change depending on my mood...

Directions
1. Put a large saute pan on the stove on medium-heat. I like to give it a few minutes to warm up.

2. While the pan is heating, mix all ingredients *EXCEPT the lemon* in a bowl, making sure everything's lightly coated.


3. Drop your mixture into the saute pan! Hopefully there's a nice sizzling sound. I generally let this saute for 5-10 minutes open-faced, and then another 10 minutes or so with the cover on.

4. Remove from heat, plate it...and...squeeze that lemon juice on top.

And viola! You should have an aromatic attest to the glory of green beans.

Personally I like the combo of spice and tartness the ginger and lemon give to the dish. But I've been known to omit ginger and just use garlic also. It's really just about mixing flavors you love in new ways. =)

Turkey-Black bean burritos

So, I've been craving mexican-style food lately...and a recent shoe purchase may or may not have played havoc on my checking account so, it's time for my "almost" monthly burrito week! Woohoo!

Only...the thought of my traditional burrito filled me with dread. All those calories, the boring flavors, just blech. I suppose I should mention the traditional burrito consisted of: cheese, refried beans, more cheese, sour cream, ground beef, more cheese, some lettuce if I had some...one time a tomato...cheese... I mean, sure I like cheese...but it does get a trifle overdone. Especially when I'm trying so hard to watch my calorie intake (which by the way, failed last night. I blame that bartender though, he was making the most delicious cocktails...).

So, a new idea. Ok, well...a new take on an old idea.

Turkey & Black Bean Burritos (or tacos if that's how you prefer to eat them)

Ingredients
Filling
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
Fajita-style Turkey Strips (I wanted ground turkey, but they didn't have it)
Several cloves of garlic (I operate under the more the better theory)
Several leaves of fresh basil (i couldn't find fresh cilantro....and I had this)
a small shallot (an onion would also work)
1 pkg of Mccormicks original taco seasoning (or whatever you like or create your own, I would but i really have to beef up my spice drawer first....)
salt and pepper (and whatever else you wanna add)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed (wash that sodium away!)

addtl burrito insides(these can be interchanged with whatever you prefer)
avocado
Salsa (homemade, storebought, or just a tomato...)
Sour Cream
Cheese (if you want it, i actually ate my first one sans cheese. It was still delicious!)
Spinach (or lettuce, I had spinach)
whatever else you want (I may add green or red pepper in tomorrow's)

Ok, so...the directions on this one are pretty easy.

1. In a large pan, pour the olive oil and heat it up! Add the garlic, shallot, and basil. Fry that up til your kitchen smells absolutely delish (cause that's what garlic and shallots smell like). Maybe 5 minutes, maybe not...depends on how hot your pan is.

2. Add the Turkey, stir that around a while. I think I cooked mine for 10 minutes or so then put a lid on for another 10 minutes or so because I suffer from impatience and I was hungry. Plus I like my meat not to be pink. I know, weird right???
****now's a good time to be rinsing those black beans***

3. Once the meat's all nice and cooked...add in that taco seasoning (and any additional seasonings) according to directions, which I took to mean add water boil boil boil boil...and what not. Cook that for 5 minutes or so

4. Toss in the blackl beans (at last) and saute it all up with that tasty goodness. Let it soak in the flavors...so really, another 5 minutes or so.

5. Remove from heat and drain (or not, I'm just not into the drippy mess so i drain).

Woohoo! Look at that, tasty insides are ready.

Then throw that on a tortilla wrap top it up with your chosen insides (I swear by avocado, salsa, spinach...and cheese). Fold in the sides and roll.

Voila, You have created a masterpiece. Ok...well, maybe that's saying a lot. But frankly I think it's some tasty stuff.

Smoked Salmon Pot Pie

Due to me not having a functional camera handy at the moment, you're just going to have to pretend there's a photo of a tasty pot pie in a large casserole dish here. =)

This dish was inspired by a trip to the Farmer's market. Seeing all of the delicious mushrooms and tasting way too many varieties of smoked salmon made me want to combine them. Then I smelled the oh so sweet aroma of a pot pie from another booth, and...viola I wanted a salmon pot pie. Having never made a pot pie before, I figured it couldn't be THAT difficult and with a little help from the internetz I found several recipes online and modified them together based on what I had handy (and what I wanted in my dish).

Crust Ingredients
1.5 cups flour
1 stick butter - cubed and cold (or it sticks like whoa!)
2 dashes salt
1/4 cup ice water

Mix the flour and butter together until there's no large butter chunks in, it'll get kind of mealy. Then add in your water and kneed that in until you can form it into a ball. At this stage it's going to be real sticky, so if you're like my you can toss in a little more flour to make it manageable and then form it into a ball and cover it in saran wrap and set it aside for 15-20 minutes. Or however long the rest of this process takes you.


Filling ingredients
3 tbls oil (or 2 tbls butter)
2 tbls flour
1- 10 oz package of frozen veggies (thawed) or 2 cups chopped veggies (your choice)
1/2 cup carrots
1.5 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped chanterelle mushrooms
1 small sweet onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 small shallot - chopped
1/2 tsp ground sage
2 tsps italian seasonings (it called for thyme...this is what I had)
1 sweet potato - peeled and chopped (I cooked mine for 5 minutes in microwave to speed things up because i didn't roast it earlier)
1/2 pound fresh salmon (still raw, but deskinned and chopped in 1 inch cubes)
2 cups broth (I used chicken broth, it was handy but I imagine you could use veggie, seafood, etc just as easily)
1.5 cups milk (i substituted 1/2 cup half n half and 1 cup nonfat...would have used all cream if I had it)
1/2ish pound of smoked salmon

***Preheat the oven to 400 F.***

1. In a large Saute Pan heat the oil until it's hot and then add the flour, stirring until there are no lumps and you have a nice roux going.
2. Add the onions, garlic, shallot, and veggies. Saute those until the veggies are soft, approx 5-10 minutes.
3. Stir in the seasonings and broth, it may thicken up some which is good. Let cook another 5 minutes or so then...
4.Add both types of salmon to the mixture and stir well to distribute the fish evenly, cook for another 5 minutes or so and then kill the heat. Stir in the milk.
5. Roll out your pie dough into a circle large enough to cover your 2 quart casserole dish.
6. Fill your casserole dish with the potpie mixture and then top with your pie dough, the dough should extend over the edges by about 1/2 - 1 inch. Poke some holes in whatever fancy design floats your boat (I made a flower...)
7. Cook in the oven for approx 15-10 minutes until crust is golden.

Tada!

Now, when I had this last night it seemed awfully soupy but I've been finding less and less liquid in my casserole dish. It appears to be soaking into the veggies just fine and giving it that pot pie texture I was hoping for. Next time I make it I think I'll use more cream, less milk and possibly add some flour to thicken it up a bit before baking.

The dish was inspired and assisted with bits and pieces of the below recipes
http://www.potpierecipe.net/
http://www.toomanychefs.com/archives/001306.php