chicken pie

I am loving my new cookbook, Donna Hay's The Instant Cook. Simple and delicious food. And when I say I am loving it, I mean I've made no less than 3 of her dishes in the last 3 days. Yep, I'm hooked.

Since I always have store-bought puff pastry in the freezer, and usually some frozen chicken on hand too, this chicken pie will be great when I don't seem to have anything fresh to make. I trust I'm not the only one who stares into my fridge thinking I have nothing for dinner (or into my closet thinking that I have nothing to wear), so I get excited about meals I can whip up from freezer staples.

chicken pie

Adapted from The Instant Cook by Donna Hay

serves 4

2 chicken breasts

olive oil

1-2 sheets ready-made puff pastry, thawed (I used only one sheet, but my chicken breasts weren't very big.)

2 Tbs grated cheddar cheese

2 Tbs grated parmesan cheese

2 teas dijon mustard

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together mustard and cheeses. Set aside.

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook, turning once, until chicken is almost done but still very moist. Depending on the thickness of the meat, this takes about 4 minutes a side. Remove from pan and cut each breast in half.

On lightly floured counter, roll out pastry until 1/8" thick. Cut 4 circles for the bases and 4 slightly larger circles for the tops. The size of the rounds depends on the size of your chicken pieces, but will probably be about 5" diameter.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place 4 pastry bottoms on paper. Top each with chicken piece and 1/4 of the mustard/cheese mixture. Brush pastry edges with beaten egg and top with other round of pastry, pinching the edges together to seal. Brush top and edges with egg. Bake for 20 minutes, or until pies are golden and the chicken is cooked through.

spicy fennel pasta

I was sad to see Gourmet go. Apparently in a recession, folks don't want to seek out specialty ingredients and see ads for the life of leisure. Sure, many of the recipes were over the top -- that's what made them fun! But I got a lot of great simple recipes out of it as well. Sniff, sniff.

To finish off my Gourmet subscription, the editors are sending me Bon Appetit instead. So far, I'm not very impressed. When I go through clipping recipes from Gourmet, I have a big ol' stack of recipes that sound good to me. But so far, I can go through an entire Bon Appetit and not really be enticed to try any of it.

Having said all of that, there was this one recipe involving fennel that caught my eye. I modified it quite a bit -- perhaps making it worse than the original, who knows -- but we were pleased with the tasty meal.

Don't be scared of the fennel -- it's flavour is very mellow in this.

spicy fennel pasta

modified from Bon Appetit

serves 4

4-5 slices bacon

olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/8-1/4 teas dried red pepper flakes

1 fennel bulb, stalks trimmed, thinly sliced

3/4 C chicken broth

4 Tbs fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped, divided

juice from 1/2 lemon

spaghetti for 4

2/3 C freshly grated parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese, divided

Saute bacon in large skillet over medium heat until done. Transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate. Crumble strips into bits when cool.

Drain off all but 1 Tbs of bacon grease. Add a swig of olive oil to the drippings in skillet and saute garlic and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 min. Add fennel slices and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 mins. Mix in broth, lemon juice, and 2 Tbs of the parsley. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook until fennel is very tender, about 20 mins. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, cook pasta al dente. Reserve 1/2 C starchy cooking water, then drain pasta. Return pasta to pot.

Uncover fennel skillet and return to high heat. Cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, another 3-5 mins. Add pasta to fennel or fennel to pasta, whichever pot is bigger. Stir in a swig of olive oil, half of the grated cheese, parsley, and bacon bits. Toss pasta, adding a bit of cooking water if dry. Portion into pasta bowls and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Serve.

soft as a baby's wrap

A cozy merino wool wrap is slowly taking shape on my needles.

(pattern from this lovely book)

What are you making?

cereal box muffins

Something struck me supremely easy about the muffin recipe on the side of my bran flakes cereal (seriously, what muffin recipe is difficult?), so I gave it a try. Yum, these are tasty -- and oh so easy.

sorry for the crappy picture!

bran muffins

slightly adapted from the side of my cereal box

makes 1 dozen

1 1/2 C bran flakes cereal

1 1/4 C whole wheat flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1/2 C dried cranberries

1/2 C golden raisins

1/4 C butter, room temperature

scant 1/2 C granulated sugar

1 egg

1 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin and set aside.

In large bowl, stir together cereal, flour, baking powder and dried fruit. In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Then beat in egg, then milk. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

wearing origami

Wouldn't this would be fun?!

simple sewing: burp cloths

These days, it's the little things.

This stack of terrycloth burp cloths was quite an accomplishment for me. Four seams each, but they took all day to finish. Crafty time is scarce with a newborn around (don't worry, I expected that!), but it's funny how a few stolen moments at the sewing machine or making a handmade card can reenergize me almost as good as a nap. Almost.

Now we have proper taxonomy of cloths -- some for both sets of sweet cheeks.

choose-your-own-adventure cooking

At the risk of overstating my enthusiasm... Jackpot! Eureka! Here's a choose-your-own adventure recipe for awesome couscous or orzo.

This is my friend Kim's trick for turning plain couscous into a yummy side dish and since she's told me about it, we've been enjoying many variations on the theme. Through extensive experimentation I can vouch that orzo works well too (just add a bit of olive oil to the mix.)

The recipe? Cook couscous or orzo, then add something green (fresh parsley, cilantro or mint), some toasted nuts (favs being pecans, almonds or pine nuts), the zest and some juice of something citrusy (preferably lemon, but lime or orange will do), and some dried fruit (may I suggest apricots or currants?)

And if you want to go the extra mile, try adding sauteed celery, onion, or some plain chickpeas. Never a dull moment.

turkey hash

We aren't really in the season of big turkey dinners anymore, but if you ever find yourself with some leftover turkey...

We were lucky enough to be sent home with the leftovers from our Christmas feast with friends. I used nearly all of it in some 'turkey hash with mashed potato crust.' The result was delicious, and it felt so unlike the original meal that it hardly felt like we were eating the same thing for days.

It's kind of an 'anything goes' type of meal, but here's a basic recipe, adapted from Real Simple...to which I added corn and didn't use as much onion, didn't use any broth but relied on watered down gravy for all the liquid and flavour, and broiled at the end to obtain that golden crust.

turkey hash

serves 4

about 4 Tbs butter

1/2 onion, diced

2 carrots, diced small

2 celery stalks, diced small

4 Tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

2 1/2 - 3 C leftover turkey, chopped or shredded

1/2 C leftover gravy

1/2 - 1 C chicken stock, or watered-down gravy

2 C leftover mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt a bit of the butter and saute onion for a couple of minutes. Add carrots and celery and continue cooking until carrots are starting to soften. Add half the parsley and the turkey. Stir to combine. Stir in gravy and some broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until thickened a bit, adding enough liquid to make a thin, stewy sauce (only about 5 mins.) Stir in remaining parsley and transfer to 8x8 baking dish.

Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a medium pot and add mashed potatoes, stirring in the melted butter until warm. Spread potatoes over hash and bake about 20 mins, then broil a few minutes until golden.

felted stockings

My cousin gave the baby a beautiful blue stocking, made out of a felted sweater. Aren't those snowflakes the perfect addition? Now I want to make Jeff and I felted sweater stockings to match -- it's just the kind of low-commitment crafting I can handle.

One more to go...

twenty ten

Happy New Year!