Homestead Annie’s Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

There are mornings that I just do not feel like cooking breakfast, but need to have something to feed my troop. On those mornings, I love to awake to the wonderful smell of my breakfast casserole, ready and waiting to be eaten.

You can make this the evening before, turn it on before you go to bed, and know that you will have a scrumptious breakfast in the morning.

Homestead Annie’s Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

• Spray crock-pot with non-stick cooking spray.
• Cook 7-10 pieces of bacon, cutting them into 1-inch pieces.
• Chop 1 onion, 1 bell pepper, and 1 clove of garlic. Sauté.
• Place 1/3 bag of shredded hash browns in bottom of crock-pot.
• Layer1/3 sautéed mixture and 1/3 bacon onto hash browns.
• Add 1/3 bag of shredded cheese. Repeat layers until all ingredients have been added.
• In a separate bowl, mix 1 dozen eggs, 1-cup milk, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Pour over crock-pot mixture.
• Place lid on crock pot and set to low for 8 hours.

Enjoy the beginnings of autumn, my lovelies!

~Annie

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Annie’s Pickled Jalapeno Slices

Around this time of year, I start to can the jalapenos from everyone’s gardens. I say everyone’s, because many of my friends and family start off with great intentions, then come to realize they have too many to eat fresh, call me, and I collect them!

Jalapenos are very simple to can once you have everything set up. Today I did 18 jars worth in 1 ½ hours, including water bath processing time.

Annie’s Pickled Jalapeno Slices

• Heat water in water bath canner to boiling.
• Wash whole jalapenos.
• Mix the following: 2 quarts of water, 1 ½ cups of white vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of canning salt in a pot. Bring to a boil. This is your brine. You may change the amounts of the ingredients if you wish. However, I did this once, and it threw off the taste and texture of the peppers.
• Prepare jars.
• Put on rubber gloves. This is very important. The oils from the peppers will burn your skin, eyes, mouth, and nose.
• Slice up peppers, cold packing them in heated jars. To heat jars, boil water in a teakettle, then pour into jars. Cold packing of jars means that you do not cook the produce ahead of time, just place it in raw.
• Pour brine into jars, over peppers, leaving ½ inch headspace.
• Wipe jar rims with clean cloth.
• Place heated lid on jar. Screw on band loosely.
• Process as follows: quart jars 25 minutes. Pint jars, 15 minutes. Half pint jars, 10 minutes.

These peppers taste exactly like those jarred jalapenos found in the stores, with none on the chemicals and preservatives added. Try them for yourself!

~Annie

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Jen’s Sautéed Peppers

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to stay with my sweet friend, Jen. While there, she fixed us some fabulous sautéed peppers.

Now that peppers are plentiful, both in the garden and in the grocery, I thought I would share her delicious recipe with you all.

Jen’s Sautéed Peppers

·        Chunk your peppers. I like to use a nice mix of sweet and hot peppers in different colors to give a variety of color and heat.

·        Place pan on low heat.

·        Drizzle olive oil on bottom of pan.

·        Toss in peppers.

·        Liberally apply balsamic vinaigrette over all of the peppers.

·        If you are feeling extra frisky, add a tablespoon or so of minced garlic.

·        Sautee over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until peppers are to desired tenderness.

For variation, you may want to try adding onions or mushrooms (or both!) to the mix.

The first time I made this for my family, they ate it so quickly, I hardly had the opportunity to have any! I now know to make a double batch, every time!

~Annie

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Annie’s Eggplant Moussaka

Every year, as I plan my garden, I decide to grow eggplant. It is such a pretty plant and the eggplant itself is interesting. However, I found eggplant to be a bit bland for my taste, steamed or fried. It needed to be a part of a cassrole.

I decided to make my own Eggplant Moussaka. It was heavenly. So much so, that I wanted to write it down before I forgot my new recipe.

Annie’s Eggplant Moussaka

• Brown 1 pound of ground beef.
• Chop and onion. Add.
• Add ½ cup tomato sauce.
• Add 1 cup water.
• Add 2 tsp. parsley.
• 1 tsp. nutmeg. (Trust me. It adds a little zip.)
• 1 tsp. sea salt. (Or regular table salt, if you prefer.)
• ½ tsp. pepper.
• Stir well and let simmer while you deal with the eggplant.
• Chop the ends off of two to three eggplant, peel and slice them.
• Sauté the eggplant slices in a bit of olive oil.
• While the eggplant sautés, ready your mashed potatoes. If you do not feel like making real mashed potatoes, go ahead and use instant. I’m not going to tell.
• Once the meat mixture, the eggplant and potatoes are ready, grab a casserole dish, spraying the bottom as you go.
• Begin layering the casserole with a layer of eggplant, followed by the meat mixture, and finally potatoes. Repeat this process until you have used all of your ingredients, ending with potatoes on the top.
• At this point, you may want to sprinkle cheese over the top. It adds a bit of flavor and color for those festive occasions, like Tuesday nights.
• Bake in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes.
• Serve.

I enjoy mine with raw onion. I find that it enhances the Moussaka quite well. I hope you all enjoy this yummy recipe as much as I do. It is a terrific way to use eggplant!

~Annie

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Annie’s Sweet Mama’s 1940’s Diner Meatloaf

Today, by popular demand, I bring you my sweet mama’s 1940’s diner meatloaf recipe. Y’all this is a pretty special event. My sweet mama doesn’t just give out recipes to all that ask. She is a cook by profession, and has perfected the art.

As most cooks are, she is very secretive about her recipes. However, for some reason, unknown to common man, or me, she has decided to share a few with the world.

 This recipe was first published publicly (and by publicly I mean somewhere other than her recipe box or mine,) in her church cookbook. Seeing as her church would not sell their cookbook to outsiders, the meatloaf recipe has, until this very moment, remained a very closely guarded secret.

This is the meal I ask my sweet mama to make me for Christmas, for workdays at her house, for any time I have an excuse to get her to make it. It is absolutely scrumptious.

Annie’s Sweet Mama’s 1940’s Diner Meatloaf

• 1 ½ pounds ground beef (or venison, turkey, etc.)
• ½ c soda cracker crumbs. (as in the dregs of the saltines bag) Place in Ziploc bag and smash with rolling pin. If you do not have a rolling pin, use a can of veggies or soda.
• ½ c milk
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt (I use kosher or sea salt. You may use whatever you have on hand.)
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (meaning, poke the yolk and stir it around a bit until it looks like you are about to make scrambled eggs.)

Mix the above ingredients. Find a shallow baking dish (I use a cake pan.) Spray the dish, then dump meat mixture into pan, forming it into a loaf. Smooth the top, then add a crease down the center of the loaf….sort of like a little valley, about 1 inch deep.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven, drain off grease.

While meat mixture is baking, mix the sauce together.

Sauce:

• 1/3 c dark brown sugar (or light brown if that is what you enjoy)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard

Once loaf has been drained, spread the sauce over the top of the loaf as a glaze. Be sure to get plenty in the little valley you made on the top of the meatloaf.

Throw the meatloaf back in the oven for 10 minutes, and voila! You are finished!

My sweet mama serves her meatloaf with mashed potatoes, green beans, and applesauce, with a side of chopped onion, but you serve it as you wish.

If you have leftovers, they make for great meatloaf sandwiches the next day.

I hope you enjoyed a little peek into my mama’s kitchen. We shall be visiting here again from time to time.

Enjoy your day, lovelies. As Democritus said, "Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."

~Annie

Annies Kitchen Drain and Pipe Cleaner

On this beautiful, pseudo spring day, my thoughts turn to spring cleaning. Y’all, people think that because I have OCD that I love to clean. That is simply not true. I love to ORGANIZE.  Cleaning, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. I do clean. Everyday. However, it is not my passion.

The other day, JP commented on a “funky smell” emanating from the kitchen sink. While I didn’t smell anything, JP is super sensitive to odors, so I just took it as a pre-warning that the sink pipes and drain needed to be cleaned.

You might ask how one actually cleans the drain and pipes. It is actually very simple. And completely chemical free. You can amaze your friends, your kids, even your super olfactory sensitive spouse!

Annie’s Kitchen Drain and Pipe Cleaner

• 2 Tbsp baking soda per drain. Remember back when I told you to make sure that your baking soda didn’t get too old because then you couldn’t get your baked goods to rise to their supreme fluffiness? This is where the old baking soda comes into play. As you will soon realize if you follow my blog long enough, I never waste anything. Ever.( If you do not have old baking soda to use, just use your fresh soda. Just think of it as using it up so it never gets old!)
• Shake baking soda into drain, trying to cover as much of the inner drain as possible
• ½ cup vinegar per drain. Again, try to cover as much of the inner drain and pipes as possible as you pour into the drain.
• Sit back and enjoy the fizz. Come on. Admit it. You love the sound of the fizz as much as I do. It reminds me of the days of homemade volcanoes for science fair projects gone awry. It actually is loosening all the gunk that has slowly built up on the walls of the inner drains and pipes. Walk away for 15-30 minutes. Take a coffee break. Go outside. Pet the dog. Read a few pages of your book. Call your mother.
• Pour 4 cups boiling water down each drain, starting with the one farthest from the main pipes. If you don’t know which this is, just take a peak under the sink to see which drain has the long pipe running over to connect it to the other to go down into the cabinet floor. Wait five minutes. The boiling water will continue to loosen grime and wash it away.
• Squirt 2 Tbsp of lemon juice into each inner drain, doing your best to coat the inner drain and pipes. This will leave your kitchen sink with a wonderful citrus scent. (if you have a garbage disposal, send a cut up lemon through the disposal.)

Presto! Non-funky smelling kitchen sink! No harsh chemicals going down your drains. No hazardous odors. No fears of children ingesting toxins from the cleanser. Just good, old-fashion clean drains and pipes.

I try to do this at least once a month. (If I remember.) In that way, I am able to keep JP’s nose happy, while at the same time ensuring that I will not have a clogged or slow-to-drain kitchen sink due to gunk build up.

Enjoy the beautiful reprieve from winter today, my friends.

“Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.” ~Edith Sitwell.

~Annie

Annie’s Italian Beef

Every summer I lay aside my apron and mantle of Stay At Home Mom, and return to the fields as a crop inspector. During that time, I work 12-18 hours a day,  25-40 days in a row. As my mind is filled will counts, paperwork, crop diseases, etc., I have little time to concern myself with what to make the troops for supper. This is where fabulous crock-pot meals come into play.

My Italian beef recipe has a very quick and easy prep time. Literally less than five minutes. FIVE. I guarantee it. If it takes you longer than five minutes, you might be doing something wrong. Start over.

Annie’s Italian Beef

·        Retrieve crock-pot. Mine is kept in storage in the basement. With such a tiny house, there is not room for the crock-pot to be kept upstairs. (Running up and down the basement steps is good for me.  I look at it as a morning workout. )

·        Place beef roast in crock-pot. I normally use my chuck roasts for this meal, but you can use any roast you wish. If there are just a few of you, use a smaller roast. If there are bunches in your troop, use a larger roast. As a point of reference, I use a three pound roast for the five of us.

·        Add  a jar of pepperoncinis with the juice. I actually buy a gallon jar at a time, so I just grab 2 handfuls of pepperoncinis and 2 cups of juice out of the gallon jar. If you do not want to commit to such a large jar, just purchase a smaller jar and add the entire thing.

·        Add 2 teaspoons of minced garlic

·        Fill crock-pot with water until it just covers the roast.

·        Swish the liquid around, being sure to evenly mix the garlic with the liquid

·        Place cover on crock-pot, set to low, and walk away for the next 8-10 hours

·        Remove roast from liquid, pulling meat apart with forks

·        Return roast to liquid

·        Serve.

Seriously. That is it. Roast, jar of peppers and garlic. I just put the buns next to the crock-pot and let each person serve himself. I also make sure there is a ladle and small bowls for the Au Jus. Serve with a pickle and chips.

I know many of you work outside of the home or are crazy busy with the kiddos if you are Stay At Home Parents. Sometimes it is nice to have a meal that is super easy to make, yet warm and delicious, to come home to at the end of the day’s work.

Tonight, take time to enjoy your family. Take time to really listen as they tell you about their days. Reconnect and relish in the people you love.

~Annie

Annie's Stuffed Pepper Soup

As temperatures dip their windchill below zero degrees, a hot pot of soup is the perfect meal to welcome home your family. I love making this soup because it is easy to make whenever you have time in the day and set aside until supper time. It also can be made right before you need it, so don't write it off as one of those "I will never have time to make that" type of recipes.

Annie's Stuffed Pepper Soup

1 cup chopped onion (Vidalia gives the best taste)
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups chopped bell peppers (I grab them from my stock in the freezer from last season)
1 pound ground chuck (you can use what ever ground meat you wish)
1 pint chopped canned tomatoes (or you can buy them in a can)
2 quarts cream of tomato soup (this is what I use, you can also use1/2 cup tomato juice and the rest water, however you will get a slightly different flavor.)
1 cup uncooked rice (I get the small rice from this cute little asian store in Chicago..I'm sure any ol' rice will do!)
Enough water to fill the pot (let's not be too precise, ok?)
2 Tbsp sugar (I use raw)
1 tsp salt (I use Russian sea salt, but any will do)
1 tsp ground black pepper (sometimes i use white pepper if I feel daring)
Throw meat in and start browing and chopping
Add the chopped veggies and garlic
Finish browning the meat
Throw the rest in and stir awhile
Stir every so often.
Wait for rice to explode, and voilia! it is finished! :)

It really is THAT easy. I promise. Y'all have a wonderful day. Stay warm. Stay inside if possible. Enjoy your soup and have a blessed day!

~Annie

Annie's Fried Chicken

The other day I got a hankerin’ for fried chicken. Y’all I love fried chicken. So does my family. It is such an easy dish to make. I promise. It will be finger lickin’ good too. ;)

• First, throw 3 TBSP of butter in a large skillet. NOT margarine. BUTTER. Please.
• Grab a Ziploc bag. Dump ½ cup flour, 1 tsp salt, and ½ tsp. black pepper in to it.
• Pop the chicken, a piece at a time, into the bag. Shake until covered with mixture.
• Throw in skillet.
• Put skillet on lowest heat.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and let it be. As in don’t keep poking on it, or taking the lid off. Just let it be. Until you see browning along the edges of the chicken.
• Flip. Once. Promise me this.
• Sprinkle left over flour mixture in grease in skillet. This will make the yummy crunchies that my family fights over. Yours will too, I’m thinking.
• Cover. And again, just let it be. When you mess with it too much, you interrupt the cooking process and the juices run out, leaving you with dry chicken. Who wants dry chicken, anyway? No one, that’s who. So just leave it.
• Once you see that it is browning up nicely, remove lid and turn up to a medium heat so that the chicken crisps up.
• Once it is crisp, remove from skillet and place on plate with a paper towel to absorb the remaining grease.
• Once again, let it be. Give the meat time to rest and spread its juices throughout.

And there you have it. My fried chicken recipe. I hope your family enjoys it as much as we do. 

As Minny Jackson said in “The Help”, “Fried chicken just tends to make you feel better about life.”

~Annie

Annie's Chicken Quinoa Soup

Annie’s Chicken Quinoa Soup

A few years ago, JP had to be on a very specific diet for health reasons. During that time, I had to become very inventive with the foods allowed; or I would have had a mournful looking hubby on my hands.

Throughout that phase of our lives, I came up with a wonderful soup recipe that has made it into our regular supper rotation. As in, JP liked it so much that he kept asking for it. Even after he no longer HAD to eat it. Folks, that right there shows you how great it is.

I love to make this recipe on those cold, blustery winter days. The ones that make you chilly just looking out the window. While I prepare the yummy soup, I just laugh at the winds howling around our sweet little home, just daring the winter blues to try to come in. Nope. Not happening. Not to this mama. Not while I make this delicious, yet extremely healthy meal for my family.

Annie’s Quinoa Soup

• Boil a chicken. Yep, that’s right. Boil a chicken. I suppose you don’t HAVE to boil a chicken, but it sure does smell good. And it adds moisture to the air of your home. And it also gives you leftover chicken for sandwiches and chicken potpie. What’s that? You don’t know how to make a chicken potpie? Well then, make sure to check out my recipe for it that I posted a while back. You will love it. I promise.
• Pull chicken out of water and let it cool. I use a pie plate for this. (Actually I use the pie plate that I also use for cornbread. It is the perfect size.)
• Once chicken has cooled, debone it. I set the breast aside for sandwiches, then divide the remaining chicken in half. Half will go into the soup; the other half will go into chicken potpie. Of course this is just what I do. You can do what you want, seeing as I am not there to stop you. ;-)
• Using the chicken stock (don’t worry, that is just a fancy name for the water that you boiled said chicken in,) add the following:
• 1 cup celery, diced
• ½ cup onions, diced
• 3 large carrots, diced
• 1 tsp sea salt (table salt will do if you are not into all of the different types of salts.)
• ½ tsp pepper. (I like to use white pepper just because I think it gives it a better flavor, but once again, black will do swimmingly as well.)
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon (that is equal to one cube)
• 1-2 cups of quinoa, depending on how much broth you want in your soup. Personally, we add two cups because we like it to be thick, but if you want to have a lot of broth, just add less quinoa. If you do not have quinoa on hand, you may substitute rice.)
• Chicken, diced

Stir. Heat to boiling. Simmer until veggies are cooked through and quinoa “pops.” You will know when this happens because the round little quinoa seeds will no longer be round. They will look like they exploded. And will be very yummy.

I like to make my soup first thing in the morning, and then let it simmer throughout the day, adding water as needed. NOTE: The quinoa will absorb A LOT of water. Make sure to keep adding water so you do not burn your magnificent supper.

This is a great meal for those that cannot have gluten. For someone that is not feeling well. For a hungry family. For just about any reason.

I like to whip up a batch of my cornbread to serve with the chicken quinoa soup. They seem to go well together. At least I don’t hear the troops complaining. ;-)

Remember, you can DO this. Yes. You can. Tonight. Or tomorrow. Or whenever the mood strikes you. As we all journey towards a healthier lifestyle and pocketbook, small changes will get us there.

~Annie

Annie’s Blackberry Cobbler

As promised in yesterday’s post, today I am sharing my blackberry cobbler recipe with y’all.

This is another of those go-to recipes that are great for potlucks, dinner parties, delivered meals, or as a bargaining chip when you would really like to have your garden tilled by your very busy husband.

Annie’s Blackberry Cobbler

Melt 1 stick of butter. I do this by placing it in a bowl and popping it in the microwave. It is easy and fast. However, as we learned from the cornbread recipe, make sure to rinse the bowl with water first so that the butter will just pour right on out. What is that? You didn’t read the cornbread recipe? Well then, take a minute to do so, then come on back and continue on with THIS recipe. Go ahead…we will wait……There. Now you are all caught up. Don’t you feel like one of the cool kids now? ;)

In a different bowl, mix:

 2/3 cup raw sugar OR 1 cup white sugar (again, this was addressed in the earlier recipe. If you didn’t read it, you really should….)

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder (make sure your baking powder is in date. I was having an awful time with my cobbler. It was not fluffing up AT ALL. It still was yummy, but it sort of looked like it had gotten run over by elephants. I then replaced my baking powder, and it was heavenly puffiness from there on out.)

1 cup of milk

After you have mixed the above ingredients thoroughly, whisk in the butter.

Find your prettiest baking dish, (you know, the one that you save for company) grease it (I like to use the inside of the now-empty butter wrapper,) and pour the mixture in. As a side note, WHY exactly ARE we saving our prettiest dishware for company? I say USE IT! YOU are WORTH IT!

Rinse 2 cups of blackberries (or any berries for that matter. One time I made a blue berry and blackberry cobbler. It was fabulous.)

Sprinkle the blackberries over the mixture, trying to make sure they are distributed evenly. It’s ok if you pop a few in your mouth. Think of it as your tip.

Shake 1/8 cup of raw or ¼ cup of white sugar over the top of the yumminess you just assembled.

Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Take it out of the oven for two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of raw sugar or 2 Tbsp of white sugar across top. Pop it back into the oven for 10 more minutes. The final sugar will crisp up the crust. Trust me. You will love it.

Take it out of the oven and let it set at least 10 minutes. This will give it time to set up. You will know it is time for it to come out of the oven when the edges turn a splendid golden brown.

You can serve it with ice cream or on its own. Seeing as I believe ice cream to be its own food group, I vote ice cream for everyone!

As your troops delight in the goodness of a home baked dessert, take a moment and be proud of yourself. You did it. YOU made it. There was no Duncan, Betty, or Sara in your kitchen. Just YOU. And THAT my lovelies, brings a level of satisfaction that is truly fabulous.

~Annie

Annie's Award-Winning Cornbread

Annie’s Award-Winning Cornbread

For most anyone that has been over to my house for supper, happened upon the same potluck as I was attending, was a judge at the local fair (first place!) or perhaps had a meal delivered after the arrival of a new baby or surgery, there is a very good chance you have tried my cornbread.

My cornbread is one of my go-to recipes. You know, the recipes that you use so much that they are just in your head, never really written down.

I find that it is perfect as a side for any type of soup, any type of roast, grilled meats, etc. I also find that even those picky eaters that are reluctant to try cornbread end up loving this recipe.

Cornbread is a perfect dish to take to potlucks. It won’t spill in the car, leaving that odd, funky smell for months. Your children can be “helpers” by carrying it in to the building and you don’t have to beat down the doors of Heaven praying that they don’t slosh it all over themselves. As I said, a perfect dish. J

Annie’s Award-Winning Cornbread

Mix:

• 1 cup of yellow cornmeal (you can use white if you wish, go ahead and live on the edge.)
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup raw sugar OR 2/3 cup white sugar. Your choice. We use raw sugar in our home, but hey! Whatever floats your boat! (NOTE: if you forget the sugar, as I have, the cornbread will look beautiful. However, when your husband takes that first bite, an odd expression will come over his face and he will try to quietly inform you of your mistake. You will then have to announce to all concerned parties that you forgot the sugar. They will then eat it anyway because they love you, but they will also hold you to your promise of cornbread WITH sugar the next time.)
• 2 tsp. baking powder

Add:

• 1 cup milk (whatever you have in the fridge is fine. I usually try to use up the older milk. You know, the jug that the kids are now passing over, yet the date is still ok.)
• ¼ cup of butter, melted. After I pour the milk in the bowl, I pop the butter in the measuring cup and then into the microwave. The coating of the milk on the cup helps the butter slide right out of the measuring cup, into the bowl, once it is melted. (NOTE: if you forget the butter, as I have also done, the cornbread will be a little flat and very heavy. Since of course you will not figure this out until you are already IN LINE at the church potluck, your husband will take a HUGE piece and announce how much he loves his wife’s cornbread, in that way saving others from having to eat it. Y’all, I have THE BEST husband.)
• 1 egg

Pour mixture into a greased pie plate. Yes, a pie plate. I find that it cooks the cornbread more evenly, and it is sort of fun to cut that way as well. If you don’t own a pie plate, you can use whatever you have on hand.

Place in an oven that has been preheated to 425 degrees. Bake for 27 minutes. When it is done, you should see slight browning at the edges and small cracks on the top of the cornbread. (NOTE: If you don’t see those two items, stick it back in for a while. Otherwise you get a pan of cornbread that is half raw in the center. While that might work for brownies, it does NOT work for cornbread. At this point, even your loving husband will refuse to eat it and insist it go back into the oven.)

There you have it, easy peasy! For the record, I have made this recipe hundreds of times over the past sixteen years, since I came up with it. Out of those hundreds of times, I have only messed it up three times, all of which I have shared with you here. It is just fine if you mess up. Everything takes practice, including making food for your troops. While it might seem to be a huge mistake at the time, later you will be able to look back and laugh about it, perhaps even telling the world of your major goof ups and how your husband came to the rescue. The main thing is that you TRY. Your family will love you for it, your budget will love you for it, and you will have great satisfaction in a job well done.

As Ted Allen said, “Cooking for people is an enormously significant expression of generosity and soulfulness, and entertaining is a way to be both generous and creative. You are sharing your life with people.”

~Annie

Annie's Chicken Pot Pie

Good morning y'all!

Every morning as I get the household moving for the day, I am always trying to decide what to prepare for supper. For some people, that decision comes at about 5:00 p.m. However, for me, it comes about 5:30 a.m. This could be because I love my life to be planned out nicely, or it could be because whatever we are having for supper has to have time to thaw before I can prepare it, or I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, stressing over what to make, until I throw my hands up in utter distress and discombobulation saying, "Y'all are having a frozen pizza." I like to pretend it is the former.

One of my favorite cold weather recipes is my  chicken pot pie recipe. It seems to be the boys' favorite as well, since there is always much rejoicing when they see the golden brown crusts on top of a hot, steaming pot pie, being taken from the oven.

I used to be very scared of making pot pies. Perhaps it seemed overwhelming. Perhaps I didn't want to commit to a one-dish supper. I am not sure what my issue was, but I sure am glad I overcame it. So are the boys.

The recipe is, as Little Bug would say, easy peasy....

Preheat over to 400 degrees
Throw 1/2 stick of butter in a large skillet to melt
Add chopped celery, onions and carrots. (As many as you care for.) Saute.
Add chopped chicken. (As much as you have on hand) I like to boil a chicken, set aside the broth and dark meat for soup and use the white meat for pot pie, but to each his own.
Simmer.
Add 1/4 c. flour, sprinkling evenly over mixture. Lightly stir.
Add 3 tsp. chicken stock (or three bouillon cubes) and 2 cups of water. Stir.
Add 1 cup milk, 1 tsp kosher salt. 1/2 tsp pepper. Stir.
Add  green beans and  peas (once again as many as you like).
Divide mixture evenly into two sprayed pie plates.
Cover with pie crust.
Make slits in crust. I like to do four inch long slits radiating from the center with a heart in the middle. Not that the boys notice, but I do, and it makes me happy. That is what matters.
Dribble 1 capful of milk on top of pie crust. Use fingers to spread it evenly on crust. This will give your crust a nice, brown color and crisp texture. Trust me. You will thank me later.
Place each pie plate on a cookie sheet and pop into oven. One on each rack. Set timer for 15 minutes.
When timer beeps, change pie plates places in oven and set timer for 13 minutes.
When timer goes off again, remove pies from oven. Set timer for 10 minutes. Those pies did a lot of work and need some time to rest.
Once the last timer goes off, pies are ready to be devoured. Trust me, 2 pies are barely enough for 5 people here, and I am sure that a third would be totally eaten as well. :)


I am hereby giving you permission to buy the pie crusts at the store. To buy canned or frozen chicken and vegetables at the store as well. Who cares if you have to purchase some of the ingredients ready made? I don't, and neither will your family. What they will see is a delicious supper, made by someone that loves them.

Remember, there is no contest for who is the best homemaker or cook. Do whatever works for you, in your situation. We all walk different roads in life, but sometimes it really feels good to come up alongside others and visit for awhile, doesn't it? 

~Annie