Recipe #30: Chicken Potpie

Nothing hits the spot like a warm chicken potpie! It can be a little time consuming if you make your own crust, but it is well worth it.

First boil 2-3 pieces of chicken. Save the water. Once the chicken has cooled. pull it apart and shred.

Make the white sauce recipe.

Add the shredded chicken and some mixed vegetables to the white sauce. I used a bag of mixed veggies and some broccoli.

Let that stay warm while you make the pie crust recipe. For one pot pie I would make a double recipe of the 8 inch recipe to make sure you have enough. 

Roll out the crust on a cutting board (saves time on clean up!). Fold up into fourths to more easily move it to the top of the pot pie.

Pour the chicken and veggies into a 9x13 dish. Put the crust on top.

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 30-45 minutes. Or until the sauce is bubbling and crust is done!

Now, I will be honest... all the crust didn't quite make it in one piece to the top of the pie, so I used some of the store bought stuff and this is that crust... not my homemade stuff. It didn't look quite that good! 

Pie Crust

For the times you don't have a store bought, ready made pie crust here is the homemade alternative...

for a 8 or 9 inch crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
2-3 Tbsp water

for a 10 inch crust:
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
3-4 Tbsp water

measure flour and salt into bowl
cut in shortening
sprinkle in water 1 Tbsp at a time, you may not need to add full amount.
roll out on floured surface.

White Sauce

A basic white sauce that will be used in a variety of recipes...

you need:

8 Tbsp melted butter

8 Tbsp flour

2 bullion cubes

4 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup milk

melt the butter in a large pan over low heat. add in flour until it becomes like a paste.

Add bullion cubes. Slowly add water while mixing constantly. Add milk.

Recipe #29: Trail Mix...

So I need chocolate tonight, but instead of just eating chocolate chips, I decided to make trail mix. The nice thing about making your own is you can put whatever you want in it, so your sister won't leave all of the soft tasting pretzels because she doesn't like them! :)
So with chocolate chips as my start I looked around to see what else I had to add and it ended up delicious!

get some:
chocolate chips
pretzels
raisins
dried cranberries
coconut
cereal of your choice. i used some oat bran
also nuts, i don't have any on hand, but almonds would be delicious.

pour amounts of your choice into a container. put the lid on it and shake it up!

Don't eat all at once! :)

Recipe #28: Oatmeal Cake

Do not let the name of this fool you! It is one of my all time favorite cakes and I rarely make it because when I do, I could probably eat the whole thing myself! Fortunately I have an excuse to make it because we are having a dessert thing at church tonight. Perfect excuse! I guess the easiest way to describe it is that it is like a spice cake.

You need:
1 1/4 cup boiling water                                            Topping:
1 cup quick oats                                                      1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened                                     3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup brown sugar                                                   1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

• First pour water over oats and let stand
• cream together margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and eggs
• add oatmeal mixture, stir
• mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt
• pour into a 9x13 pan
• on top sprinkle the sugar all over the top of the cake. this creates almost a barrier that keeps the nuts and the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom. make sure you carefully sprinkle the sugar all over the top of the cake. 
• then carefully sprinkle nuts and chocolate chips on top. 
• Bake for 30 min at 350. Stick a fork in middle to see if it comes out clean.

a great variation of a topping is to add coconut. an even better topping would be coconut and chocolate chips together. unfortunately Will does not like coconut so I don't often use the coconut version. It would be delicious though!

Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, the chocolate chips still sink to the bottom. If that happens, just add some more chocolate chips to the top while the cake is still warm, so you still have a pretty topping! I never had problems with that until we moved into this house and I made cakes in this oven...not sure why.

But I added more chocolate chips and you can't even tell! Plus it makes it more chocolatey! 

Recipe #27: Ham and Cheese Biscuits

I had bought some biscuits before with the intent to use them for another recipe, but never did, so yesterday when we were finishing up leftovers, I decided to make some little munchy ham and cheese balls to eat while we worked on yard sale stuff...

You need:
can of buttermilk biscuits--I used three
couple pieces of ham cut into small pieces
cheese of your choice cut up small.
chives

Open one of the cans put a couple pieces of ham, cheese and chives in the center of each biscuit and roll into a ball. Stick on a ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.
Follow the baking directions on the can.

Yummy. Especially when hot!

Side Dish #2: Felt flower headbands

I was reading through a magazine and happened upon a cute idea to make flowers! Of course, I can't make them for Alex, but have two nieces. Since the majority of fun crafts are for girls, I am happy to give the fruits of my craftiness to someone, and I am sure Alex is grateful that I don't make him that girly stuff...fun things for boys are a little harder to come by, although I did make him a cute tie earlier and will have to make a bigger one for the fall.

Anyways, I used the instructions found here from Woman's Day about how to make a brooch. But instead of putting a pin on the back I glued a hair clip and then attached the hair clip to one of those little elastic baby headbands. Of course mine doesn't look as perfect as the pictures, but it is cute enough... and goes perfectly with the dresses that Sarah and I made for them! :)

                                                                   Here is a close up...

Don't you want to go make some for all the little ladies in your life! Best of all it only costs a couple of dollars to make because two different colors of felt could make multiple flowers! Go have some fun!