Chicken Pot Pie

Yes, another pot pie recipe.  I think they are so easy and so tasty and its an all-in-one dinner.   If you want a little salad with it, its even healthier and for ease of preparation, you can't beat it.

This recipe came from the Pillsbury.com/calendar2011.  Its the January recipe and I knew as soon as I saw it I was going to make it.

INGREDIENTS:
Crust: 1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts softened as directed on pkg. (I did mine in the Microwave for a second or two...don't go too long (ask me how I know)
Filling: 
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2cup milk
2 1/2 cups shredded turkey (I used chicken, hence  the change in title)
2 cups Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen mixed vegetables, thawed.

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425 F   Make pie crusts as directed on box for two-crust pie using 9 inch glass plate.
2. In 2-quart saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, cook 2 min stirring frequently until
    tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended.  Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and
    stirring until bubbly and thickened.
3.  Stir in turkey or chicken and mixed vegetables.  Remove from heat.  Spoon into crust lined pie plate.
     Top with second crust, seal edge and flute.  Cut slits in several places in top crust.
4.  Bake 30 to 40 min or unti crust is golden brown.  During last 15 to 20 min of baking cover edge of crust
     with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning.  Here's my pie ready for the oven

Very yummy, as you can see 2 of us did a good job of eating it although I did take out a slice for my friend for his freezer.  It will make a nice lunch in a few days.

NOTES:

OK, I didn't have any leftover poultry so I used 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed almost totally and then chopped into about 1 inch pieces.  I used Pam in my frying pan and cooked the pieces until all pink was gone.  I salted and peppered them as they were cooking and also sprinkled in some McCormick Chicken Seasoning (it has a little bite, makes it sooooo good) and some poultry seasoning.    Put it in the fridge until I needed it, there were some nice juices  in the bottom of the plastic tub I had them stored in  and I added that to the chicken broth in number 2 above.  I also sprinkled just a little poultry seasoning on the crust.
Next time I'm thinking I'll use Cream of Chicken Soup for the liquid it has a nice flavor and I can add the liquid from my cooked chicken to make it a little more juicy. 

I hope you try it and ENJOY!

The crust comes out really nice and flakey.  It really was a delicious dinner and we're eating the leftovers tonight  :-)   That's making a couple chicken breasts go a long way, don't you think?

Summer Salad for 2

picture from free clip art web site, http://clipart.m-y-d-s.com

We've been eating out too much lately and decided to cut down so I've been making a meal out of fresh summer veggies and a protein. The bonus is, the salads only take about 30 minutes to put together, including cooking the chicken. Today's salad was one of the best so I thought I'd share it with you (I should have taken a picture it was so pretty but we gobbled it down so fast I barely had time to write the ingredients before I forgot them. This salad picture is from free clip art web site, http://clipart.m-y-d-s.com.
NOTE: everything I put in the salad is part of my vegetable crisper or "salad shelf". We eat just about the same salad often but I vary the protein and the seasonings. Here's tonight's salad, it was exceptional, especially the chicken:


INGREDIENTS

8 ounce skinless chicken breast
McCormick Perfect Pinch Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning (found in the spice section of your grocery store)
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Chardonnay Wine yeah I know I used it in the chili too, I have this bottle, might as well use it :-)
No Stick Cooking Spray
Iceberg lettuce--I sometimes add baby spinach as well
Wash the lettuce and set in refrigerator wrapped in a paper towel or return to plastic bag you bought it in at the store, leave it there for at least 30 minutes to help crisp it.
6 Vine ripened cherry tomatoes
1 each sweet yellow and red peppers
1 bell pepper
2 stalks Green Onions
10 Seedless Green Grapes
2 Tbls Green salad olives
1/4 cup Craisins
1/2 cup Parmesan flavored croutons

NOTE Everything is cut into bite size pieces.

Directions:
Cut chicken into small bite size pieces and sprinkle with Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning and salt and pepper (not too much salt, the seasoning has salt as well)
Pour a little bit of Olive Oil in your non stick fry pan, put on high heat
Add spiced chicken pieces and stir. Continue stirring until chicken is pretty much cooked through, then turn down the heat. Be careful you don’t want it to be overdone or the chicken will become tough. If necessary as you stir the chicken add cooking spray to the pan to keep the chicken from sticking. Sprinkle more seasoning on the chicken as you stir and it cooks. Add about 1/4 cup wine to the pan and turn heat off. The chicken will continue to simmer and cool down in the wine and seasoning while the stove cools down.

While the chicken is simmering and cooling in the wine, prepare your veggies.
Wash the veggies in cold water and set aside.
Tear lettuce into small pieces and put in salad bowl (Not too much, you can add more later if you need to.)
Chop your veggies into small pieces and add to salad bowl
Cut grapes in half if they are large
Add a couple tablespoons of green olives to the bowl
Sprinkle in the Craisins
Add your chicken pieces
Toss the salad then cut the croutons in half and sprinkle around on top

I don't put salad dressing on the salad until we are ready to eat. I like one kind, my friend likes another so we each add our dressing individually. Nothing else is needed for this dinner, you have your protein, your fruit, your vegetables and the croutons are your bread (unless you aren't watching your starchy carbs of course).

Flowers and another fabulous recipe

Today I walked outside and found the first lily blooming. I bought 2 at the Iris Farm this spring. (M-72 5 Miles from Traverse City.) Also its been so hot and humid my hibiscus thinks its in a tropical paradise and its blooming.

Then I went to coffee at our clubhouse where friends meet once a month. The ladies started talking about Beer Biscuits and they sounded so good I came home and tried them. You need a package of biscuit mix,sugar and beer. Use the recipe on the package for regular biscuits but mix 5 tbls of sugar in with the mix and add beer instead of any other liquid called for. Mine took 1 1/2 cups mix, 5 tbls sugar and 1/2 cup beer. They warned not to use lite beer, I used Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

Boy, those biscuit were so good, we sat down to eat leftover chili (from the recipe previously posted) and we ate all 12 biscuits. Do try this recipe, its fabulous. The sugar and beer make the biscuits puffy and really gives them a great texture.

BEST EVER CHILI WITH BEANS

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground round
2 15.5 oz cans dark red kidney beans
2-1 lb cans plain diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 pkg sliced fresh carrots
4 ozs water
1 green pepper
1 yellow onion
¼ cup Chardonnay
Salt
Pepper
1 package Carroll Shelby’s Chili Kit
1 package Colby and Monterey Jack Cheese
1 pkg sour cream
OPTIONAL: 1 can beer

DIRECTIONS:
With food processor, chop half large onion and half green pepper and ¼ cup carrots into small pieces, set aside
Brown ground round until all pink is gone
Drain ground round and set aside in bowl (I rinse my ground round in a colander you won’t notice the difference but your waist will, its a trick I learned from a friend who cooked for schools). Don’t rinse fry pan but add previously chopped veggies and cook until onions are clear.

Turn burner down to low and switch to a 4 lb sauce pan. Add tahe ground round.
Sprinkle salt and pepper into meat mixture and stir well.
Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and water.
Add half Chili spices from package. Stir and taste, if necessary add some more spices until it tastes the way you prefer your chili to taste (I use the whole pkg).
Sprinkle a little Cayenne pepper from package into pan but careful; don’t use much until you do the taste test.
At this point, add ¼ cup Chardonnay or of course you can use water to make it a little more soupy.
Put lid on pan loosely and simmer until you’re ready to eat.

To serve, put cheese and sour cream in middle of table and let people add if desired.

HINT: If chili is too spicy or too thick for your guests pour a little beer (or water) into it, simmer just a bit and it will be just right Leftovers are fabulous over brats, smoked sausages or franks.

New Food Processor

I really like watching the Food Channel and all the cooking competitions. Finally the other day I broke down and bought myself a food processor. I went on the internet first and read the review and comparisons and decided on a Kitchenaid which was rated just a little higher than Cuisinart only because it came with a small bowl as well as the large one. OK, I thought, small bowl would be handy since there's only one of me eating here most of the time. Also the Kitchenaid had a thingy to hold the blades. So I got it home and son of a gun, it only had 1 speed. On and Off...that's it! Well, it did have a pulse. I went back on the internet and looked at the Cuisinart again and it has an automatic adjustable speed with the dough blade so took the Kitchenaid back and got an 11 cup Cuisinart. No little bowl but oh well....also no holder for the blades. Well--I bought a plastic bowl with lid to hold the blades. That works.

So I hooked the thing up, took out a couple boneless chicken breasts and proceeded to chop for Biscuit's dinner. SON OF A GUN... that sucker had the meat chopped faster than I could blink. YEOW, watch out for the fingers! I then decided to try to make some Cottage Fried oven baked potatoes. Got the recipe off the internet. It called for grated parmesan cheese so off I went to the store for that (yes I had some in a can but wanted to try grating cheese after all :-). Got some garlic and some butter also called for in the recipe and went home. Whoops, forgot the brush to brush the potatoes with the butter sauce. Oh well...proceeded to clean the potatoes and chop. I couldn't get it to chop the whole potato. Well...it did come with the DVD but who had time to watch a DVD, I wanted to CHOP! Ended up cutting the potatoes into 4ths and then chopping into very skinny little pieces. NO GOOD but cooked them anyway. Unfortunately I didn't believe the person who wrote the recipe who said it took 1/4 TBS butter and I plopped some butter into the pan, added the garlic and salt/pepper and melted the stuff. Poured it over the potatoes. YIKES they came out so greasy I had to throw them away. Got out some more potatoes and proceeded to make them again. These came out ok (yes I used 1/4 TBS butter this time) but they weren't all that good. I had shredded a lot of Parmesan (more than called for, of course) and didn't bother to use it because I already knew the potatoes were too skinny and didn't taste all that good. Oh well.........

Next day I watched the video. There just had to be a way to chop a whole potato. Sure enough, there was. I chopped up a potato and took it over to show my neighbor who also has a food processor and didn't know she could chop a whole potato.

Now I've ordered a book from Amazon, The Food Processor Bible. Can't have this expensive thing sitting on the counter every day doing nothing.

Oh, tonight's menu? Grilled Tilapia with Latkes (require food processor for best results according to the recipe) They also say: "The best latkes are golden and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, and perfectly seasoned". Think I'll follow the recipe to a "T" on this........

Will post the results (if they turn out decent).

The Very Best Barbecue I've Ever Made

OK, maybe you won't think its the best, maybe yours is but yesterday I fixed a meal that would rival any restaurant I've been to.
Menu:
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Coleslaw
Green Beans with crispy bacon
Leftover Beef Roast and 1 lb beef stew meat
Dessert: Fresh Fruit mixed with Dole Tropical Fruit

I had 2 leftover bits of roast beef in the freezer. Both were a bit tough.
I decided to buy some stew meat that was on sale and since the last 2 meats I had bought at this local store were tough I decided to get some Meat Tenderizer as well.
I bought "Spice Supreme" brand Seasoned Meat Tenderizer and sprinkled it over both sides of the stew meat. I put the meat in the fridge and left it overnight. The next morning I put the stew meat in the crock pot and set it to cook for 3 hours on low.
I poured some KC Masterpiece original Barbecue sauce over the top of the meat and added some water to the bottom of the pot. I left the house and when I got home the crock pot had switched to "warm". I checked the meat, it was pretty tender but I wasn't quite satisfied with how done it was so turned it back on low for 2 hours. I figured what the heck, I'd go ahead and throw those 2 pieces of roast beef in with it while I was at it. I added a bit more barbecue sauce and left it. When I came back to the crock pot later in the afternoon I couldn't believe it. The roast beef was as tender as the stew meat and yum...it was all delicious. I put the whole thing in a storage container and put in the fridge for later. Later I ate some of the meat but not a lot, I decided to save it for the next day and make the rest of a super meal when I had time. Later I froze it.
Two days later I got out the meat and let it thaw. I put it in a 8X2 pan and poured a bit more barbecue sauce over it and put it in the oven at 300 degrees until hot and then turned down to 200 degrees to stay warm until everything else was finished.
I had bought some Angel Hair Coleslaw veggies (you know the packaged prepared stuff?)
I wanted a certain kind of coleslaw sauce but couldn't find the brand I used in South Carolina (my favorite) so grabbed one and hoped it was good. WOW...Litehouse brand Coleslaw Dressing & Dip. Super stuff. It comes from Sandpoint, Idaho...where my dad grew up. (not why I bought it but....) That stuff is delicious. I mixed it up with the cabbage and put it aside in the fridge to blend the flavor of the mix with the cabbage. Soooooo good!

Green beans were canned but I like to buy that already cooked bacon, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and you have a couple very crispy thin slices of bacon. Crumble it over the canned green beans, add some salt and pepper and bring to boil, then simmer until the rest of the meal is finished. (My version of Southern Green Beans that hopefully are a little more healthy than the original version that I dearly love but shouldn't eat.

Then I cooked the potatoes and using the juice from the roast beef (saved in the freezer days earlier) and a package of Brown Gravy Mix as well as some corn starch, I made a delicious gravy for those potatoes. Turned out sooooo good.

Dessert was 1/2 cantelope that wasn't all that ripe (that had me worried so I cut it into small chunks and hoped the rest of the fruit would sweeten it some). 1 small watermelon that WAS ripe. 1 can Dole Pineapple in its own juice and a jar of Dole Tropical Mixed Fruit (I highly recommend this fruit). I mixed all the fruit in a bowl with a little of the tropical fruit juice (not a lot) added some green and red seedless grapes and sprinkled some chopped date pieces over the top. Then I sprinkled 4 packages of Splenda over the whole thing, tossed it all together and put it in a plastic container that seals tight. When I was ready to serve that fruit, I turned it upside down so the juice would moisten the whole bowl full of fruit. Delicious!

What a great meal. I'm writing this, not because I think everyone should try my meal (but feel free)....but because I wanted to remember how I made the whole thing because I'm definitely going to be making this combination again and I don't want to forget how I made it.

If you try it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.