Chicken Pot Pie

I was craving Marie Calendar's chicken pot pie so I thought I'd try to make it myself. I found a recipe from Ina Gartan, a food genius. I saved time by chopping up the vegetables the day before. I didn't have peas (darn) so I made it with potatoes, celery, carrots and green onions. I also saved time by using boneless/skinless chicken breast and pan-fried it and used Trade Joe's chicken broth. Annnndddd I used store bought puff pastry (I love puff pastry). I cheated my way through this recipe and it was SO GOOD.

Here's the roux. There's a lotta butter in this (I skipped the cream and used 2% milk instead, I figured there's enough fat in this recipe).

Ingredients chopped and ready to go! I par-cooked the potatoes and blanched the carrots (I wanted them to be slightly crunchy).

I made 2/3ish of the recipe and I made enough for four small ramekins and...

I still had enough for an 8" cake pan.... I don't have any pie pans (yet).

Look at that!!!! It was so good! The double whammy of chicken broth and chicken bouillon really make a difference in this recipe. I also ended up using the same pan for frying the chicken and the roux and I think the fond gave it some extra depth. It was very chicken-y.... and delicious.... and disappeared in 1.5 days!

Snickerdoodles

I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile, but I didn't have cream of tartar. I finally picked some up at Ralphs and I'm so happy I finally made these! These are SO GOOD. There's nothing bad I can say about them... they baked perfectly and the recipe makes A LOT. I made 3 dozen. Go ahead and click the first photo, look at the cookie up close.


They are very butter-y and kinda hard to roll out, so a quick stay in the fridge will help you roll them out. I don't know what else to say besides make these, you will love them. It's a foolproof recipe. I made these in the afternoon and by the next day they were gone. Seriously.

Meatloaf

I've only had meatloaf a few times in my life and they were very greasy, bland or overly-salty. I was craving meatloaf for some reason so I dug up two recipes: this one because there's ground turkey in it and this one because it seemed like a good basic meatloaf recipe.


In the second recipe you'll note that you have to make a "well" around the meatloaf and you need to drain the grease TWICE. Aghh... which is why I used ground turkey instead. I followed the basic onion, garlic, celery, eggs and breadcrumb formula, but I made up my own tomato-y recipe. I had leftover tomato paste so I used about 5oz of that, then 3 tablespoons of sriracha, some Trader Joe's marinara sauce to thin it out a bit, and then a few healthy dashes of soy sauce and a tablespoon of brown sugar.


I think the most important part of meatloaf is the mixing. I didn't mix it very well and had some chunks of turkey in there. Also I didn't have anything to drain so YAY for ground turkey. It was still a moist meatloaf too without the added fat.

*I made the meatloaf on my day off and had lots of natural light to take the photos in. What a big difference!

Julia Child's Ragout of Chicken and Onions

I read Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France and then a few weeks later I watched Julie & Julia. I'm so sad that I never watched her on TV! I also realized I've never made a Julia Child's recipe! I sort of wanted to make the roasted chicken, but that would require rubbing butter in a chicken's crevices and under the skin, TOTALLY NOT READY FOR THAT YET. But Julia Child's always talked about how the chicken she had in France tasted more chicken-y so I will make her roasted chicken one day.... for now I will settle for a chicken ragout. The recipe is from Good Morning America.


All I had to do with the chicken was brown it, much more manageable. Mmm it was delicious. This is probably my 5th time cooking with wine and my first time using it in a stew. Thank goodness the recipe suggests a few types because I had no idea what a "young red wine" was.


The only weird part is that you end up with purple stew. I served it with some garlic roasted potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. I'm going to look for some more of her recipes because she vigorously tested them time and time again. Although some of them are a bit dated... I remember aspic and I do not ever want to have to eat it again.

Summer food

I hate cooking over a hot stove in the summer so my go-to recipe on hot days (Even though I still have to boil water for eggs and pasta...) is a pasta salad, more filling then just a salad. I add whatever vegetables I have on hand. For this batch it was celery, red bell peppers, cucumbers and some red onion. I also added some boiled eggs- I use a 2:1 ratio for just egg whites to whole eggs because I don't really like egg yolks, but it adds some creaminess to the pasta, otherwise it's just cold and crunchy. I added some diced pepperoni as well so it's a little spicy and a bit more flavorful. Then a healthy splash of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt to top it off. It tastes even better the day after.


Lately I've been buying a lot of rotisserie chickens from Ralphs or Costco. They're pretty cheap and you can use it for so many things! Plus you don't have to touch a whole raw chicken. I used mine for chicken tacos this time. Again, no slaving over a hot stove! Just shred the chicken and cut up: onions, cilanto, green onions, avocado. Get some corn tortillas, some sour cream and cheese and, if you can handle spicy, you MUST throw on some Trade Joe's roasted green chiles (they come in a small can so it's worth a try). Squeeze some lime over it and you're done!


And with the leftover bones/scraps of meat, you can make really delicious chicken stock. Just throw the bones into a pot with water (and any scrap of vegetables you have lying around) and let it simmer for a few hours. Freeze it for later use in soups, sauces, anything... I used my stock for a simple broth with somen noodles and green onions.

Bouillabaisse

I was obsessed with seafood soups for awhile. I decided to try and make a bouillabaisse. Unfortunately it's sort of like bolognese where there are different variations of "authentic." It varies from region to region.... but I liked this one I saw from epicurious. And this one for the rouille, which was really good. Who knew soggy bread crumbs and olive oil could be so good??

the rouille

I made a LOT of substitutions. I don't have a lobster or saffron budget. I grabbed a mixed frozen seafood bag from Trader Joe's and threw in some fresh shrimp and bass. I also used canned tomatoes. I also used some canned fish stock and then some chicken bouillon.

A nice big bowl of soup and rouille, not pictured... crusty french bread with a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

I think this was a really

Pizza Bites

This recipe seemed like it'd go really fast, you're basically assembling mini calzones. I got the recipe here. Although the recipe looks like it makes a lot, I only made 12 from 1 pack of trader joe's herbed pizza dough. I also added julienned basil to the inside and outside of the pizza bites.


It was really easy to make and they turned out pretty well, BUT I would like to use a different dough. I'm not a big fan of the Trader Joe's herbed dough and I'm glad that I tripled the amount of garlic... mmmm These would be great for a party, easy finger food. I can already think of a bunch of different combinations- this will be a good go-to recipe for busy days.