Chicken Pot Pie

As adapted from The Pioneer Woman as seen here.

Cut and pasted for your lazy pleasure


Leftover Turkey Pot Pie (we used chicken!)
1 pie crust (1/2 of Perfect Pie Crust recipe)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups leftover turkey, light and dark, diced or shredded (or both!)
1/4 cup flour
2 to 3 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth (more if needed!)
splash of white wine (optional)
3/4 cup heavy cream
Frozen peas (optional)
Fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt butter in a skillet or dutch oven. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook until translucent (a couple of minutes.)
Add turkey and stir. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in chicken or turkey broth, stirring constantly. Splash in wine (you can leave this out if you’d like.) Pour in cream. (May add frozen peas at this point if you’d like.)
Bring to a slow boil and allow mixture to cook and thicken for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not underseason), and fresh or dried thyme to taste. Do one final taste at the end and add what it needs.
Pour mixture into a casserole dish or deep pie pan.
Roll out crust so that it’s about 1 inch larger than the pan you’re using.
Place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture, and press crust into the sides of the dish. Cut vents in the top of the crust.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until very golden and bubbly and the crust is done.
Allow to cool for a little bit before serving.
Serve with a large spoon.

I even made her recipe for pie crust and it just about drove me around the bend...just because I did not roll it out on a good surface and it stuck - hard!  We were too hungry to wait for the pie to cool for a bit so the pie was quite runny.  When we went for seconds - it had thickened up nicely but is still a pretty goo-ey meal.  Husband - of- Cheerios is very against pie for a meal so he was not looking forward to this at all.  As it turned out he was the biggest fan of all!  This meal is something you wouldn't want to have more than a couple of times a year but it is really really good!  The kids liked it too.

Spicy Taco Pie

as adapted from the cookbook Company's Coming for Kids

500g lean ground beef
brown beans in tomato sauce 398ml
envelope taco seasoning mix 35g
cornmeal 1 tablespoon
biscuit mix 2 cups
milk 2/3 cup
grated monterey jack 1/2 cup
grated cheddar 1/2 cup
(we used 1 cup of  tex mex shredded)
crushed corn chips 1/2 cup
shredded lettuce 1 cup
1 med tomato - chopped
green onions - thinly sliced
sour cream 1/2 cup

Place oven rack in center position.  Preheat to 400F.  Grease pie plate.
Brown ground beef in frying pan over med heat. Stir in beans and taco seasoning.  Reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 5 min.
Sprinkle pie plate bottom with cornmeal.
Combine biscuit mix and milk in a bowl and stir until it forms a ball.  Knead dough 7-8 times on lightly floured surface.  Roll out on waxed paper into 12" (30 cm) circle.  Turn dough over into pie plate. Press dough lightly to form a shell.  Spoon beef mixture into shell.  Bake ~12 min until crust is golden.  Remove to wire rack.  Sprinkle with cheese, corn chips, lettuce, tomato and green onion.  Place dollops of sour cream on top.  Cut into 6 wedges.

This was really easy to make and really tasty.  It may not be the healthiest dish we've ever made but when both kids eat it with such enthusiasm - we will make this again!

Hashbrown Stroganoff Pie

As modified from the "Grandma's Touch Cookbook"

Ingredients

2.5 cups frozen hash brown potatoes
1 egg
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 cup condensed cream of mushroom & garlic soup
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Directions
Combine the egg, potatoes and sour cream. Press into a greased 8 inch pie plate. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

In a large skillet, brown the beef with onion and celery.  Remove from heat.

Add the soup, sour cream, salt & pepper. Mix well.

Spread beef mixture into hash brown shell and top with grated cheese.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.  Serves 4.

This gets a big thumbs up from all family members - even Mr Picky and Miss Almost-Vegetarian.   Serve with a salad for a tasty (and peaceful) meal.  :)

Strawberry Rhubard Pie

On Sunday I decided to try my hand at a new type of recipe from a different recipe book (I told you that I was overrun!).

From the book “Sugar” by Anna Olson I made Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. I have only previously ever made 1 kind of pie – banana cream. Pies belong in that scary unknown land that I am not a part of.

In fact the whole idea of making a real live pie with real live crust was so intimidating that not only did I forget to take any pictures until the very end but I also had to call my Mom in a panic part way through due to crust confusion!

In the end though – the recipe WAS quite easy to follow despite the lack of pictures showing how to shape the crust edge (thus the panic) and it came out looking like (and tasting like) a real pie!

But don’t let the chef’s word sway you…

Reviews from the tasters:

Carol C (famous cook extraordinaire): “It’s really good! I’d take the recipe!”


Russ C (self professed pie lover): “I’m not sharing my pie!”


Jason (husband of chef): “ Nom Nom Nom “ (or something like that – his words were somewhat intelligible but he did consume his piece in record time)