Friday, July 22, 2011

Chicken Pot Pie

I am not a big one on following recipes to a T. Usually I do my research, find a few that sound good and combine. I did that this week with chicken pot pie. It was good. But now I can't wait to make it again and tweak it so that it is fabulous!

High Life Lounge has the best chicken pot pie and that is what I was trying to recreate. I sauted my chicken in chicken broth with celery and onion. I added basil, parsley and Italian spices while it cooked. I used a bag of mixed veggies (the kind that has the lima beans). I mixed that with a can of cream of chicken soup. Once the chicken was done, I added about a 1/4 cup milk and 2 T of flour, mixed it with the veggie and soup and put into a deep baking dish. Then I took buttermilk biscuits (the kind from a tube), mashed them all togehter and rolled out a crust, and put it on top of the chicke and veggies. I baked it at 400 until it looked done.

The final outcome was good, but a little runny. Next time I will experiment with making a roux from milk and the chicken broth to make it thicker. I debated about putting in another can of soup next time, but my goal is to always try to keep it low calorie. Skim milk with some flour (and more spices) sounds way healthier!

Monday, July 18, 2011

AllSpice

One of my favorite stores is AllSpice, the new(er) spice store in the East Village (it is located where the Village Bean used to be). I always spend way too much money there but the spices are good/strong and reasonably priced. I also like the fact they have rubs and different combos of spice blends. I bought the blackened spice the last time and used it last week to season grilled chicken. I then added it to a salad. It was fabulous. Our other favorite blend is bourbon pepper. It is great on steak!

Make sure to check them out the next time you are in the East Village: http://www.allspiceonline.com.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Trip to the Market

One of my new favorite places to go is Graziano's Market, which is an institution on the south. That I didn't know exsisted until recently. So yesterday over lunch my co-worker Denise and I decided to make the 1.3 mile trek across the river to do some shopping. Denise had never been there before.

We had a lovely time at Graziano's. If you have never been there, I would highly recommend. It's Italian and they only carry Italian food but they have a great selection. And in many cases, the prices are much better than in the chain grocery stores. The sausage is also fabulous. They have several different kinds. I have now tasted them all; I don't have a favorite as all of them are wonderful. They also taste great smoked!

Anyways, after we were done shopping and browsing we walked outside to find it dark and overcast. Several seconds later we feel raindrops and then, bam, downpour. So we run across the street to the gas station and call into work for a coworker to come get us. She said once it let up, she'd drive over. So while we were waiting, we watch this gray sedan pull up. Out steps my boyfriend's dad and his sister.

Talk about a small world...so once the rain let up, we ran back across the street and hitched a ride back to work with him. (Thanks Dick for the ride!)

Next time we decide to walk to the market (which I know we will), we better check the rain forecast first.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Garden Update



Well, the hail a few weeks ago took a toll on a few garden items... and the rain did some more damage as roots started to rot. The hot dry weather the last few weeks has been helpful (except for the peas) in making the garden grow. Though, the downfall to that is I have to water the plants everyday. We have gotten some peas already and today I picked our first two green beans. The green beans took the hail the hardest, stripping the plant of its leaves and bending its stems over. Slowly, they have recovered and I feel I will get some this year, but it will just be a little later than normal. The hail also killed the spinach and the rain keeps rotting my cucumbers so the verdict is still out on that one. The onions aren't fairing so well either. But the squash and zucchini have a ton of flowers on them and I've seen a few green tomatoes popping up. And the peppers and popcorn are growing daily.