Now You’re Cookin’

I am a lazy person. I don’t like to cook, especially after a long day. So I’ve finally gotten smart and started spending one day a weekend cooking and freezing. Now I’m not known as a good cook – marginal at best. (DH is a professional chef, so why try to compete?) That being said, I make very good chicken and beef pot pies (In my not so humble opinion).I’m more of a handful of this and a glug of that kinda cook – measuring means more dishes. So keep that in mind and adjust sizes and spices to your needs and preferences.

Stashaholic’s Pot Pies

Make pie crust per your favourite recipe (I use the Crisco box). You can even buy premade – I won’t tell. You will likely need to double the recipe because you need to make bottoms and tops.

Chicken Version

Filling:

6  large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2″ pieces.
1 bag mixed frozen veg
900 ml Campbell’s Chicken Broth
500 ml table cream
1/2 large white onion, diced
4 pieces celery, diced
2 c mushrooms diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
3 good glugs white wine (optional)
3 Tbsp olive oil
You can also add any vegetables in your fridge in danger of becoming science experiments….

Pre-heat large heavy skillet. Brown chicken pieces in oil for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In same pot brown onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery in a little of the broth. Add chicken and rest of ingredients back into pot.

Flavour to taste and let simmer for 20 minutes. It should look something like this:

While still a bit soupy in texture, add to pie shells. Put pie crust on top and seal edges with fork. Let cool and freeze without cooking.

To cook, bake from frozen in 375 degree oven for 60 minutes.

Beef version

Filling:

2 lbs stewing beef, cut into small pieces
1 bag mixed frozen veg
900 ml Campbell’s Beef Broth
1/2 large white onion, diced
3 pieces celery, diced
2 c mushrooms diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
3 good glugs red wine (optional)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 c Flour for dusting

Heat oil in large heavy pan. In small bowl, put 1 c flour and seasonings. Dredge beef in flour and transfer to skillet, browning for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In same pot brown onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery in a little of the broth. Add beef and rest of ingredients back to pan.

Flavour to taste and let simmer for 45 minutes (stewing beef is tough – if you use something more expensive you can cut down the time here). While still a bit soupy in texture, add to pie shells. It should look something like this:

Put pie crust on top and seal edges with fork. Let cool and freeze.

To cook, bake from frozen in 375 degree oven for 60 minutes.

Remember, these are guidelines – adjust to your individual taste.

This is how much the chicken recipe made. I got tired of making pie crusts and just froze the filling for the beef – will tackle that later this week. I like the smaller size here because I can make a lot of them for individual size servings. They are about 5″ wide. The larger sizes are closer to 10″ long

Stashaholic’s Mom’s Dough Rolls

With 5 kids in our family, nothing went to waste, not even left over pie crusts. We risk life and limb and burnt tongues to climb over each other, fighting for these. My personal favourites are the ones with burnt bottoms!

Leftover raw pie crust
melted butter
cinnamon
brown sugar
pistashios, walnuts or pecans if on hand

Roll out pie crust. Melt enough butter to coat. Dust with cinnamon and a good amount (about 1/4″ thick at least) of brown sugar. Sprinkle with nuts if desired. Roll up like a jelly roll and cut into 1″ slices.

Put on greased (PAM is ok) pan and bake at 350 for around 25 minutes. Check often. I dare you to let them cool down and see if there are any left. In my stepson’s words, “these are wicked good”.