chicken pot pie in summer, that ain't right.

Summer is crazy folks, seems I don't have much time in the hobble creek kitchen now that the kiddos are out of school.  How many weeks of summer again? However, we do have to eat, so I have been squeaking in a few meals here and there. 

Last summer, on the way to Lake Powell we stopped in Kanab for dinner. We ate a little place that I can't remember the name, but it had 3 bears in the title. It was so good! I had chicken pot pie soup in a homemade bread bowl. It has taken me until the next summer to try my own chicken pot pie soup (the bread bowl will come some day).

Chicken Pot Pie soup doesn't sound right in the summer, it sounds very wintry. However, good food is welcome in my home all year round.

Now the key to any good chicken soup is a good broth, and good broth does not come out of can. Sorry. So skip that boneless skinless crap and get yourself a whole chicken. Turn your oven on to 450 degrees. Rinse the chicken inside and out and take out the innards if they came with the chicken. Pat dry. Put it in your biggest roasting pan that you will be able to use on the stove to hold the soup. Drizzle with olive oil and brush it with a pastry brush all over so it is evenly coated.  Now salt and pepper the crap out of it.

Place it in the oven uncovered for about 45 minutes until it is nice and browned. Pull it out and add the following.

Sprinkle of thyme

Sprinkle of Sage

2-3 garlic cloves minced

5-6 bay leaves

spoonful of chicken base

3-4 cups of water

Put the lid on and return to the oven and roast for 2-3 hours at 300 degrees. When the chicken is falling off the bone, remove chicken from the broth and let the broth boil on the stove. De- bone the chicken putting all the bones and skin back into the broth while it boils. Let the broth boil with the bones for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop up

potatoes (about 2 medium)

carrots (about 4)

celery (3 stalks)

1 medium onion

Also meanwhile, make Lori's no fail pie crust Now this recipe will make more pie crust than you need, but the recipe doesn't "half" very good, so either freeze the rest or make a pie and bring it to me. Raspberry Rhubarb please.   

Roll the dough out flat just like you would to make a pie (about half the dough), and place it on a cookie sheet and bake according to recipe until golden brown. You don't need to poke with a fork. But you do need to give it a egg wash, don't use the same pastry brush that you brushed the raw chicken with, you people are disgusting.

Now that your broth has boiled for thirty minutes, pour it through a strainer into a bowl (if you have one of the fat separators, use it, I did. It will make you soup lighter and you really don't need the fat).

Now bring your pot back to the stove and heat about 1 T of olive oil in the pot. Add the onions to saute, followed by the carrots, celery and potatoes. Saute just enough to allow the veggies to release their aromas. Now add the stock back in the pot. It might not be enough liquid, so add some water or canned chicken broth. Taste the broth if it is too salty, add water, if it needs more, add canned chicken broth.

Cover and simmer the veggies until they are tender. Chop up the chicken and add to the soup. Add a couple handfuls of frozen sweet corn. Add a handful of fresh chopped parsley (I used dried, curse you Walmart for luring me with your "one stop shopping" and being out of something I need! you do it to me every time!) Continue to simmer till the chicken is warmed and the corn is cooked. Taste it, how is the seasoning? 

Add the pie crust to individual bowls just before serving. This makes a ton of soup.

its chili outside

I am addicted to chili. Every time it snows I feel like chili. Next week the whole crew is going on a ski vacation to Telluride,  CO, so this week I am prepping some of the food. There is nothing better to eat after skiing hard than chili! So I made a ginormous pot of chili that I will freeze to take on the trip. The great thing about chili is that it is extremely good for you. The fiber, the vitamins from the beans and veggies, the tomatoes, its like a super meal! 

So I am not a huge fan of ground beef mixed into things, so I make my chili with left over roast beef from Sunday dinner. So here is your ingredient list:

Leftover roast beef with gravy of any amount

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can dark red kidney beans

1 small can diced tomatoes

1  smaller can tomato sauce

1 pkg chili seasoning (I use mckormick)

1 fine diced red pepper

1 fine diced green pepper

handful fine diced carrots

1 onion diced

1 garlic clove minced

1 c frozen corn

First thing,  I know martha stewart would never use canned beans, nor would she use a chili seasoning package, that is so Sandra Lee. Listen, canned beans are fine, and the seasoning packets are just the spices already measured for you. You can either hand measure out your McKormick cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and salt, or you can buy the McKormick chili seasoning packet ( you buy them usually by the spaghetti sauce with all the other spice packets for things like pasta and gravy) . So once you have diced your vegetables with this,  heat a little oil in you big heavy pot and saute the veggies till they begin to cook down.  In the meantime,  

ready to put in the rest of the stuff in 

before you add all the cans, add your garlic and let it cook a little. Add all the canned stuff, the corn and the meat and gravy.  Heat it all up till really hot and then turn it to low and let it simmer, stirring occasionally for at least 30 minutes or more.   

Alta having her second bowl

Serve with cheese and sour cream. Serve on top of a baked potato with some good crusty bread, or serve with tons of freetos corn chips!

chili on top a baked potato

Clam chowder

Tonight I went to 'Enrichment Night' and the church, (and I took my mother, a miracle I know). I signed up to bring a soup. So I fed my family with it first and rushed it down to the chapel. This is a soup my mother taught me to make.

Looking at the list of ingredients, one can conclude that soup is not good for you., but is dang good. Its better that Market Street Grill's clam chowder. Alright, I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure it is Market Street Grill's recipe.

1 c diced potatoes

1 c diced leeks

1 c diced green pepper

1 c diced onions

1 c celery diced

2 cans clams in clam juice

1 T ground pepper

2 1/2 t thyme

4 t salt

1 t Tabasco

6 bay leaves

3/4 c white wine, or sherry wine

2 c water

1 1/2 stick melted butter

1 c flour

2 quarts half and half

Combine the flour and butter in a oven proof dish to make a roux, bake in the oven for about 20 minutes to cook the raw flavor out of the flour. Start to simmer the potatoes in the water with the salt. Now the next step I added after going to Certified Executive Chef Kent Anderson cooking class. He taught us you should always saute and aromatic vegetables before they get put in a recipe. He said they need to release their oils, otherwise even though they are cooked, they will still taste raw. So instead of throwing all the other vegetables in the pot to boil, I sauteed the leeks, onions, peppers, and celery in a tiny bit of oil. To this I added the pepper, and thyme.

Just after they became fragrant, I added to the saute pan the wine and poured it into the stock pot with the potatoes. Next I added the clams and their juice, and the Tabasco sauce. I simmered everything until the veggies were way cooked down. Then I added the roux. This should turn it to almost cookie dough consistency.

Then you add the half and half. Then you have to heat it all up again until it thickens up. Do not boil it. Just a simmer.

Serve with a yummy crusty bread and a big salad!

Its a baby shower!

So my sister, who is 9 and a half years my elder is due any day now with her fifth child. The kicker is, her youngest is in the first grade. Needless to say, it was a surprise! She really inspires me. So much so that she inspired me to make my husband get a vasectomy within weeks of her revealing she was pregnant. Seeing how she has long since gotten rid of all things baby, we decided to throw her a shower. However, we insisted that the guests gifts were hand-me-downs. So my sister-in-law, Laurie did what she does best, invite everyone and provide a clean house, and I did what I do best, the food.

I did beef and barley soup, home made rolls, and spinach and strawberry salad, and a lemon berry tart for desert. Also to drink, I did a apple slush.

If you want a nice, earthy, hardy soup, this is the soup for you. Also, this is one of the meals I was tell you about, when you use your leftover roast beef from Sunday dinner.

Ingredients:

3-4 diced red potatoes

2-3 diced peeled carrots

1-2 sliced celery

1 diced onion

1/2 c pearl barley

6-8 cups beef stock

leftover roast beef with gravy

salt pepper

1 t thyme

2-3 bay leaves

Get your beef broth boiling while you prep the veggies. Put the barley in once it is boiling. Add the veggies, thyme and bay leaves, add salt and pepper to taste (remember the beef stock is already salty). Turn to med-low and simmer till veggies are tender, then add leftover roast beef and gravy. Continue to simmer and taste.

Lemon Berry Tart

Lemon curd filling (Paula deans recipe)

3 large lemons, zested and juiced

1 c sugar

1/2 butter melted

4 eggs

Using a food processor, pulse together sugar and zest. Add lemon juice and eggs and blend. Then add melted butter slowly pulsing as you go. Then thicken on the stove over simmering water. (put in a bowl that can sit over a pot of simmering water) Stir often till thicken. Paula's recipe says 5 minutes, but it took me much longer.

Now I used a tart pan which has a false bottom so you can take it out of its tin, but you can use a pie tin or any other shape you want to bake in.

So you use a pie crust( like I said you are going to have to wait for the best pie crust ever) Bake your pie crust, then fill it with the lemon curd. Top most beautifully with berries. Serve with fresh whipped cream (cool whip is a sin in my house).

I also did a spinach salad with strawberries, goat cheese, pomegranates, red onions and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. That recipe will be for another day.

The apple slush, huge crowd pleaser and super easy. Get some fresh apple juice (you know the kind they sell with the produce) and put it in your punch bowl and put it in the freezer. One hour before your party pull it out of the freezer and let it soften. Slice some apples and pour some sprite over it. You'll probably have to smash it with a knife a little as well. Way good.

Now the rolls, two words. DANG GOOD. However they also will be debuting in the "12 days of Thanksgiving" Stay tuned . . . .