Happy Pi Day, Chicken Pot Pi(e)

Throwback to last year when I made a Chicken Pot Pi(e).

Happy Pi Day everyone!
Find the recipe HERE.

Khao Mun Gai

Lao Khao Mun Gai is much like Singapore Chicken Rice or Taiwanese Chicken and Rice.

 I can't tell you how many times I've made this and just not gotten a post written up, but I think "I should post this" each time. It's simple, but I wanted to post it because as a child this was one of my favorite "comfort" foods that my mom made. It's just... I don't know I feel it's involved. There are different steps and what not. But it doesn't get any more simple than chicken and rice. There aren't any exotic ingredients in this at all. It's like a good poached chicken I guess.
Khao means "rice", mun means "grease/fat", gai means chicken. The rice in this dish is toasted in chicken fat renderings with ginger and garlic. It's fragrant and so yummy. There are a few ways you can do this. My mom used the stove, which I do most often. There is the slow cooker, which I did a post on here, I never make it in the slow cooker anymore, It just isn't as good. Sadly, I noticed in that post that I said I was going to blog this. In 2011. Hmm. Another method is the pressure cooker. I wasn't sure how to cook the chicken without it drying out or cooking too fast I guess? But this worked perfectly.

Matzo Ball Soup

Matzo Ball soup, or as my friend calls it "Jewish Penicillin"

Matzo Ball soup. Comfort in a bowl. I don't know what it is but, this soup has been on my top three as far as comfort foods. Always. It's so good. Especially if I'm sick. Chicken noodle soup? Sure, if it's handy. Matzo Ball soup. All day. Every day, please.

Forget any other recipe for Matzo Balls you've seen on this blog. Because this one is perfect. It produces light, fluffy matzo balls that still have substance to them. So they are still "sinkers" and not falling apart. The texture throughout is tender. Perfection. I honestly don't know if the texture could be anymore perfect. The flavor, well, you're using Schmaltz. Fat is good flavor.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry (Cà Ri Gà)

When I was a little girl my mom would make this. She called it "ragu". The chicken is fragrant and flavorful, the vegetables are nice and tender. The broth is not spicy, but very flavorful. I loved dipping my baguette into the flavorful broth, I still do! 

I remember my mom would go buy baguettes at the store and on our way home I would be in the back seat with my brother. My mom happens to like the crusty outside of baguettes and I liked the soft insides. I would sit in the back on the car ride home and hollow out the baguette, just eating the insides while it was still warm. Bringing it up to my nose and inhaling the yeasty aroma. *sigh* I love you bread and all your yeasty, gluten filled yumminess. Now that I'm older and wiser I like both the soft center and the crusty outsides!

I hope you'll try this curry. It's a very simple and comforting sort of meal.

Give Peas A Chance - Matzo Ball Soup

Happy Manic Monday!!! One of my favorite soups is Matzo Ball soup. My sweet friend, who's birthday is coming up shortly taught this way not Jewish girl how to make this. Every time I make this it reminds me of my bestie. I love how food is not just nourishment, it's also memories, relationships built, relationships nurtured. I understand the eat to live, live to eat thing. I do. But I also understand that food is so much more than that, and can be so much more than that in a healthy way.

Give Peas A Chance- Chicken Pot Pie

Today's MaNIc MoNDaY is from a post that I did back in October 2007. I don't follow are recipe for this anymore, but it's a family favorite. Sometimes I change the veggies up a bit, sometimes I use grilled chicken, roasted chicken, poached chicken. Sometimes I add different herbs, thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, etc...

It's one of those meals I plan ahead for. Grilling chicken? Grill extra. Making soup? Throw in chicken breasts to poach. Roasting a bird? Save the bones for stock and some meat for pot pie. So easy, so yummy.

Here's the original post on Give Peas A Chance. Recipe is below also.

GPAC Warming Sugar Scrub

If you have tired hands, sore muscles, this Warming Sugar Scrub is perfect. You can make it with items you probably have in your pantry. At the end of this day you can use this rub on your hands, knees, calves, shoulders, tired feet... just no where near open skin, your eyes, mucous membranes. Really, just use common sense. If you wear contacts, use gloves to rub this onto sore muscles, but don't use it on your hands. Don't put it up your nose, or use it on sensitive areas, open skin... you get my point? Let's just put it this way, I use this on my hands, and on sore muscles- you should use it at your own risk. I am not responsible for how your skin may react to it, as I am not a doctor. Am I safe to continue? Read on.

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and Dumplings. So good. Not good for you but good. Comfort food. I understand people don't want to see or use food for comfort, but whateves, this is comfort food. I used to make Chicken and Dumplings like this. Now I pretty much do the same thing with a little change. That's made a HUGE difference, and added a little bit of calories but there you go. I was finding that sometimes my dumplings were soft and pillowy and sometimes tough- no matter how long I cooked them. I still like a little bite, but I don't want tough. The last few times I made the dumplings the "old" way it was hit or miss. I didn't know if it was because we just weren't in the beautiful South anymore (could be!) or what. So  I decided to do some tweaking. I decided to use butter. Such a big difference. They are soft but still hold their shape, the butter gives flavor to the dumplings. I won't make these with vegetable oil again. Also, yes this has vegetables, I have kids. I need to get as many veggies in them as possible. But you can leave them out for sure!

Rainbow Cake

This crazy cake took forever for me to make despite it's simplicity. I had a hard time with the frosting and learned that stabilizing a white chocolate whipped cream frosting is a waste of time. The water in the Knox mixture curdles the chocolate. Oh well, lesson noted. Diva wanted a Rainbow cake with a unicorn on top for her birthday. She didn't specify what kind of rainbow, like on top of the cake or what so I thought this would be fun. There was no unicorn, I don't work with fondant. I just don't. Each layer of cake is 1 3/4 cups of batter and lots of food coloring gel- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo- does that look indigo? and Violet. When all was said and done the cake was TALL, it was only 8 inches across. But it was tall. I used two wooden skewers to stabilize the cake, I just poked them all the way down through the layers.

The cake is vanilla with sprinkles, the frosting is stabilized whipped cream. (Which I ran out of whipped cream so when I got to my friends house- we were having dinner there, I finished frosting the back of the cake with *gasp* cool whip) I decided not to bother with the white chocolate after the failed attempts. It just goes to show you though, if you have a perfect recipe don't mess with it. I don't know why I tried to stabilize the frosting when it's always held up fine without.

Steel Cut Oats, Oatmeal

No real recipe I just follow the directions on the can, but this is my favorite oatmeal, the McCann's. So yummy! I love it with butter, brown sugar, a splash of heavy cream and sometimes slivered almonds or pecans. I guess you could add raisins- *shudders*
If you search "oats" or "oatmeal" on the search function other variations will pop up.

My mama the machine...

The girls playing with Bao dough.

My mom is a machine in the kitchen, it's hard to keep up with her. She has no recipe book, no recipe cards, nothing written down. She doesn't own measuring cups or measuring spoons. She just rocks. We've been just hanging out and the girls are loving having her here and loving playing and cooking with her. And she's speaking Lao with them which is awesome, DH really wants that and I have a hard time sometimes remembering to do so, they are soaking it up.

I tried to follow her with the camera but, well she's fast. But we're eating good around here.

Strawberries and cream

Tonight I was baking some shortbread and cutting up strawberries for tomorrow, think the girls will like it for dessert. Anyway, I couldn't resist, I had to have a bowl of strawberries and cream. I think, OK well I know I could drink heavy cream straight if I didn't feel my arteries closing up every time I did. But this is such a yummy snack and comfort food for me. Besides I will be running after the girls all day tomorrow, big things planned you know. :-)
I would eat this right away if you make it, the citrus juice slightly thickens the cream if it sits.

Strawberries- cut up if you'd like
Sugar
Lime or lemon juice
Heavy cream
Cinnamon- ground



Mix your strawberries with a little bit of sugar and tiny bit of lime or lemon juice.








Pour in some heavy cream...








Add a dash of cinnamon.

Thunder Cookies- try them, Jesus likes them!

I had been hoping we wouldn't get any thunder storms around here, not because we don't need the rain, because I read the girls a book called "Little Sister, Big Sister" and in the book it talks about thunder storms and it has a recipe for thunder cookies. So of course, we had to make them. And of course they HAD to have raisins in them. UGH, what IS it with raisins? Well I was in luck, not a raisin to be found in the house... what did we use instead? Keep reading. I decided to post pictures with the girls, especially since they were in just about everyone of these anyway.

What are"thunder cookies" you ask? Well the story is about sisters, the youngest is afraid of the thunder storm so the big sister takes her into the kitchen to make these cookies. After they are baked they can't eat the cookies until the little sister signs this little promise that says

"Thunder Cookie Promise- Whenever I am afraid of thunder I promise to remember the first time I made Thunder Cookies and I will try very hard not to be afraid"

I haven't decided what to have Diva sign yet, I might make up a scrapbook/recipe book with a page dedicated to signatures.

When Diva heard thunder while we were making these she said, "Mommy, Jesus must like these cookies, do you hear His tummy?"

Ahhhhh.... Comfort in a bowl...

You know, I love matzo ball soup. It really is comfort food for me. The rich broth, the tender matzo balls.... This is a thrown together quick version because I had a craving at 8 at night after I put the girls to bed, hardly anytime to make a proper stock.

Pho Ga (Chicken Pho)

I prefer beef pho over chicken any day, but both Diva and DH prefer chicken so I lose that battle all the time. I love beef pho with rare slices of beef, beef meatballs, tripe all that yummy goodness. It is really a simple process- well the way I do it anyway. This is about the same way my mom does it also.

Chicken and Dumplings...

Now I didn't grow up in the south, so I didn't grow up with turnip greens and chicken and dumplings. But I do love cracker barrels chicken and dumplings and these are really close to theirs.
(Excuse the poor picture quality)
I had a small migraine starting up and I had invited Shell over for dinner so I thought something comforting and easy, Chicken and dumplings and dump cake is what I came up with. DH had made cinnamon ice cream earlier so that was good on the dump cake. Anyway I made the dumplings into heart shapes with cutters for fun. Cracker barrel just makes them into strips. *I posted an updated Chicken and Dumpling's recipe that tastes does better to us here.

Chicken and Dumpling's2 cartons of low sodium chicken broth
3 chicken breasts
5 carrots- three left whole the others sliced into rounds
1 medium onion chopped
5 celery stalks- 3 left whole, two chopped
~1 TBS whole black peppercorns
2 whole cloves garlic crushed
chopped parsley

Dumpling's
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
4 TBS vegetable oil
poultry seasoning


Put the whole black peppercorns, two cloves of crushed garlic in a tea bag or coffee filter, tie it up and put it in a stock pot along with the chicken, whole carrots, whole celery and two cartons of broth. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat and let it simmer for an hour. Take the chicken out and cut it up into bite sized pieces- after about 15 minutes. Set aside. Discard tea bag, whole celery and whole carrots (although I leave the whole carrots for Piglet to eat)

Mix ingredients for dumplings but don't over mix. One a very well floured surface, roll half the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick and cut into strips (or use heart cookie cutters). Repeat with remaining dough.
Bring stock up to a boil, add chopped carrot, onion,and celery.  Drop dumplings into stock. They will float to the top. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in cooked chicken. Serve with parsley.

Comfort food made easy peasy... (Chicken Pot Pie)

OK, for some this is comfort food, for me it is convenience food. The kind of meal I can make at anytime because the ingredients are so simple, I always have them on hand and it's easy to make. Besides I never grew up eating pot pies or casseroles, Pho is my comfort food. This is a recipe I got off of the Pillsbury pie crust box and I just make it off the top of my head now, so I am unsure what's in the original recipe. I was too lazy to walk outside to get some fresh parsley so we did without. I am unsure my family noticed. I don't make pie crusts, I tried once and my oven became an oozing buttery mess. So I don't bother. If you have leftover rotisserie chicken that's a great short cut for this recipe also. I have used leftover turkey also.

Chicken Pot Pie
3 Chicken breasts (boneless skinless)
5 TBS butter
4 TBS all purpose flour
1 TBS Olive oil
1 Minced garlic clove
1 Small onion diced
(from this point on I just eyeballed it, so no measurements)
~ 2 cups Frozen peas, carrots, green beans, and corn
Chicken broth
Heavy cream or milk
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Poultry seasoning
Fresh chopped parsley (optional)
1 Package of roll out Pillsbury pie crust
1 Egg

I prefer my chicken broiled as opposed to boiled so I salt and peppered the chicken and broiled it in the oven, then I cut it up and set it aside with the juices.

Preheat oven to 375

Take the pie crusts out of the fridge so they come to room temperature. In the mean time heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan and sweat the onion along with the garlic. Once the onions are soft add the butter and heat until foaming, add the flour to make a rue. Season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Cook until lightly browned. Add chicken broth and a bit of heavy cream, stir so there are no lumps. Add the frozen vegetables, parsley and chicken with reserved juices and stir. Heat the mixture until thick, add more broth as needed. While the filling is thickening lined to deep dish pie plate with a pie crust and beat an egg in a small bowl and set aside. Ladle filing into the pie crust, top with second crust, flute ends and make slits on top of the pie to vent. Brush with the egg wash. Bake for 15 mins at 375, then turn the oven down to 350, put a pie crust shield on the pie and bake for another 30 minutes. If you don't have a pie shield you can use foil around the edges of the pie.