Musings from the Threshold

Category Archives: Homemaking

Laurel’s Chicken Pot Pie

P-Dub is giving away a KitchenAid stand mixer today, my friends. Oh how I yearn to win! To enter, you just have to post a recipe. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator, but since she might use some of the recipes on her cooking blog in the future, I figured I’d give her my best.

So here it is – my chicken pot pie recipe. Never typed out before today!

Laurel’s Chicken Pot Pie – makes two pies

Pot Pie Filling
4-6 split chicken breasts, depending on your taste/budget
1/2 c butter
Medium Onion
Milk (optional)
2/3 c flour
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1-2 pounds frozen vegetables (I usually use corn and peas or mixed veggies)

Start by boiling the split chicken breasts in enough water to just cover them. Once they’re cooked and have cooled enough to bone, clean those bones and cut or pull the meat into bite-sized pieces. Set aside the chicken meat.

If you want to use some milk in your pot pie (and I strongly suggest you do, unless you have allergies!) take 3 cups or so of broth from boiling the chicken. Add however much milk you need to make 5 cups. The proportions here are very fluid… use all broth if you want, add water if you want, or do it my way. Just be sure you have 5 cups of wet stuff ready to go.

Get a small bowl and measure 2/3 c of flour into it. Add 1 t salt and 1 t pepper. Set aside.
Chop the onion into a small dice. You guessed it! Set it aside also.

Now melt the 1/2 c butter in a medium stock pot. Add the onion and saute until slightly translucent.
Add the flour mixture and stir while cooking for one minute.
Slowly add in the 5 cups of liquid, whisking if needed. Then cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy starts to boil and thicken. Boil for about a minute, still stirring.

Turn off the heat and stir in your vegetables.
Then cover the filling, preheat the oven to 350′ and prepare your pastry.

Double Pie Crust – make twice
Mis together:
2 2/3 c All-purpose flour
1 t salt
Cut in with pastry cutter:
1 c butter
Sprinkle in 7-8 T cold water (1T at a time) while fluffing with fork.
(You’re looking for the pastry to start clearing the sides of the bowl)
Divide into two balls. Roll out one ball for bottom crust, fill pie, then roll out the other ball of dough for the top.

Finish edges and slit crust as you wish.

Place pies on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes, until crust is golden. For a “crust guard,” I cut a nice big piece of tin foil, cover the pie, and cut out the middle. I take off the guard when I think there’s about 15 minutes of bake time remaining.

Back on the FlyWagon again

A couple of background notes…

*I have found myself really struggling this pregnancy with giving in to feeling badly, and therefore being super lethargic, tired, and physically miserable a good deal of the time. Especially in the morning. In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten almost no group school work done with the Blessings, something we count on for getting our work for the year accomplished.

*Several years ago, Beka led me to Flylady.net (thanks Honey!). It has been a lifesaver in so many ways, and has changed my thinking about a lot of things. I have this tendency to go in spurts with Flylady, and sometime in late winter/spring, I tend to start letting go of habits that I’ve been working on establishing. I always have a wake-up call when the holidays start to approach, though, because I’ve found the only way I can get through the holiday months with any sense of clarity and calm is to FLY!

So…

A few nights ago, I had my yearly epiphany and realized I had better start Flying, and fast! So I got out my Holiday Control Journal and have been working on that. I also re-started Flylady emails.

I tell you what! I am just thanking the Lord for helping me back on the FlyWagon (yes, I made that term up myself). Here’s some of what I’ve been doing this week –

Getting ready for Thanksgiving
Starting to bake Christmas gifts (it’s going to be a Very Frugal year, so I need to start now and freeze stuff as I go)
Having Dinner planned and/or started before noon yesterday and today
Sitting down with the Blessings for breakfast and our Firm Foundations lesson
Exercising (just got back to that today)
Shining my sink
Working on getting back to my morning and evening routines (I’m not rushing into this one; it’s such a process for me)

It’s interesting to me how much better I feel physically now that I’m getting stuff accomplished. I’m not finding myself on the couch or back in bed most of the morning. And mentally/emotionally, it’s of course much better to be being productive instead of lethargic.

I’m contemplating proposing to my hubby that we turn the Resurrection season into a major family holiday… in part, to keep me from falling off the FlyWagon!