skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Where to begin about Chicken Pot Pie...well to start with who doesn't love a pot pie with its warm tender flaky crust that gives way to the delicious pie filling composed of tender chicken and a rainbow of vegetables all amongst a cream sauce of the perfect consistency. Just writing that makes my mouth water.
I used to eat the frozen variety back in my early college days and quickly learned that although the microwave cooked the pie faster it was often soggy and so the oven, though more time intensive, was the best option. Fast forward a couple years when I haven't had a frozen pot pie in maybe 2 almost 3 years and I find myself constantly wanting the perfect pot pie. Lucky for me I now feel more confident in my cooking skills and have braved the task of making it myself, but not so fast there was one tiny problem with all of this...
I have actually been looking off and on for a chicken pot pie recipe for months, but couldn't find the right one that had everything I was looking for. So what is a girl to do? Why make up her very own chicken pot pie recipe of course. I am now a master of whipping up a cream sauce and even went the unconventional pie route by placing my pot pie into a rectangular baking dish. I did however debate on if I should use a bottom crust because I feared it coming out soggy, which I did not want, hence my aversion to cooking frozen pot pies in the microwave. This time I only used a top crust and maybe next time I'll go out on a limb and make it a true pie, which might mean I should actually cook it in a pie dish.
Since, this was a first time recipe and didn't even follow an actual recipe I only tested it on myself, so if it was an utter failure I'd be the only one who knew about it, plus I am still wary of subjecting people to food if I haven't already tested it in some way. Though, now that this was a complete success I'm ready to cook it for people and excited to get to eat it again myself. I have a friend who loves a good chicken pot pie and I think she would be in complete bliss if I made this for her one day.
Chicken Pot Pie
Pie Crust
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cold water
Directions:
1. Combine flour and salt
2. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form
3. Stir in water 1 tbs at a time, until dough forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour
4. Roll out to desired size and use
Filling
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken breast
1/3 onion
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1/2 cup peas (frozen)
3 tbs unsalted butter
3 tbs flour
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Italian seasoning to taste
Directions
1. Cook chicken as you normally would in the oven.
2. Saute onion and then add celery and carrots cook for about 5 minutes until tender. Add frozen peas and chicken and heat through
3. In another pot melt butter and then add flour to it to make a roux. Add in chicken broth and milk. Stir vigorously to prevent lumps from forming bring just to a boil and allow to thicken.
4. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning
5. Mix in chicken and vegetable mixture then pour into a baking dish
6. Roll out pie crust and fit over mixture, cut off excess. Make sure to cut a couple of slits into the top of the crust.
7. Optional: Brush pie crust with egg wash to promote browning
8. Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and flakey
I know that I have been MIA for awhile, but things have been hectic. The good news is that I think I am finally getting back to a semi-normal schedule. I hope that everyone had a good holiday season and is ready for the new year. I was lucky enough to get to travel back to California to spend the holidays with my family.
While I was home I did plenty of baking, except one small problem I didn't write down any of these recipes to bring back here and write about and worse yet I took absolutely no pictures of any of the food. However, I can provide a list of a few of the things that I made during my weeks back home. These delicious treats included sugar cookies, gingerbread, pumpkin scones, mini cupcakes, and cranberry orange bread. I also whipped up some chocolate chip cookies (not my healthier version) and cranberry white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. This list doesn't include the things all the delicious things my mom made for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years.
I also received some very cool gifts to use in the kitchen. I now have an adorable mini spatula with a pointed end to get into all the hard to reach places, as well as some bottle stoppers that actually work. From a friend I got a calendar that features a different comfort food every month and will make you very hungry anytime you look at it. I am also the proud owner of a mini heart shaped cake pan. I have lots of plans for this, which include not only cakes but making heart shaped cookies (like chocolate chip ones) and brownies.
I promise within the next week to have a real post up on here and I actually do have a couple of restaurant reviews that I need to write too.
I am a big fan of tortellini, but sometimes I feel like there isn't a large variety of things to do with it besides boiling it and adding some type of sauce to it. This brings me to why this recipe is so amazing because it isn't your average tortellini dinner. Whipping cream makes a unique creamy and flavorful sauce for this dish that compliments the other ingredients that accompany the cheese tortellini.
My mom as usual deserves the props for this recipe because she is the one who found it and every time she's cooked it it has received rave reviews. I remember it was served at one of my birthday parties and several family members left that night with the recipe in tow. I recently made it for the first time and it seemed to get the same rave reviews as my mom got when she first started making it years ago. So of course I think it is only fair to share this recipe on here, so that other people can make this award winning dish and even better it is super easy and takes almost no time at all to put together.
Also, the leftovers are just as delicious the next day.
Dressed Up Tortellini
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Onion
3 cloves Garlic
1 box Spinach, thawed
1 cup Tomatoes, seeded & cubed
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 cup Whipping cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 9oz packages Cheese tortellini
Directions:
1. Saute onion and garlic
2. Add the thawed spinach (do not drain the spinach) and heat through
3. Add seeded and cubed tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook 5 minutes
4. Add the whipping cream and the Parmesan cheese. Cook until mix just comes to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and add the tortellini.
6. Cook until the tortellini is heated all the way through
You're probably thinking right about now: What another restaurant review, doesn't she cook anymore? The answer is yes I actually cook quite often, it just happens to be that some of my dinners aren't worthy of being posted on here. Yeah they're good and healthy, but way too boring for me to even write about. No worries though I promise that I have 2 very exciting recipes that are soon to make an appearance on here.
Joey B's is a fairly new addition to The Hill and has only be there between 6 months to a year. The owner of this restaurant has some other restaurants located throughout St. Louis though. This place is fairly casual dining and they boast many flat screen TV's to catch all the latest sports on. The restaurant also seems to be very popular as it was pretty busy for a Thursday night.
The first thing I got to try here was the fried pickles. Ok, you're probably yet again seeing another trend here and that would be the fried food trend. What can I say yes I know that deep fried food isn't the greatest thing for you, but it can be extremely tasty, at least my experiences with it so far have been, and it isn't like I indulge in it everyday; so that leaves me to say you might as well enjoy some things in life. Anyways back to the important thing here the fried pickles. We got a heaping bowl full of these. There must have been at least 20 and there was no way we could get through all of them and still have room for dinner. The pickles where cut into smaller wedges, which made eating them much easier especially when I was imaging a whole pickle being fried to eat. The batter on these were nice and crispy not soggy from the actual pickle and overall these had good flavor. With that being said even though they were very good I couldn't eat a ton of these in one sitting.
As for the main course I had lasagna,which I have been eyeing at every Italian restaurant I've eaten at recently. To set the record straight when you order lasagna at Joey B's you don't get a petite lasagana square you get a brick of lasagna well make that more like 2 bricks of lasagna. There was at least 5 layers that made up this lasagna. Each one consisted of a finely ground beef and ricotta cheese mixture along with marinara sauce. The entire thing was then topped off with more marinara and Mozzarella cheese melted on top. There was no way that I could finish this in one sitting and ended up taking home at least 3/4 of it, which meant that I didn't have to cook dinner for 2 nights and I think that is a good deal. I'll leave you here with a picture of the leftovers I took home with me.)
You might be starting to see a trend here that I love Italian food and seem to be able to eat it anytime I get the opportunity. Mangia is more of an intimate restaurant that offers the feel of both casual and slightly upper scale dining combined into one.
I had some of the best eggplant Parmesan here and you might also be noticing another trend, that I really enjoy eggplant. The eggplant was sliced into thick rounds and unlike most eggplant Parmesans the breading did not become soggy from all the moisture in the eggplant. That right there alone was a huge success to me. In addition, the eggplant Parmesan was served with pasta in a marinara sauce along with broccoli and cauliflower. Yes, that's right you heard me correctly they even served up veggies with this meal. Mm writing this is already making me want this dish again.
My partner in crime had the goat cheese raviolis, which I heard were quite delicious too. As you have probably guessed this restaurant was a success and gets another thumbs up from me.
After this meal it was decided that I had to try Ted Drewes. Ted Drewes is a St. Louis institution and definitely on my St. Louis to-do list. In the summertime swarms of people crowd around the place to get their concretes and by winter the stand becomes a place where you can buy Christmas trees, get warm drinks, and yes still get the famous frozen custard.
What makes Ted Drewes so unique is that they don't serve ice cream they serve frozen custard, which is what I would call a richer version of ice cream and very tasty. They are also famous for what is called a concrete. The easiest way to describe it is that it is like a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, except 10 times better, yes definitely 10 times better.
I tried the concrete called Cardinal Sin. This consisted of chocolate and cherries mixed into the frozen custard. Mm, so good. My partner in crime had the Dottie which consisted of mint, chocolate, and macadamia nuts mixed into the frozen custard, which I tasted and it was so good that I might have to get it next time. So yes it was probably 40 degrees outside and I won't even get into what the wind chill most likely was, but we stood in line (yes there were many others as crazy as us out for some Ted Drewes) and then ran back to the car to eat it with the heater on and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Sometimes I find myself wanting something churro like, but I am in no way up for making the dough and then wasting all that oil to fry them. Lets not forget to reiterate here the oil and frying part that is not super healthy and occasionally eating the full on real churro or anything fried is okay, but I really can't do that every time I'm craving the cinnamony goodness of a churro.
For this exact reason I invented the "lighter" much easier to make version of the churro. All it requires is some simple flour tortillas, cinnamon, sugar, a little time in the oven and viola you get the crispiness that you'd find in the fried version without the excess fat calories. And the inside is filled with the warm cinnamon sugar that becomes slightly melted and tastes oh so good in every bite. Mmm.
