Individual Chicken Pot Pies for the Carrot and Pea Hater

Every once in a while, I totally crave simple American flavors, like a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup or a flaky chicken pot pie. Unfortunately, my husband hates cooked carrots and any form of peas, which are arguably the best part of a chicken pot pie.

I managed to come up with some tasty substitutions that ultimately required more work but appeased both of our tastes. I've made them twice, once with pumpkin for the orange-colored veggie, and once with butternut squash. I think I prefer the pumpkin, but both are good.

You'll notice that most of my measurements and times listed in this recipe are approximate. You can vary it to your taste - it's definitely more of an eyeballing recipe.

Chicken Pot Pies (6 individual pies)
2 refrigerated pie crusts (like Pillsbury)
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped onions
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup all purpose flour
3-4 cups chicken stock (I use chicken base and dissolve it in water)
~5 refrigerated chicken tenderloins (about half a pack)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2-1 cup chopped string beans
1/2-1 cup sliced pumpkin or butternut squash (I like to bake for 15 mins before slicing)
1-1.5 cups potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Salt and pepper to taste

The ingredients, other than the onions

Thai Lentils and Cabbage

Inspired by this recipe from Pinch of Yum, I decided to make my own version using ingredients I had on hand. My major substitutions were to use red lentils instead of brown, purple cabbage instead of green, and potatoes instead of squash. I didn't have the tom kha paste, so I tried to incorporate similar flavors with some ginger, coriander, and red curry sauce.

Here is my variation as well as a self-critique for future improvement! I served this with rice.

Rosemary Fries

So there's this place in Cleveland. BEST FRIES YOU'LL EVER EAT (it's called The Greenhouse Tavern). They are so incredibly delicious that we went ahead and registered for a mini deep fryer just so we could bring the phenomenal taste into our own kitchen. Well, we wanted to make these fries among other things...

Roasted radishes

When I was little, I loved radishes. I was the six year old snacking on radishes and carrots while everyone else was eating french fries. I still like them, but I honestly don't love the bitter taste of raw radishes as much as I did when I was a kid.

I got a whole bunch of radishes from my CSA, and I decided to give roasting a try. They turned out GREAT. I would highly recommend this method for cooking radishes--takes the bitterness out but leaves most of the flavor intact.

Sliced thin

Hurricane Bread

My Irene preparations--rich sandwich bread to the left, Italian Bread to the
right, both recipes below!

I had been wanting to make bread for a while. I've also been through a hurricane where we were left with no power or drinkable water for a week and had to leave, so although I was pretty confident Irene wouldn't cause much damage where I was, I bought a flashlight (my old one had broken and not been replaced), filled some pitchers of water, and made some delicious bread!

Chocolate-mint deliciousness

I've made mint chocolate chip ice cream a few times this summer (and apparently haven't posted it; I'll get on that some time in the near future). I wanted more chocolate, though. When I got back from vacation, my mint plant was out of control, so I needed to put it to use. Hence, chocolate-mint ice cream!

Pesto, my favorite food

My favorite food: pesto pasta with shrimp

Pesto pasta with shrimp has been my favorite food for the majority of my life. It's what I asked for for every birthday dinner. I hold out every summer to have enough basil to make my own, and by combining some of my own with some from my CSA, I made some great pesto last night!

I use basil, garlic, romano cheese, pine nuts, lemon juice, and olive oil in my pesto. You could use a different nut or a different cheese if you'd like.

Basil for the pesto: mine on the left, farm share on the right

CSA update

I have to apologize for not posting much. I have been creative--I've made three dresses, cooked quite a bit, and coaxed my garden to stay alive despite construction on my fire escape (where the garden belongs). I have just been super busy with work and then a vacation and haven't been posting!

What does this mean, though? Well, it means there will be a ton of posts in a few weeks updating you on all this awesomeness! For now, here's an update of my CSA, weeks 5-10. I haven't been updating as much because most of the food I've been getting hasn't required much cooking--lots of it has been good raw or just very simple--steamed or sauteed, so I haven't taken a ton of pictures. That being said, here are a few of my favorites meals from the past few weeks!

Week 5

Week 6

Strawberry Basil Mint Ice Cream

What's more refreshing than strawberry ice cream? Basil? Mint? How about all in one dessert? This is sooooo good, and not all that bad for you, either.

I got the idea from this post, and modified it a bit (used skim milk, and I used both basil and mint because my basil plant couldn't provide enough). Here's my version!

CSA, weeks 2-4

After a busy month of weddings and work, I'm all caught up on my cooking with the CSA veggies (and fruit). In week 2, we got some of the best strawberries I've ever had along with the other produce. Everything has been absolutely delicious, and it's forcing me to try new things with veggies other than my usual go to meals. I've been getting more squash than I really know what to do with, but it's ok because 1) I LOVE zucchini bread, and 2) my fiance was in town last week and made a really good summer spaghetti with the squash.


So, to catch you up, here's what I got and what I did with it!

Week 2:

asparagus
green leaf lettuce
greenhouse-grown tomatoes
zucchini
summer squash
broccoli
strawberries

Week 2 of the farm share, to be split between two people

CSA Week 1!

I joined a CSA with a friend this year. We got our first box of produce last Monday. Between the two of us, we got

1 bunch asparagus
1 bunch carrots
1 green leaf lettuce
1 red leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
2 greenhouse-grown tomatoes

1 bunch beets
2 zucchini
2 summer squash
2 heads of broccoli

I think I'll post what I do with the contents of each box every week (or at least most weeks). We split it evenly, so I got half a bunch of stuff that came in bunches, half a head of each lettuce, and one tomato, zucchini, squash, and head of broccoli. 

I steamed half the broccoli for dinner one night (I know, it's not really a dinner, but I had had a late lunch that day).

First use of the steamer in the new apartment

Chai Cream Pie

I made this pie for Easter! It was a hit. I was worried because the family members who I thought would love it weren't there this year, but some others still enjoyed it :) What do you think? You can choose a reaction at the bottom!


The recipe is from Cooking Light Magazine. I modified it slightly to eliminate the milk fat since I'm allergic, and I added two tea bags instead of one. Here's my recipe, which is almost exactly the original.

Easter Eggs!

My roommate and I dyed Easter eggs tonight, so I wanted to share our creativity here :) Here's our egg dyeing experience, somewhat step by step:

Delicious beef stew

I have no idea why I didn't post this earlier! I made it about a month and a half ago... I guess I was too busy eating it all to post! This is a delicious beef stew recipe :)

Turnip fries

Turnips are trendy. They keep popping up on my google reader in recipes (or at least they were back in the fall).

The only turnips I had before these were pickled turnips, which are soooooooo good. I get them at Aladdin's in Cleveland on my favorite meal, the "Lamb Rolled" or in a salad.

How to use a bamboo steamer

I bought this bamboo steamer a while ago on Amazon. When I was looking to purchase it, I had a lot of trouble understanding whether I needed to buy something else besides the steamer itself. A few weeks ago, someone asked if I had found any pictures to help me (since that's what I commented on in the review).

So anyway, here's how I use my steamer! I use it all the time to make Trader Joe's frozen wontons and sometimes for veggies like broccoli. Here's my how to:

Place the steamer into a wok or electric skillet filled with about and inch of water (I use an old electric skillet). You don't need a rack or anything underneath, the bottom of the steamer is elevated from the water.

Red Flannel Hash

I made Cooking Light's Red Flannel Hash the other day! It was DELICIOUS! And the best part is that I made 4 servings, so I ate one, had leftovers for lunch two days later, and froze the rest.

Here's the recipe: Cooking Light link. I followed the recipe exactly.

I wasn't really sure how to shred beets, so I used the food processor. Look at all that red!

Tummy Tonic

I saw this post a few weeks ago on Food in Jars. I thought it was a great idea, as I already had a minor obsession with simple syrups last summer before I had figured out the whole canning thing, and I thought this sounded like a good idea. I also know both ginger and mint are great stomach soothers, but I never have anything on hand in advance if I come down with something.

I decided to make something similar to the Food in Jars ginger syrup/"Ginger Ale" with mint, too.


Tummy Tonic
3 cups water
3 cups chopped ginger 
4.5 cups sugar
1 cup fresh mint


Pictures of the whole process are below, but here's the quick summary. Boil the ginger in water for 10 mins. Add sugar. Add mint. Continue boiling for 20 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Let stand for an hour. Strain the ginger and mint out. Return to a boil before filling hot jars. Process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.

Mix with seltzer water for a ginger mint soda. It would also make a great drink mixer with any clear liquor.

I already tried the stomach soothing aspects last night when my bus ride home was super lurchy. It was great!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just had to post our terrific Valentine's Day dinner. I went to my fiance's for Valentine's Day weekend. We cooked rainbow trout over a bed of sauteed greens (kale and mustard greens) with garlic and mushrooms with potatoes on the side. We just boiled the potatoes and then seasoned them afterwards with olive oil, salt, pepper, and hot pepper flakes.

We also had Yellow Tail Shiraz/Grenache blend to drink. Yes, it's red, but I like red, even if we're eating fish. Unfortunately my cold medicine didn't get along too well with the wine, and I ended up in bed by 10pm after eating some pudding.

Christmukkah

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First, let me apologize for my computer's inability to handle pictures right now. A lot of these posts are a little overdue, but oh well.

My roommate and I hosted a Christmas/Hanukkah party a while back (I guess the first Friday of Hanukkah). Well, really it was more like a Hannukkah party one night followed by a Christmas cookie party the next, since we were a little overambitious. I'll make it all one post, though. There are recipes included!