Faux Pot pies - both chicken and ground beef

So this evening I made a "pot pie" with chicken - it was some tasty!! Did it in my clay deep dish pie plate at 400 until the top was brown. It was really good!

1 chicken breast diced fine - small bite sized pieces
1 rib diced celery
1 small onion chopped
olive oil and butter
1 c VE Chicken Stock prepared
1 can Campbell's cream of celery soup (could use mushroom or chicken or whatever cream soup you have on hand)
1/2 tsp VE Pot Herbs
VE Herb & Garlic Sea Salt & black pepper
3+ c mixed veg, or so - I just use the stupid store's nn mix of carrots, beans, corn, peas and lima beans
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1 c baking mix / bisquick

1) mix soup and stock with pot herbs ans S & P, set aside
2) melt 1 - 2 tbsp of oil and a pat of butter in a skillet and saute the chicken, and onions and celery, cook until onions are soft. add veg and saute for a bit more. turn off heat
3) add soup mixture to hot skillet and stir in gravy with veg and chicken.
4) pour the chicken/veg mix into the bottom of a pie pan (grease at your own discretion)
5) in a medium mixing bowl beat egg, add baking mix and milk. mix with a fork and pour over meat in pie plate.
6) bake at 400 until the biscuit top is brown ~ 30 minutes

A few weeks ago I did the same thing with ground beef. I used beef stock and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (half fat) and instead of pot herbs, I used VE Herb and Garlic Dip mix and 3 onion dip mix instead of a real onion.

Oven EpiCrisped Drumsticks

As you have seen, I've spent most of the day doing all things Epicure and this was the ultimate ending to it. The original recipe was in the Epicure Dining Alfresco cookbook (which unfortunately isn't around anymore).

12-16 chicken drumsticks
1 recipe prepared VE Caesar Dressing
3 cups crushed up Rice Krispies (the original recipe called for cornflakes and... you know)

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Coat drumsticks in dressing by shaking in a large plastic bag. Discard the leftover dressing. Dip chicken in crumbs to coat and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes or until thermometer reads 170F.
Chill thoroughly (I ate mine hot though and it was still absolutely scrumptious. Meag ate hers cold later in the evening and said that it was really good then).

I also made the Potato Salad that I made before. The cut veggies went into Dion Tarragon dip (is it obvious that the Epicure order came in today and I finally had spices again?)

Chicken Fajitas

I don't have a picture of these but I wish that I had taken one because they looked so good and they tasted really good (even though we forgot to bring the peppers and onions, Nancy had a handful of yellow onions in the fridge and we made that work). Simple, simple.

Generous amount of vegetable oil in a bowl or baggie.
T or so of Epicure Fajita Seasoning
5 ginormous chicken breasts

Mix the oil and seasoning. Cut the chicken into strips and dump it into the marinade as you cut it. We only let it sit and marinate for about 10 minutes or so (long enough to cut the onions) but it would be really good if you let it sit longer. Chicken breast doesn't need all that much marination but I would imagine that a cut of beef would. Erin tried and I'm hoping that she gets to post it once she gets her computer back from the Best Buy Geek-Bastard Squad.

After the chicken is cooked, set it aside and fry up the onions and peppers (if you remember to pack them) in the seasoned oil that's left in the pan until they're tender.

Wrap it all in a tortilla and you're good to go.

More Stock

I picked up a cookbook for Meag on the discount table at Coles (or something like that) a few Christmases ago. In my imaginary adopted family, a copy of Betty is included in every going-off-to-college care package (Doesn't that sound like a great tradition? I have the best imaginary relatives.). The recipe box doesn't change hands until I die. All other cookbooks are fair game however and I love to give and receive them (HINT, HINT! Totally kidding on the square there).

This cookbook seemed okay, there was a really good section in the front explaining all of the different cuts of meat and some of the techniques and terms. I also liked that it gave the recipes by weight because that's fast becoming my favourite way of working. Other than that it didn't seem to be anything special.

So this cheapo little book that I picked up is now selling for $50 on Amazon and we've gone through it with a fine-toothed comb and it is amazing. On one page, you're making the most serviceable stock, on the next page you're making Lobster Thermidor (which I SO want to make someday! And a Baked Alaska! Could you get more 70s? I don't know, I could open with a Waldorf salad.)

I ended up cutting the amount of chicken and veggies in half because I have absolutely no eye for how much a chicken carcass weighs and I only had about half of the amount I thought that I did. I still used the full amount of water for coverage with the full intention of simmering it down to about half its volume (honestly, I planned it that way all along!).

Um, on to the recipe

Bouquet Garni
Ingredients
# 1 sprig Italian parsley
# 2 large bay leaf
# 1 sprig fresh dill weed
# 3 sprigs fresh thyme
# 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Directions
1 Remove stems from parsley.
2 Wash the fresh herbs.
3 Lay the herbs on a square of cheese cloth. Make a sack and tie it off with some butchers twine or tie together spices with twine and omit cheesecloth.
4 Place in soup, stew, or broth.
5 Remove before serving.

Chicken Stock (10 cups)
4 lb chicken bones
2 unpeeled onions, quartered
2 unpeeled carrots, chopped
2 sticks celery, leaves included, chopped
1 bouquet garni
12 black peppercorns
Mix chicken, vegetables and 14 cups of water in a large, heavy based pan. Bring slowly to the boil, skimming the surface if required and adding the bouquet garni (I just love typing that) and peppercorns. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 3 hours. Skim froth.
Ladle in batches through fine sieve over a bowl. Press the solids to extract all of the liquid. Let the stock cool, refrigerate till cold and spoon off any fat.
If you want to concentrate it, you can reduce it at this point and then add water when you want to use it. It will apparently store for 2 days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.

They make it sound pretty complicated but it's basically:
Throw stuff in the pot.
Add water.
Simmer a reeeeaaaallllllly long time.
Strain.
Chill.
Skim.
Boil down if you want.

I Can't Get It Into My Mouth Fast Enough

I was on my way home from the grocery store with nothing to eat. Well, just ingredients. I had stopped for a little browse near the deli prepared meals but didn't really see anything that interesting plus I've been making a concerted effort to reacquaint myself with my kitchen. So, what I ended up doing was making a really simple bechemel sauce:

2 oz butter
3 T flour
2 c milk

Mix the butter and flour over low until the butter has melted and then for about 2 minutes until bubbly and golden. remove from heat and gradually stir in the milk. Return to heat and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sauce boils and thickens. Simmer 2 minutes.

At that point I added:

1 generous T of Epicure Caesar dressing
A few generous T of grated parmesan

I served it over leftover pasta (from the Quicky Chicken Florentine) with pieces of chicken (from the Creamy Gravy Odyssey).

Because it actually looked pretty bland in the first photo that I took, I cut up a little bit of the fresh parsley that I bought (for tomorrow's cooking adventure) and sprinkled that on. Parsley garnish, how passe I know but at least it was Italian parsley.

Quicky Chicken Florentine

Okay, this is another one from Life's On Fire: Cooking For The Rushed. I have to tell you, this is the cookbook that I pull out when I feel like I've been eating out too often. Her cookbooks are generally divided into weekly menus with shopping lists included. I think I've only once tried to follow a full week through but I've never made it a whole week. Not because of the food but because I prepared each recipe as written and, with only two of us, the leftovers do pile up.

I'm not going to try to replicate the way that she's got her page set up because she does this funky thing with columns so this will be a traditional format.

100 g frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning (I've used grated nutmeg and a little salt as well)
4 large chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c mayo
1/4 t garlic powder
1/8 t celery salt
1/2 T curry powder
1/2 c fine bread crumbs
3 1/2 T grated Parmesan
1 t dried parsley
1/2 T canola oil
Dried penne (as much as you care to make)

Set over to 375F. Squeeze the moisture from the spinach and sprinkle with spice. Cut each chicken breast almost completely in half and spoon some of the spinach into the slit. Place each piece into a 9"x9" baking dish.

In a bowl, mix soup, mayo, garlic powder, celery salt and curry powder and stir until smooth. Spoon the sauce equally over the top of the chicken.

In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley and oil together. Sprinkle over top of the chicken and sauce. Set the timer for 35 minutes.

Fill a large pot with water, cover and let stand on stove. When the timer rings for the chicken leave it in the oven but bring the water to a boil now. When the water is boiling, add the pasta and set the timer for 11 minutes. Drain the pasta when the timer goes off and take the chicken from the oven. The sauce is really good spooned over pasta. Throw some broccoli in the microwave and you're good to go.

Good part: tasty, tasty, fairly lean, spinach, tasty
Bad part: you have to handle raw chicken, not a big deal for me but I know that it oogs some people out.

Tomato Aspic

A recipe requested by Jody, and finally found in my pile of scraps of paper. In my family, this is always required when roast chicken or turkey is served for a family gathering.

4 cups tomato juice
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery leaves
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 small bay leaves
4 whole cloves
2 envelopes gelatin
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup finely chopped celery

- Mix 2 cups of tomato juice with the next 6 ingredients. Simmer, uncovered 5 minutes. Strain.

- Soften gelatin in 1 cup remaining cold tomato juice, disolve in the hot mixture.

- Add the remaining juice and lemon juice.

- Chill until partially set.

- Add celery and chill until firm.

Cream Gravy Odyssey

I roasted a chicken last night (because isn't that where good gravies start, some sort of roast?). Mixed a whack of Epicure Herbes des Provence with butter and greased that little 4 pound bird up. I don't remember why but I decided to roast it breast side down and resting on a bed of carrots, celery and onion. Little salt, a little pepper and into the oven for a couple of hours. I even basted the little guy. No pictures because it was really just a roast chicken and we all know what that looks like. I tasted the pan drippings thought and thought that I might take a stab at gravy since it was so tasty.

I've never once had luck with gravy but I have a tendency to wing it with my proportions when I try this stuff because when I saw my mom and grandmother doing it, they didn't measure at all (having, of course, the experience of a thousand collective gravies between them). So I pulled out one of the go-to cookbooks and tried this (sort of, some people never learn).

2 T meat drippings (fat and juices)
2 T flour
1 c liquid (meat juices, broth, water)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Make a roux from the drippings and the flour over medium still smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in liquid and return to heat until boiling. Boil one minute, season and Bob's your uncle.

Okay, confession time. I used butter and flour for my roux because... just because. I was going to use somewhere between a quarter and a half cup of milk topped up with the tasty liquid in the roaster for my liquid. This would have worked really well if I had one of those measuring cups that has the spout feeding from the bottom of the glass. As it was, the liquid was mostly the fat floating on the top and I was tired of playing with it all so I steamed ahead and ended up with something that looked like a nice cream sauce as long as you were stirring it but didn't look so hot if you just left it alone.

So the fault was mine and not the recipe. I will master gravy, I will. But the chicken was amazing.

More Bisquick Bake, Chicken & MMmmmm-Bacon

Tried this one again... sort of. If the recipe looks familiar, it's because I made it with ham and pineapple before. This time it was leftover chicken and some other stuff.

1 1/2 c leftover chicken (was roasted with Hawaiian pink salt and herbes de Provence)
8 pieces of back bacon (on sale at Pal's doncha know)
1 chopped tomato

Sprinkle these in the bottom of a greased pie plate.

Mix together in a bowl:
1 c Bisquick
1 c milk
2 eggs
2 t thyme
Pour this over the chicken and bake for 20-25 @ 400C or till you get a clean knife from the centre.

Sprinkle 1 cup of grated cheddar (I used medium cheddar this time) over the top and put it back in for another 4 minutes. Oh yeah, 6 servings.

Okay, notes: on the first night I probably would have preferred the tomatoes to be chopped and sprinkled over the top after the majority of the baking was done, maybe when I added the cheese. However, on the second day, the tomatoes were perfect right where they were. Meag and Zoran seemed to like it and Meag agreed with me about the second day improvement.

Louisiana Hot and spicy Chicken Marinade

Ok, so I have no idea what this tastes like - I'll let you know when we actually cook the chicken.

I bought a bag of 3 chickens and just put 2 of them on the spit and they are cooking right now on the rotisserie of the BBQ! I am looking forward to eating those, but what to do with the third chicken?

I made a marinade of:

3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp rounded of VE 3 onion dip mix
2-3 Tbsp VE Louisiana Hot and Spicy Dip mix

Shook it all up and through it into the bag with the chicken and made sure the chicken was coated in the marinade and I tossed it into the freezer. The thinking being that as the chicken thaws it will marinade itself!

I plan on putting this one on the BBQ rotissierie also - I'll let you know how it works out.

Chicken Fusili with Snow Peas

But I didn't use fusili, I used whole wheat spaghetti. I did use snow peas and the rest of that bland chicken from the other night.

1 lb pasta
1 1/2 c whipping cream (I actually used evaporated skim milk because that was a tip on the bottom for a lighter version, I didn't think that my liver would do whipping cream today)
2 T Epicure Caesar Salad Dressing Mix (I added a little extra)
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup cooked snow peas
fresh grated parmesan for garnish and accent.

Cook the pasta and in a separate pan, heat the milk/cream. Add the chicken and peas and continue to heat for 3-4 minutes. I added a couple of tablespoons of parmesan right to the sauce.

I guess it's supposed to be kind of like an alfredo sauce but it I think I let it thicken just a little too much. Still really tasty though, I would not put as much stuff in and maybe simmer the sauce a little longer to let it thicken naturally next time. That dressing mix was really nice in there though.

Oh yeah, this came out of the VE Bella Cucina cookbook (sort of)

Dijon Terragon Roast Chicken

So, I had this chicken, ...
and I also had some VE Dijon Terragon Dip Mix and some butter and I rubbed it all over Mr. chicken and WOW was he good!

Roast chicken "eurasian style" whatever that means!

Howdy

used a recipe off the zaar - Recipe #10911

I used red wine vinegar instead of red wine. smells pretty good cooking

happy tummies all around.

VE odds and ends

No 'recipe' this time out - just a few things I have used my epicure spices in and worked!

egg salad - lousianna hot and spicy dip with 3 onion dip mix - tasty!

roasted chicken - butter mixed with Tyee fish rub and tapinade spices about 3 to 1 tyee to tapinade. rub the mixture over the chicken and throw some inside the cavity too. Way good!!

Potato wedges done in the oven with - the Tyee rub - also very good
another time I used tziki sauce dip mix with the 3 onion - rockin!

Oh So Yummy Chicken

I don't remember the punny name for it but it's one of the Podleski Sisters' recipes and it was delicious.

12 skinless drumsticks (I substituted 9 thighs cut into 1/3s)
1/4 c liquid honey
2 T cider vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
2 T grainy Dijon mustard
1 t minced garlic
1 t Herbes de Provence
1/4 t each salt and pepper

Arrange the chicken in a 9"x13" sprayed casserole dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, pull the pan out and baste all of the pieces with the sauce. Put it back in for another 20 to 25 or until done. Yummy.

Erin made an amazing garlic and herb bread in the machine and some mixed brown and wild rice. Also some broccoli and cauliflower.

Bread dipped in sauce... mmmmmmmmmmm.

Note added later: They were called Not Humdrumsticks.