Looking Forward

Recently, I started every weekend hitting a couple of thrift, antique or consignment stores around the city. It's kind of fun it is like a little treasure hunt, I haven't found much yet but you never know. Well I just registered for this event at our convention center called Just Between Friends which I heard about from the teachers at work. I guess it's like a giant organized garage sale and the best part is they let teachers go the day before it opens to the public to check out all the goods first. I'm excited to get books and stuff for the classroom at a cheapo price woo hoo!

Lovin' Me Some Chicken Pot Pie.

So, I can count on three fingers how many times I have had chicken pot pie. In all honesty it never looked that appealing to me, something about the peas and carrots had me passing. That was until I ate and now made The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie -trust me it is delicious and well worth all the chopping (my least favorite part).

I totally suggest making her pie crust too, it is so flaky and worth it! It's really easy and it makes two pie crusts so you can have another crust on hand (I'm planning on making her apple tart with the extra, when it happens I will share).

Here's the crust recipe:

Combine 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp. salt in a large bowl.Add in 11/2 vegetable shortening using a pastry blender until it looks like tiny pebbles. Next, add a beaten egg, 5 tbs cold water and 1tbs distilled white vinegar to the mixture and combine. Remove half of the dough and put in a large freezer plastic bag and before you seal slightly flatten with a rolling pin and then seal the bag. Do the same with the other half of the dough if you aren't using it right away.

If dough is frozen defrost for 20 minutes before rolling out.

Now to the pot pie...

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Finally dice 3 celery stalks, 3 medium peeled carrots and 1 large onion.

Melt 4 tbs of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute vegetables including 1/2 cup frozen peas a couple of minutes until they become translucent.








Add 2 cups cooked chicken. I had just cooked 5 chicken breasts in the crock pot with chicken stock for a few hours until chicken was shredable (I used the extra chicken for taco salads the next night).



Oh p.s I got these measuring bowls for Christmas and I absolutely love them! They are so cute and scoopable.




Sprinkle (I kind of dumped) 1 cup flour into mixture and stir gently.



Pour in 2 cups low sodium chicken broth stirring constantly.




Stir in 1 chicken bouillon cube (I use this stuff it makes Spanish rice yummy too).




Pour in 1 cup heavy cream and stir. Allow the mixture to cook over low heat, thickening gradually about 4 minutes.

Season with salt, pepper and thyme (I didn't have time so just salt and pepper for me).

Again this might not look appealing, but...



This is my spatula after I completely licked it clean...so YUMMY!



You can pour the mixture into a deep pie pan or a small casserole dish, but I used 6 throw away mini pot pie pans. Yes 6, but I froze 2 pot pies, cooked 4 - 2 for dinner and then we had two for lunch.




Flour your cutting board.





Roll crust out . If doing one pan you will roll out until it's about 1 inch larger than pie pan. I Used a small bowl to cookie cut mini pie crusts.






Ta-Da!

Set on top and press to the sides.





Bake 30 minutes, until golden brown and filling is bubbly.





Oh yeah, golden flaky deliciousness!


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Cool for 10 minutes before eating...or suffer through the heat because it IS that good.

Grandma's Famous Oven Baked Chicken

This Recipe needed a post of it's own, it's that yummy and special. When we were at grandma's for our Havasu Christmas my mom, auntie and I begged my grams to make this for us (it didn't take much for her to say yes-she loves us so)and we loved her so much for making this for us. This chicken is one of those food memories and I am so excited Grams B posed for step by step pictures too! One of those unforgetable moments...and then we got to eat it yum!

This recipe can feed a lot, so just use as much chicken as you need. Chicken thighs and legs are used for this recipe(breasts don't work as well).

Put vegetable oil on a baking sheet. Enough to coat.

Move sheet back and forth to coat all over.





Put Bisquick in a plastic bag. Add whatever seasoning you want grandma uses: onion powder,garlic powder.Mrs.Dash and seasoning salt.

Rinse chicken and put into bag.

OH Yummy... shake shake shake and put skin side down on the pan (you will turn later).

Set oven at 450 degrees.

Bake for about 1 hr and 15minutes. when you are half way through your time turn the chicken so it "fries" on both sides.

Look at that golden deliciousness!

And using grandmas trick for clean up. To get that stuck on greese off put water and a fabric
sheet and let it soak.

Love you Grandma! Thank you for feeding all of your always hungry grandchildren- really well lol and being the best Grandma Ever (no really people she is...can't be beat)!! xoxo