I’ve been busy and lazy. Culinary school is going well. I just finished with midterms and seem to have done pretty well. We’re making veg dishes in class tomorrow. Ones I was supposed to practice this week and didn’t. Mostly because I couldn’t see the boychick eating braised celery or pumpkin. I’ll have to wing it in class tomorrow.
Cooking at home has centered on soups, chili and chicken pot pie. Oh, and lots of baby spinach salad. Admittedly, I have been a bit uninspired cooking wise over the last while. I honestly think it’s the not working at an outside job. Now that I have all the time in the world to cook, I can think of all these other things to do. Funny that.
I was going to post my chicken pot pie recipe but it’s hardly worth posting a full on recipe. All you need is enough pie pastry for a double crust 9″ pie, leftover chicken chopped into medium dice, diced onion, diced carrot and diced celery or a bag of frozen mixed veg. I added leek and yellow pepper last night. Saute the onion, celery and carrot, add the chicken, then any frozen veg. Sprinkle the warmed through mixture with a tablespoon or two of plain flour. Stir until the flour is mixed in and cook about five minutes to cook off any of the raw flour taste and pour over a cup of chicken stock or milk to make a light sauce to hold everything together. Line a pie plate with half the pastry, fill with the mixture and top with the rest of the pastry. Cut a few vents and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until the pastry is browned and the sauce is bubbling. As it may run over, it’s not a bad idea to put a baking sheet on the rack below the pie. Make sure to refrigerate any leftovers as soon as they’ve cooled and reheat to bubbling in a hot oven.
