Chicken Pot Pie....from scratch

I bought a whole raw chicken last week. Well they also had the Publix Mediterranean rotiserrie chickens on sale which we decided to try. YUM! Well after that meal, I was not in the mood to eat another roasted chicken. I talked to my mom who suggested I use the chicken to make broth, then shred the chicken up for a recipe. So I made chicken pot pie. Here is the recipe.



Chicken Pot Pie



Broth

1 whole raw chicken
3-4 carrots
3-4 stalks of celery
1 onion
3 whole cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Water



1. Place all ingredients into large pot. Use enough water to cover chicken. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook for 45 min to 1 hour or until chicken is cooked through.
2. Remove chicken and shred.
3. Strain broth to remove veggies. At this point, I try to skim off some of the fat that will float to the top.

Crust

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp butter
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup milk



1. Cut cold butter into small cubes
2. Put all ingredients into bowl and mix until forms into dough
3. Refrigerate dough

Pie filling

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 cup chicken broth
Canned/frozen/fresh veggies of your choice
Shredded cooked chicken

1. Melt butter over medium high heat
2. Add flour to butter and cook for 1 min
3. Add milk and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Mine was very runny and didn't thicken well, so at this point, I had to add some cornstarch. You could also possibly add a can of cream of chicken to make it more creamy
4. Add in veggies and cook through
5. Add in chicken and remove from heat

Putting it all together
Preheat oven to 400 F
1. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out. I chose to only use a top crust and to make it into a lattice pattern.
2. Put pie filling into oven safe baking dish. I used individual sized bowls, but you could make one large one.
3. Cover pie filling with dough.
4. Bake at 400 F until dough is brown and filling is warmed through

This recipe was very time consuming, but it turned out very delicious. I would recommed anothe method to make the sauce creamy, because mine was more soupy.

Swedish Meatballs

A few weeks ago, we went to the new IKEA to check it out. While we were there we had to try the Swedish meatballs that everyone raves about. They were so tasty (and a steal at 4.99 per plate with a large serving!). So I decided to try to make them at home. They came out quite good. I will post the way I made it, but I would definitley advise making more gravy!

Swedish Meatballs

Meatballs
1 lb ground sirloin (you could use ground chuck...if you do, don't add the butter below)
1 egg
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Prehead oven to 350F
2. Combine above ingredients until well mixed
3. Make into any sized meatballs you prefer
4. Heat pan, add meatballs and brown on all sides
5. When meatballs have browned, remove from pan and transfer to oven safe baking sheet (reserve grease)
6. Bake meatballs to finish cooking (cooking time varies depending on size of meatballs)

Gravy
Pan drippings
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup milk

1. If you used ground chuck skip this step. Melt butter in pan with grease.
2. Add flour and cook for 1 minute
3. Add broth and simmer for at least 1 min (to allow thickening)
4. Add milk to desired consistency
5. Add cooked meatballs to gravy and serve

As I said, I would make more gravy next time. I served mine over egg noodles, but they would be great with mashed potatoes or even rice.

BBQ ribs and grilled veggie couscous salad

For Memorial Day we decided to do the typical grilling. We wanted something more than just burgers and hot dogs. So we settled on ribs. I wanted a side that was something not typical, and since the grill was going to be fired up, I decided to grill up some veggies and add them to couscous. So good!

BBQ Ribs

Slab of ribs
Seasonings of choice
BBQ sauce of choice

1. Put ribs in pot and cover with water. Add desired seasonings to water. Bring water to a boil, reduce to medium heat, and boil ribs for 20 minutes with lid on.

2. Meanwhile, preheat grill (not too hot though). When ribs are finished boiling, baste them with desired BBQ sauce and place on bottom rack of grill. Turn every 5 min and baste with more sauce. Cook until sauce has thickened to and you start to see char marks (about 10-15 minutes).


Grilled veggie couscous salad

1 green pepper
1 red onion
1 zuchinni
1 yellow squash
1 tomato
(any other veggies you might like- I tried eggplant and I didn't like it at all)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box of couscous (any flavor you like- I used whole wheat olive oil and garlic)

1. Prepare couscous according to directions on box and set aside in a serving dish.

2. Dice tomato and set aside- tomato will not be grilled

3. Cut veggies in big enough pieces so they will not fall through grates of grill (I sliced squash and zuchinni long ways and the onions into big rings)

4. Brush grilling veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with salt/pepper and any other desired seasonings.

5. Grill veggies until char marks and to desired tenderness

6. After veggies are cool enough to handle, chop into bite sized pieces and add to couscous.

7. Add tomatoes, stir to combine and enjoy!

So tasty!

Smoky Mac and Cheese

I had so many tasty recipes over the weekend, so I am going to be posting more than one blog today.
Saturday was my 10 year high school reunion which was held at a park. We were having a bbq and asked to bring a side dish. I mulled over it for a while trying to decide what to make that others wouldn't also be making. I ended up choosing to make a mac and cheese, but wanted it to be different. Instead of using typical cheeses (cheddar, american, etc) I used smoked gouda. It was SO good! The entire tray was eaten. Even my picky eater husband enjoyed it.

Smoky Mac and Cheese

1 lb dry pasta
8-10 oz of smoked gouda cheese shredded
4 oz cheddar shredded
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp cornstarch
Bacon cooked and chopped

1. Salt water and bring to a boil and cook pasta according to directions on box (salt is important here because the gouda is not a very salty cheese)

2. In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cheeses, paprika, salt and pepper. Bring a boil over medium high heat stirring constantly to avoid scalding milk. Continue to heat until all cheese has melted.

3. My cheese sauce was very thin at this point so I made a slurry of cornstarch and the hot cheese sauce. If yours is not thin, you can skip this step. If you add the cornstarch right into the sauce it is very lumpy. Take a small amount (1 Tbsp) of the cheese sauce and put into a small bowl. Add the cornstarch and mix until combined, then add all of the mixture into the pot of the cheese sauce and continue to heat until thickened.

4. Put pasta in serving dish, pour cheese sauce over and sprinkle with chopped bacon to garnish.

Mac and cheese is very versatile and you could make this with pretty much any cheese you would like.

Yum....I will have to try this....

In my search of recipe blogs, I came across this fabulous looking recipe for Perogi Lasagna on the blog entitled Omnomicon! Here is the link and instructions
http://www.omnomicon.com/pierogi-lasagna
Pierogi Lasagna
1 lb lasagna noodles4 lbs red or white potatoes1/4 c sour cream (optional)1/2 c milk2 c shredded cheddar cheese3/4 c butter (1.5 sticks)1 onion, sliced in rings
Cook the noodles. Chop potatoes into 1″ cubes, place in pot of cold water (enough to cover), and allow to come to a boil. Continue boil until potatoes are soft enough to yield to a fork stab. Drain, mash, blend with a mixer. Toss in the optional sour cream and milk, mix some more. Add salt to taste. Stir in cheddar.
Melt all the butter over medium-high heat, then sautee onion until the rings no longer hold their shape.
Preheat oven to 375. Grease the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish with some of the onion-butter. Lay noodles on the bottom of the dish, then spread the potatoes, a dollop at a time, along the length of each noodle. Once done, smooth the potatoes, then spread about a quarter of the onion on top, and drizzle a small amount of butter as well. Repeat this twice (or more if your dish can accommodate), then top with noodles and the remainder of the onions and butter.
Pop in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Yum...I might just have to try this for Fathers Day because my dad is a huge fan of perogis!

Yummy Frosting

One of my co-workers is going on a prolonged "vacation" and Friday was his last day. I have boxes and boxes of brownie mix (I love brownies and buy them whenever they are BOGO), so I decided I would brownies. Now we have a lady who works with us and she likes to cut herself a piece and then lick the knife and then cut another piece, or she will lick her fingers which are covered in whatever and then touch the food...so I decided I will make them into cupcakes. They were so dense and so chocolatey..I loved them. Of course you can not have a "cupcake" without some type of frosting. I am not a big fan of frosting, but I found a recipe on the back of my box of cocoa and decided to try it out. It was DELICIOUS! So here it is...

Chocolate Lover's Frosting
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Level: Easy Rated:
Source:

Chocolate Lover's Frosting
Estimated Times:Preparation - 5 min Yields - 16 servings (2 Tablespoons per serving)
Ingredients:
3 cups sifted powdered sugar, divided
2/3 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
5 to 6 tablespoons milk, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:BEAT 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, butter, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in remaining sugar and milk until smooth. Makes 2 cups total.

Nutritional Info

Nutrition FactsServing Size: 1/16 of recipeServings per Recipe: 16 servings (2 Tablespoons per serving)
Amount per serving
Calories: 150
Calories from Fat: 50
% Daily Value
Total Fat: 6g
10%
Saturated Fat: 3.5g
18%
Cholesterol: 15mg
5%
Sodium: 40mg
2%
Carbohydrates: 25g
8%
Dietary Fiber: 1g
3%
Sugars: 22g
Protein: 1g
Vitamin A
4%
Vitamin C
0%
Calcium
0%
Iron

Panzanella

For Mothers Day this year, my mother wanted to have everyone at her house for pizza. She wanted to something easy so nobody had to cook or clean. To go along with the pizza I decided to make a salad. I searched the web for something different instead of the same old salad or the same old antipasta. I checked out thenest and found a recipe for Panzanella salad. It is basically a salad that you use old stale bread to soak up the juices of the tomatoes and dressing. It was quite good. I used the celestial seasonings italian salad dressing instead of theirs. So here is the recipe...

Panzanella

Ingredients:
1/2 pound Italian bread, 3 to 4 days old, cut into 1-inch thick slices1/2 cup cold water1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch cubesKosher salt1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar2 cloves garlic, minced1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oilFreshly ground black pepper1 1/2 to 2 pounds ripe tomatoes (about 5), seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes1 medium red onion (4 to 5 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch dice1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, torn
Directions:
Sprinkle the bread with the water and let stand about 2 minutes. Gently squeeze the bread dry as you tear it into roughly 1-inch pieces. Spread the pieces of torn bread on paper towels to dry slightly, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, spread the cucumber pieces on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Let stand about 20 minutes to extract the bitter juices. Put the cucumbers in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Pat dry.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar, garlic, and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, torn basil, and the bread. Toss to combine and let stand until the bread has absorbed some of the vinaigrette, about 20 minutes.
Cooking Right: Reconstitute stale bread by sprinkling it with water. Gently squeeze out any excess water as you tear the bread into pieces. Don’t be too zealous as you squeeze or the bread will fall apart.
Excerpted from Cooking New American by the Editors of Fine Cooking. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted with permission from Taunton Press, Inc. Recipe by Joanne Weir.