Chicken Pot Pie, Oh My!

Hello my friends and thanks for coming back today to see what I have for you. Yes, it is homemade chicken pot pie. Who doesn't love chicken pot pie?! It is so good for the fall and such a comfort food. It just warms the soul!

Here is what you will need:

1/3 cup of onion
1/3 cup of butter
1/3 cup of flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of pepper

Saute onions in the butter until translucent. Then add the flour in cooking until thickened. Add the salt and pepper.

When it is thicker add:

1 3/4 cups of chicken broth - I use reduce sodium broth or you can use homemade broth
1/2 cup of milk

Keep cooking and stirring until nice and thick. Next you will add the following:

1 cup of diced potatoes - depending on how many potatoes you like in your pie
2 cups of mixed vegies - I use frozen ones
2 1/2 cups of cubed or shredded cooked chicken

Mix well and place in your pie shell. Top with with top crust placing slits for steam to escape. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes then enjoy!

My husband like to have extra gravy on the side to pour onto his chunk of pot pie. I don't need the extra gravy and love the pie the way it is. lol He just grew up with the extra gravy.

How to make Pie Dough

Hello my crafty friends, happy Saturday to you all! We have a rainy dreary day here today, but we need the rain, so I say bring it on, just not to much. lol I have had some requests on how to make pie dough. So I"m here today to show you how! Now I will have to warn you that this will be pic heavy! I want you all to see all the steps and what they look like, so that's why all the pictures. So lets get on with it!

I am using a Kitchen Aid Heavy Duty mixer with the dough hook. I used to make my pie dough by hand until my hubby gave me this awesome mixer for Christmas years ago. 

You will need 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. salt and 3/4 cup of Crisco. I use the Crisco sticks because they are so much easier to measure. I cut it up into smaller chunks and throw it in with the flour and salt. Start mixing on low speed.

While it is mixing up, I use my spatula and help push the Crisco into the hook to mix into smaller pieces. 

In this picture you can see what your mix should look like once all the Crisco has been worked into the flour. Those little pea sized balls is the Crisco. 

Now you will need your ice water. Your water should be very cold. Start by adding a tablespoon at a time. I usually add 5 tablespoons, but if is humid, I will cut it back, if we are having dry weather, I will add to it. So start out with 4 tablespoons and then check the dough. If it is soft and holding together without crumbling, you are good to go. If it doesn't add some more water. This is where you will eventually learn the feel of the dough and if it is right or not. 

You are going to mix on medium low until all the dough pulls away from the side of the mixer bowl and is one lump as show in the pictures below. Don't over mix the dough, it will make it tough. As soon as the dough comes together stop your machine. 

Divide your dough in half as this recipe makes two pie crusts, or one bottom and one top. I get them shaped into a circle to start rolling with. 

As you can see, I use a pie rolling mat to roll my dough on, but when I started out making pie dough I didn't have one and just rolled it out on my counter. If it is in your funds to get one, by all means do, it does make pie rolling easier. I have sprinkled four on my mat to keep my dough from sticking. I roll my dough to get started, picking up my dough and flipping it over and putting down more flour if needed. 

As your dough is starting to get to the size you need, you will probably need some flour on your rolling pin. But just enough to keep the dough from sticking to it. You don't want to much extra flour on your dough as that can make it tough too. 

Once my dough is rolled to my size that I need, I use my rolling pin to pick it up to place in my pie dish by rolling the dough around it. I know it looks like I have a lot of flour on my dough here, but I shake it off and it is only some when I first pick the dough up. As you can see in the next picture there isn't much flour there. 

Transfer the dough to your pie pan.

Trim excess pie dough off. My pans have a lip and I cut just inside the lip to get rid of my excess pie dough. You can save the left over dough and roll out, place butter, sugar and cinnamon on top and roll it up. Bake it and eat it. My guys always loved the left over crust pieces when I did them like that. Since it is just hubby and I, I just throw away the left over dough. Or you can use it to make a mini pie if you have some mini pans. Mini pie pans are on my wish list because it is always cool to have a personal pie all to yourself. lol Now tuck your dough under and then you can start pinching your side or making fork marks on the edge of your crust. I always pinch mine because I love the look. 

Here is what the dough looks like once it is in your pan. Here you can see the "lip" I was talking about and the dough that I "tucked" under. It just gives a nicer, cleaner look to the dough when you tuck it under.

Now you are ready to fill it if you are making a pie that doesn't require a "lid". These two pie dough became peach custard pies. Yum, yum! Come back Sunday to see what I made with some other pie dough I made. Hint, it has chicken in it! 

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make pie dough. I promise it isn't hard at all. It just take trial and error to get the "feel" down and that really does't take all that long to learn. Now I hope you will give it a try and please let me know how it goes. 

Thanks for stopping by today for me to teach you how to make the pie dough. I always enjoy having people in the kitchen with me chatting away. lol You know I'm a chatter! As always I appreciate your lovely comments. Crafty and baking hugs, Brenda

Sugar Cake Cookies

Hi my crafty friends! It is hump day, can you believe how fast the weeks fly by?! Ok, I know if you are working they probably don't fly by as fast for you or if you are younger, like under 40. lol But my weeks fly by and I find myself wondering where the week went. Ok on to Sugar Cake Cookies, who has had them?  They are very popular here in the Amish country in Central PA just like the whoopie pie is. It is a large cookie but it is like a cake on the inside of it. They are so yummy! If you like just plain sugar cookies, you will love these sugar cakes. Here are some pictures to temp you and then the recipe will follow. This recipe is all over the state, but my recipe came from a little old lady who's name was Millie and she had a stand in our Market house in town. I worked for a deli, so there were times I worked our Market house and got to know Millie. She was such a sweet lady!! I loved her. I always would buy a little baggy of these cookies from her. Well one day our local newspaper did a feature on her and her cookies, cause let me tell you she could never make enough of these cookies to sell, she always sold out of them right away! So she gave her recipes out and you know who jumped on the recipe. Sure I had one, but mine never tasted as good as her's did. Now I'm happy to say they do. Millie has since passed on as this was well over 25 years ago, but her cookies live on in the homes of many here in Central PA. I know that I will never forget Millie.

 Before baking, I only put 6 on a sheet because they need room to spread out.

Sprinkling the sugar on liberally. 

Fresh from the oven.

The bigger the cookie, the better. They are all made huge where ever you find them around here!

Here is what they look like on the inside, and yes, I took a bite and then ate the whole cookie! lol  

Here's the recipe:

Sugar Cakes

from Millie Yinglilng

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 stick of butter

1/3 c. Crisco

1 3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Mix these 5 ingredients in your mixer until fluffy.

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix these two together, making sure to put the buttermilk in a 2 cup container because the baking soda makes the milk froth up. Mix well and set aside.

1/4 tsp. salt

3 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking powder

Mix these dry ingredients together and add to the butter mixture. Once all the dry ingredients are mixed in with the butter mixture add the buttermilk mixture in. Mix well.

I used a large Pampered Chef cookie scoop to scoop my dough on to a splat mat that was placed on cookie sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop, then place batter on the cookie sheet using a tbsp. Then sprinkle the dough with granulated sugar.

You will place in a preheated oven starting out on the bottom rack. Once the cookies have spread out and raised, you will move them up to the top shelf in your oven, baking until they are lightly brown around the edges. 

Removed from the oven and place cookies on a cooling rack, cooling completely. Now if you have baked them the right way you will be able to stack them into a container. If you haven't, if you stack them in a container they will get sticky and gooey and will stick to one another. They will still stick to one another a little even if you have baked them the right way but nothing like they will if you don't. You can place wax paper between the layers if you would like. Mine never last long enough to bother with the wax paper. lol This makes a nice pile of large cookies, I didn't count how many dozen it made, but I would think around 3 dozen if you are using the large cookie scoop and way more if you are using something smaller. 

Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed my Sugar Cake Cookies if you give them a try. They really are easy to make, just a little bit time consuming because you have to start them off in off on the bottom rack and then finish baking them on the top rack. 

For those of you who asked about the peach pie, I have the recipe here. And those who have asked about a pie crust tutorial, I will try and make that when I make more pies. My recipe is just an ordinary pie crust recipe but people tell me all the time that my pie dough is the best they've ever tasted. That it is so flaky and perfect. Now when I first met my husband, I had never made pie dough in my life!! Never! But he quickly informed me he wasn't eating store bought pie dough, so I would have to learn how to make it. Wasn't sure I wanted to learn how and considered not seeing my husband, then boyfriend again. But because I was already in love with him, I learned how to make pie crust. lol Now my son's can't stand any other pie dough but mine. I have always heard growing up that you can tell by the feel of the pie dough if it was right or not. Never understood that...until now. You really can tell if your pie dough is right by the feel and that takes experience. Not hard, but it just takes time to learn. 

Ok everyone, thanks again for stopping by and visiting me. You know how you always make my heart sing when you do. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Pizza, who loves Pizza?!

My family loves pizza and since going through chemo hubby's had different "cravings". Right now he is on a pizza kick. So pizza it is! I make my own pizza dough, I just use the dough setting on my bread machine and let it handle mixing, heating to rise and all that good stuff. Then I get it out and place it on my pizza stones. After pricking with a fork, I bake my dough at 350 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes. This just ensures that the dough is done all the way through. Then I take it out and put the sauce, cheese and toppings on. Now with chemo comes acid reflux, so certain things bother hubby, like pepperoni. He still wants them on but not as many and wants them chopped up now. So I chop them up. lol Here is a pic of my crust after it is pricked and slightly baked. 

Next up is the sauce, cheese and toppings.The sauce that I used is either Prego or Ragu and sometime soon I want to make my own sauce instead of using store bought.  With the toppings the sky's the limit. For our pizza hubby wanted bacon, pepperoni and mushrooms. When they have a TX Holdem' poker night, I make all kinds of pizza's sometimes. A meat lovers pizza, Hawaiian pizza, etc...Now our bacon is fresh and just made so it looks different from store bought bacon. I diced up the pepperonies per hubby's request and I was out of canned mushrooms so I used some fresh mushroom stems we had left in the fridge from when hubby made crab meat stuff mushroom caps. So yummy-ok another recipe for another time. lol So here are my toppings:

And here is the done pizza, and yes, it was very tasty! lol

What's this you ask? Well let me explain. We have a weird kid, the youngest and he hates cheese. GASP!! Yep, he doesn't like cheese on his pizza, so when I make homemade pizza, he gets a special one. It really irks me when he takes off the cheese and throws it away. So he gets his own personal pizza with no cheese. Now as weird as that is (and he has been this way his whole life), he claims that he isn't the only one who does this! Really?! There are other 18 year old's who don't eat the cheese on their pizza?!! If you find this really weird (which hubby and I do) let me know. If you know someone who doesn't eat the cheese in their pizza let me know this too. lol 

Here is my pizza dough recipe, but don't worry if you don't want to make your own dough you can buy it in the can or frozen and even pre-made dough. I just like to cook with as much homemade things as I can and not use so much store bought items with all those preservatives and such. 

11 oz of warm water

3/4 tsp. of salt

3 tbsp. of coconut oil or olive oil

5 cups of flour

2 tbp of yeast

Place items in your bread machine in order listed ending with the yeast on top of the flour. I make a little "well" in the flour for it. My bread machine mixes and rises it for 1 hours and 20 minutes. Or mix it by hand by starting with the warm water and yeast. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Place in a greased bowl and let rise someplace warm until doubled. Punch down and divide. This dough will make 2 pizzas. Sometimes I freeze my dough until I'm ready for it. Or just to have on hand. Just get out and let thaw and then roll out on your pizza stone. Now another thing my family loves, is pizza on the grill! I throw my pizza stone on the grill drizzled with oil and preheat them. I roll my dough out inside the house and pre-bake it slightly. Then I take it out to the grill and slide the dough onto the hot stone. Working quickly add your sauce, cheese and toppings. Put the lid down and let the pizza bake. Oh my, it is so good, much better on the grill, but then isn't everything better cooked outside and over an open fire?! lol If you have any questions just email me, My email is in my "about me".  Enjoy! 

  

Peach Custard Pie, oh my!!!

Evening my crafty friends! I have a third post for you today. Only this one isn't crafty. lol This one is made to tempt your tummy! My guys love pies, ok they love anything home baked. Right now peaches are in and apples are starting. So up to the orchard we went last Saturday to get some. Now the men in my life are set for getting peach and apple pies and I'm up to my elbows in rolling out pie crust and cutting up peaches and apples.This is a recipe from my husband's grandmother and it is to die for!! You will think you died and went to heaven after eating it! It is so creamy and just melts in your mouth. lol Yes, it is that good. People go nuts over this pie where ever I take it. I just baked an apple pie and this peach pie for some re-en-actors and they loved them! They already have put in their request for Oct. Nice to make $$ for baking some pies!!

Ok here is the peach pie as it looks when it comes out of the oven. I like to have a pie while it is still warm. DH doesn't like any pie warm where as I love warm pie! 

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it, very easy pie to make. And you don't have to make your own crust. I would just be tared and feathered if I didn't make my own crust. lol

Peach Custard Pie

7 medium peaches, sliced and placed in pie crust

1 unbaked pie crust

Mix together with a wisk:

1 c. whipping cream

2/3 c. white sugar

4 tbsp. of flour

1/4 tsp. of salt

Pour this over the peaches in the pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then turn back the over to 350 degrees and continue to bake for another hour. Chill pie and enjoy!! Trust me everyone will be asking you for this recipe!!

Another Recipe

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are enjoying a pleasant Sunday with your father's. We had a lovely day with the kids and grand-kids stopping by for the ones that live around us. The other's called to wish their Dad a happy day except for our son who is deployed. He doesn't always have access to contact us, but I hope he was able to call home to his children so they could tell him Happy Father's Day. So on our married guys I usually make them a yummy and give them a card for Father's Day. So for my #2 son I gave him one of his favorite desserts and that is tandy cake. He loves peanut butter and chocolate together. Who doesn't right?! lol So one of the things I used to make all the boys when they were home was tandy cakes. Just like the hostess cakes-remember their tandy cakes?? Well mine are along the same lines of them.  Here's a picture of them after I spread the chocolate on top:

And here is my my son digging in to them (see the cutie beside him, yep that's my grand-daughter):

And here is my DIL and my other cutie grand-daughter getting fed ice cream by her Pap-paw, she is a bird I tell you:

Sorry I didn't get a picture of the cake after it was taken out of the pan, we all were to busy eating it. lol  But here is the recipe if you want to try it for yourself.

Tandy Cake

You will want to bake this in a jelly roll pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. oil

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup milk

2 cups flour

peanut better

melting chocolate

Mix all ingredients together and place in a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25  minutes. Take from oven and immediately spread peanut butter on top of the hot cake. I don't have a measurement for this, I just plop it on there and spread it around.  

Let the cake and peanut butter cool completely. Then once cooled melt chocolate and spread over the top of the peanut butter. Once again I don't measure, I just plop it on and spread it around.

After the chocolate has set up you can slice into bars and enjoy. Very simple and easy recipe to make.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for the lovely comments!  Come back tomorrow for a sweet post for BBTB2! Until then....crafty hugs!

Cake, Strawberries and Whipped Cream!

Hello my crafty friends, hope that you all are having a wonderful weekend. I must say it is has been beautiful if not down right hot here. But that's ok because the pool is open and I had my first swim today!! 

I was telling a friend about Hot Milk Cake. A few friends actually and they had never heard of hot milk cake, please tell me some of you out there know about hot milk cake!! lol We eat hot milk cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or if you are my husband he has milk instead of cream on his cake and strawberries. It is so good! Another friend told me to put the recipe and pictures up on my blog, so I though why the heck not?!

Cake:

Look good, huh?!

Cake, strawberries and whipped cream:

Sinfully delicious and yes I picked those lovely strawberries from my strawberry patch!

Wanna see more? Well look at the berries I picked this morning and mind you I ate a lot of them too. LOL

Recipe:

Hot Milk Cake

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. butter-I use real butter

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and vanilla together. In a small sauce pan heat slowly the butter and milk until scaled. Then slowly pour while mixing into the flour mixture. Mix well. For a denser cake don't beat very long, for a "fluffier" cake beat for a while. My husband likes it denser.

Place in a greased bunt pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until your pick comes out clean. Cool, turn out and enjoy with some fresh strawberries or on it's own. 

I hope you try this recipe out, it's a really easy cake to make and people usually fall in love with it! lol 

 So if you can stand it and me I will be sharing some more baking recipes from time to time. These are tried, true and tested on my family over the years and with 6 boys, let me tell you a lot of snacking went on in this house and still does! 

 See you all on Monday for another BBTB2 challenge!  Crafty hugs!