Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Chive Cobbler Topping

Living in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in March means plenty of bi-polar weather - pouring buckets one minute, sun shining the next, and high winds 10 minutes later - you just never know what you're going to get from one minute to the next.  For me, it's the final call for winter comfort foods before moving on to the fresh flavors of new spring vegetables and the lighter dishes that will lead the way into summer.

Between the pouring rain with moments of sunshine, springing forward into daylight savings and a late night, I woke up on the late side this morning with the desire to spend the day drinking tea under a cozy blanket watching cooking shows and movies... and craving Chicken Pot Pie.  Somehow I managed to let almost the entire winter pass by without making any of this fabulously comforting dish.  This recipe rectified the situation quite nicely.

Although I love to bake and do bake often, pie crust and I have never quite meshed.  I always seem to end up with too-dry pastry that fails to roll out well and cracks when placed in the pan so I tend to gravitate towards alternate solutions that vary from purchasing store bought crust or frozen puff pastry, to topping the dish with biscuits.  Today I decided I'd simply try it with the cobbler topping used in this Chicken Enchilada Cobbler recipe with just a minor addition of chives.

Let me tell you, it turned out great!  The cobbler topping had a nice, crisp crust while the interior of the cobbler was fluffy and provided the perfect balance for the creamy pot pie filling.  My husband really enjoyed the bigger pieces of chicken and it was just the ticket for a blustery, lazy day, taking less than an hour to make from start to table.  Success!

I already had 1 chicken thigh left marinading in the fridge from some dishes I had made earlier in the week so I started with that and added 1 large chicken breast to a saucepan with about 1 cup of chicken stock  (I went ahead and added the marinade to the pan as well, knowing the olive oil and seasonings would only serve to add more flavor to the overall dish.) and poached the chicken until it was just cooked through).



Meanwhile, I chopped and sauteed some carrots, onions and celery (I was out of potatoes, but feel free to include them) in a couple of tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of EVOO (the olive oil helps prevent the butter from burning), lightly seasoning the whole works with a bit of salt and pepper.  By the time the veggies were  tender, the chicken was ready so I removed it from the pan and cut it into bite-sized chunks and set it aside.  I added 3 tablespoons of flour to the veggies, stirred it in and let it cook for a couple of minutes before adding milk and the chicken stock I had poached the chicken in.  I stirred this well and let it cook for a bit to gauge the thickness of the sauce.  I ended up adding a couple more tablespoons of stock from the carton before I had the consistency I wanted (about as thick as gravy).  Once I had that dialed in, I added the chicken...



I added some parsley and thyme and just stirred everything together, then I turned off the heat and poured the whole mixture into a small casserole dish that I had already prepared with cooking spray and got to work on my cobbler topping.  Just mix 1 cup of Homemade Baking Mix with some sharp, shredded cheddar cheese and 1 tablespoon chopped chives (I used freeze dried), then mix in 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs and 1 tablespoon of butter, mix well and pour on top of the pot pie filling.

 

Bake it in a preheated 400 degree oven and bake it for 30 minutes.  It will come out looking like this:

... just look at how beautifully the cobbler topping rose...



Serve it with a salad on the side and your favorite beverage and you're all set!




Here's the recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Chive Cobbler Topping
serves 4 

Filling
2 boneless, skinless pieces of chicken (I used 1 thigh and 1 breast)
1 cup chicken stock
2 TBLS butter, unsalted
1 TBLS extra virgin olive oil
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1/2 of a medium, sweet onion
2 medium potatoes (optional)
3 TBLS flour
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp thyme
Salt & Pepper

Cobbler Topping
1 cup baking mix
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 TBLS butter, melted (*if you use storebought baking mix, omit butter)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 TBLS chopped chives (reserve a couple of pinches to sprinkle on top)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a small casserole dish with cooking spray or butter.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter and set aside to cool.

For the filling:
Place whole chicken pieces in 1 cup of chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces and chop onions, carrots and celery into small dice. Preheat a skillet on medium high heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet and melt butter.  If you're including potatoes, add them to the skillet first and let them cook for several minutes before adding the remaining vegetables.  Saute until all vegetables are tender.

At this point, the chicken should be ready.  Remove the chicken from the pan, reserving the stock. Set chicken aside.

Add flour to vegetables, stirring in and allowing to cook for a couple of minutes.  Stir in milk and allow it to cook briefly, until it thickens to almost to a paste.   Add all of the chicken stock you poached the chicken in.  Stir in and reduce heat to low, allowing sauce to simmer a bit, stirring occasionally while you cut the poached chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Add chicken to filling mixture in skillet.  If the sauce is too thick, you can add more chicken stock or more milk or simply use water to thin it to the desired consistency.  (You want it about as thick as a gravy.)  Pour into prepared casserole dish and set aside.

For the topping:
In a medium bowl or measuring pitcher, mix together baking mix and cheddar cheese.  Pour in milk, melted butter (which should be cool), chives, and eggs.  Mix until it's all combined.  Pour on top of filling in casserole dish.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, until nicely browned on top and a toothpick inserted into topping comes out clean.  Allow to set for about 5 minutes prior to serving.  This goes great with a salad or some fresh fruit.

Enjoy!

Cornbread Breakfast Casserole

Back in September, Steven and I took a mini-staycation.  I know you'll hardly be able to contain yourselves when you hear what we did...

We purged and did a thorough cleaning of our bedroom.  Exciting right?  Honestly, our bedroom really needed it, after having the 4 kids living with us and re-arranging our space to accommodate them, then remodeling to give them better spaces, our bedroom became the dumping ground for everything that didn't otherwise have a home in our house.  So we purged and we cleaned and we purged and cleaned some more.  Boy, does our bedroom look great, even now, several months later. That was day 1 of our staycation.  For day 2, to reward ourselves for getting that huge chore done, we drove to the college town of Ellensburg - which is just on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from where we live - to see my brother, whom we hadn't seen recently.  He'd just moved to a new place, which we toured, and where I got my kitty fix (after having been catless for the entire summer... a problem which we recently remedied), treated my brother to lunch, walked around downtown Ellensburg, which is very nice, and came back home.  During our tour of the downtown, we visited a couple of galleries and I picked up this little gem of a cookbook.  I do a lot of outdoor cooking workshops with my friend, Janet of Chuck Wagoneer and I'm always on the lookout for good breakfast recipes for us to try.  This cookbook is really excellent because it's truly written for outdoor cooking with your dutch oven right down to details like how many coals to put on the bottom and how many coals to put on your lid.

Anyway, there are some recipes in there that I was really excited to take for a spin and this Cornbread Breakfast Casserole is the first I have tried so far.



The first time I made it was for my gaming group and I thought I had bell peppers at home, only to discover I didn't when I got started making it (don't you hate when that happens?).  It came out just fine, but I felt the sweetness of the cornbread was a bit too strong.  After reviewing the recipe with Janet and her husband, we decided that it was worth trying again, but making sure to include the bell pepper and using green bell pepper instead of red to balance against the sweetness.



So this time around, I've used green bell pepper.  Also, I used Chicken Italian sausage for that first go round, and it was really good, but not everyone is a fan of the fennel that's commonly found in Italian sausage.  This time around, I decided to spice it up with some Chorizo.  I also used the entire can of diced green chiles - the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, which is 2/3 of the can anyway - and we couldn't really tell they were there.  Because Janet's husband has some dietary restrictions that eliminate whole kernel corn from his diet, I omitted that as well.  Last, but not least, I used both Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese for this dish and used 1 1/2 cups total, rather than a single cup.  I wanted the creaminess of the Monterey Jack to offset the spiciness of the Chorizo.



This is an excellent recipe.  When we do cooking workshops we always have a couple people with one food allergy or another and gluten free requests have become very common - this recipe just happens to be gluten free - so you don't have to make any additional substitutions or adjustments to the recipe to accommodate folks with gluten allergies.  Its super versatile - use any color bell pepper and your favorite bulk sausage; use whatever cheese you have on hand - or leave it out.  Jalapeno would be a nice addition to the cornbread for those who like it spicey.



The cornbread is dense but moist, and the eggs bring it all together.  By-the-way, I know it seems like a lot of salt and pepper, but I've put it in as per the recipe both times and it's definitely not too salty, neither is it too peppery.



There are a couple things I did differently for use in my home kitchen.
1) I used one skillet for the whole thing.  (Easy to do at home, but I'd probably prepare it as instructed at camp.)  Today it completely slipped my mind to do that until I already had the cornbread in the oven.
2) I adjusted the cooking time for the cornbread base, and also for the final step.  Not to worry, I'll post the recipe as I feel works best for the home kitchen - if you're going to make this at camp, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this excellent dutch oven cookbook.



Cornbread Breakfast Casserole
(serves 8)

Filling:
1 pound ground sausage or chorizo
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp cumin

In a 12 inch cast iron skillet or dutch oven (the size is important, if you use a different size, plan on adjusting cooking time) brown sausage with onion and bell pepper.  Stir in garlic and cumin. Remove mixture from skillet and set aside.

Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place skillet in the oven to preheat while you prepare the cornbread base.

Cornbread Base:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
4 TBLS melted butter
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 can (14.5 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained (optional)
1 can (3.3 oz) diced green chiles

Add baking soda to buttermilk and set aside while you assemble the rest of the base ingredients.  In a large bowl, combine melted butter, cornmeal, sugar, salt, egg, corn and chiles and mix well.  Add buttermilk and stir to combine.  Pour cornbread mixture into preheated skillet and bake for 7 1/2 minutes.  Remove skillet from the oven top with sausage mixture.  Set aside while you prepare the eggs.

Eggs:
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, grated
3/4 cup Monterey jack cheese, grated

In a large bowl combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and beat until well combined.  Pour mixture over the cornbread and sausage.  Bake 35 minutes.  Turn oven off.  Remove from oven and sprinkle the cheeses on top.  Place back in turned off oven for approximately 5 minutes, just until cheese melts.

Enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom and Pesto Pasta with Spinach

Do you ever have those nights when all you want is to plunk down in front of the TV (in your pjs or yoga pants and night shirt) with a bowl of tasty, comforting pasta and your favorite program or movie?  Confession:  I've been having a lot of these nights lately.  There's something about starting a new job, no matter how much you like it, no matter how great your coworkers are, and no matter how capable you are of completing the tasks of said new position that is stressful and exhausting.  Now double that by purchasing a business and doing both at the same time.

Hence, this pasta:

My husband and I liked this pasta so much, I made it twice in the same week!  It's earthy, creamy, hearty and extremely tasty.  It's great for a Meatless Monday meal, or if you're just a huge fan of mushrooms (like me).

Put some salted water on to boil for your pasta.  Then slice up some mushrooms,

Scallions...

Spinach (try to get baby spinach, if the leaves are small enough, you won't even need to chop them)...

And Parsley.  With any luck, your water is boiling and you can drop your pasta now.  If not, wait until you drop the pasta to heat up your skillet and start sauteeing.  Once you have dropped your pasta:

Throw the mushrooms in a skillet and sautee them for a couple of minutes...

Next, add the scallions to the skillet...

Saute these together for just a couple of minutes, when the mushrooms start to carmelize, season the whole shebang with a bit of salt and pepper, then add the spinach...

Sprinkle just a bit more salt on the spinach, then just let it hang out.  When it starts to wilt, give it a stir.

Once the spinach has cooked down a bit, add 4 oz. of Neufchatel Cheese (or other low-fat cream cheese) and half of a 7 oz. container of pesto.

Let everything hang out for a couple minutes to give the cheese a chance to melt a bit, then stir it all together. Your pasta should be ready now.  You can either drain it, first reserving about a cup of the pasta water or you can use a spider to transfer the pasta directly to the skillet (I love my spider for this!).

Add pasta water as needed to make a sauce, stir everything together and let it cook together for just a couple minutes.

Add some chopped fresh parsley and serve!

The best part of this dish, is it only takes as long to make as it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.  YUM!

Creamy Mushroom & Pesto Pasta with Spinach

1 lb Bow Tie Pasta
4 oz. Nuefchatel Cheese (or low-fat cream cheese)
3.5 oz. Pesto (I like the kind you get in the fresh pasta aisle)
4-6 Mushrooms, sliced
3-5 Scallions, chopped
2 cups Spinach, chopped
2 Tbls Fresh Parsley, chopped
Salt & Pepper, to taste
2 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4-1/2 cup Pasta Water

Put a large pot of salted water on  to boil.  Cook pasta to just shy of al-dente.

Preheat olive oil in a skillet.  Add mushroom, saute a couple minutes, then add scallions and sprinkle with salt.  Once mushrooms start to carmelize, add spinach, sprinkling a little salt on the spinach.  Let the spinach sit in the pan and steam with the mushroom and scallions, until it starts to wilt, then stir it in.  Sautee about 2 minutes, then add cream cheese and pesto.  Once cheese starts to melt, stir it in with the vegetables.  Add the pasta and approximately 1/4 cup pasta water.  Stir everything together and let it all cook together about 2 minutes, add more pasta water, as needed to make a creamy sauce.  Sprinkle with fresh, chopped parsley and serve hot with crusty bread.

Scrambled Egg & Rice Casserole - For 2 Please!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer - I know I have - I hope you're not all out there melting in overly-hot temperatures. Our sunshine returned Thursday afternoon and we have had lovely, sunny and not too hot weather since then, in fact this weekend has been as close to perfect as any.

I got to talk to my best friend on the phone today and catch up with her (more like download). I made a delicious, summery dinner tonight that my spouse complimented me on several times. And now I'm watching one of my many favorite movies, Top Gun, while my wonderful husband enjoys a football game over at the bachelor pad (my brother-in-law lives in an apartment above our detached garage/shop).

Remember this from my last post?

I promised to share what I did with those scrambled eggs and, at long last, I am finally getting this post put together.

I believe I may have mentioned that our great neices who were living with us moved out when school got out this year so I've been working at "downsizing" our favorite meals and preparing just enough for the two of us. You might think it's an unusual combination - scrambled eggs and rice - but I first discovered I enjoyed it when I starting having leftover rice with scrambled eggs, ham and cheese on top for breakfast and then my husband took it to a whole new level by turning it into a dinner casserole and we've been eating it for years now. This casserole is certainly one of our favorite go-to meals when we haven't made specific plans for dinner. Its so easy to make - perfect for enlisting the help of the kids if you're making it for a whole family and its so versatile you can add anything you have in the fridge.

There's been a lot of talk about meatless Mondays in the last couple months or so and although we haven't made a habit of necessarily having our meatless dinner on Mondays, we have been trying to have a meatless dinner at least once a week and one of our favorite choices so far has been portabello burgers. The reason I bring this up is that when I fix the mushroom burgers, I save the stems and put them in the fridge to use in another dish later in the week. So for this casserole, I sliced up those wonderful stems. Of course, depending on what you put in it, this dish also qualifies as meatless!

Prepare your favorite type of rice (leftover works great too) and set aside, then scramble up some eggs and set them aside.

Saute the portabello stems (or any other mushrooms you like) in a skillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil (you can add butter too, if you like). Cook until the mushrooms start to carmelize, then add salt & pepper to taste. Remove them from the skillet and set them aside. Chop up some green onions and set them aside as well. (If you prefer to cook them, you can throw them in with the mushrooms when they are almost ready.)

Let's take a moment to talk ingredient quantity when cooking for two. For the eggs - cook the same number per person as you normally would. In other words, my husband and I normally eat 2 eggs each if we were having fried eggs for breakfast so I prepared 2 eggs per person for this dish. For veggies being added to a casserole or stir fry in most cases I have been prepping a one half serving per person. I've just found that if you prepare a full serving of each vegetable per person, you end up with way more food than 2 people can eat (and far more leftovers than we want too)! So for this dish I used 2 portabello stems (about the equivalent of 2 mushrooms) and half of a green onion. When it comes to cheese, however, I do go ahead and prep a full serving each. After all, it's going to top each dish and really, can you ever have enough cheese ? I mean, really? I'm just sayin'...

Ok, so now that we got that out of the way... Scoop the rice into a casserole dish (or individual ones like I used). My husband really likes to have a bit of EVOO drizzled over the rice at this point - so I did that, just to make him happy, see how I am? Then I grated some parmigiano reggiano cheese over that (because that's how I like it). Now top it with the scrambled eggs, mushrooms and green onions (or anything else you'd like to include).

Top it with shredded cheese - I used Monterey Jack here, which I love because it melts into such a creamy, yummy consistency that, I think, goes especially well with eggs and mushrooms.

Put your casserole dish(es) in a 375 oven just until the cheese melts and starts to bubble, then serve hot (add a salad if you like). I was so hungry and ready to eat this by the time it came out of the oven that I forgot to take a picture!

So here's the recipe, such as it is:

Scrambled Egg and Rice Casserole For 2

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2 cups steamed rice
4 eggs, scrambled
2 portabello mushroom stems, (or 2 small mushrooms of your choice) sauteed
1/2 green onion, chopped
2 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (or any cheese you like)
1 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano, shredded
salt & pepper to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to taste
Butter (optional) to taste

Prepare a casserole dish or other oven-safe dish with non-stick spray or butter. Spread rice in bottom of dish. Drizzle with EVOO. Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese. Top with scrambled eggs, season to taste, then add mushrooms and green onions. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes, until cheese it melted and bubbly.

It Always Comes Back to Food

I'm currently reading "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenburg (and I'm loving it).  It's a lovely collection of stories about Molly, her family & friends and food - including recipes.  One of the joys I'm finding in reading this particular book is the discovery that mine is not the only family who's family memories revolve around food!  Whenever we talk about get togethers, vacations, etc., food is always involved. 

For instance, I can remember a trip I took with my parents to California to visit my Aunt & Uncle and my then baby cousin.  It's the first road trip I really took with them without my sister and brother along.  The funny thing is, the majority of my memories of this trip revolve around food - I can remember 3 different restaurants (although, sadly, not their names) & what I ate at each one! 

We always seemed to land in Redding, CA our first night on any road trip to California and this trip was no exception. That first morning heading out of Redding, we decided to hit the road and grab breakfast somewhere along the way.  We ended up on this funky dirt road (that I think was supposed to be a short cut) which eventually lead us to a very small town whose name I cannot even remember.  We discovered a steak house that looked popular & happened to serve breakfast so we pulled in.  It had a Red Baron theme, including drawings of bi-planes on the paper placemats.  Although I no longer remember what Mom or Dad ordered, I still have full recollection of the fantastic strawberry pancakes that I ordered.  They were as big as my plate, smothered in beautiful, fresh strawberries and topped with my all-time favorite, whipped cream!  The pancakes were a perfect, golden brown on the outside and moist and fluffy on the inside.  YUM!

We moved on and ended up in Fort Bragg, California (that same night, I think).  We stayed at a motel with a view of the ocean and I'm sure we must have spent a bit of time on the beach, but again, it's the meal we had there that I remember most.  Mom & Dad chose a lovely seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean.  I've always liked steamed clams (my aunt & uncle who live on Whidbey Island used to have amazing clambakes at their place) and this restaurant had clams steamed in a champagne and herb sauce.  They were wonderful, tender morsels of clams served with melted butter, of course, and lovely, crusty sourdough bread.  I think of that dinner every time I watch "Pretty Woman" - you know the scene where Vivian is having dinner in a fancy restaurant with Edward and his business associates and she sends an escargot flying?  - well, I was attempting to remove a particularly stubborn clam from it's shell and fling went my fork, zing went the clam to land somewhere on the floor near my chair!  I was mortified!  Of course, my first instinct was to chase it, pick it up and discard it, but my mother said "Don't even think about it!" and assured me it must happen with some regularity and suggested that we just let the wait staff know upon our departure.  Which we did - and all was well.

My final food-related memory of that trip was of my first taste of Red Snapper.  Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we've always eaten plenty of fish.  I think at this point in my life (I must've been 13 or so at the time) I had eaten salmon, halibut, the aforementioned clams, oysters, crab, shrimp, trout, steelhead and who knows what else, but I had never tasted Red Snapper.  On the way home, we stayed at a lovely place at Lake Shasta - I remember wishing we could stay one more day to enjoy the resort-setting, but we had a pretty tight timeline on the trip back.  We had dinner in the restaurant that was part of the resort where we stayed.  I ordered the Red Snapper - I don't remember anything, really, about the specific preparation, but I do remember enjoying it thoroughly!  Red Snapper became a favorite of mine for awhile after that and I would often order it when I had the opportunity.

It seems every family gathering involves dinner or lunch, potluck or BBQ.  Of course we need fuel to live, and we all know it's not healthy to "live to eat", but wouldn't life be so much more mundane without those wonderful surprises like a perfectly steamed bucket of clams, a light & fluffy pancake or that first taste of something new?  Our family has been talking about a get-together in October to celebrate all the fall birthdays and, yep, you guessed it, we've already talked about what to fix for dinner!  It's true, it really does always come back to food!