Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Cooking in the Kitchen with Annie

Like I said a couple of days ago, I have no great culinary gifts but once in a while I feel the big push to follow a recipe, to face off with myself on a creative food challenge, so to speak. Monday evening I took up that challenge. Here are a few things you should know about my cooking and baking skills before reading any further:

1. No matter how clear the recipe is, I get it wrong;
2. Even if I follow the recipe to the "T", I burn whatever I'm baking;
3. Cookies come out too crisp;
4. My children have no joyful holiday memories of seasonal baking.

So, Fall arrived. I had a new oven. The impulse to cook/bake took over and on Monday after work I made a chicken pot pie.

So - this is pretty unbelievable. My brother bakes. He even makes crust from scratch. My sister bakes, cooks, stews, slices and dices. I - well, I open boxes. So - imagine my surprise when I run across this recipe for CPP and not only am I intrigued by the seeming ease of the recipe, but I felt impelled to alter it.

Call me weird if you want but cooking my chicken in Italian dressing is not my idea of a good seasoning base for a pot pie. So, out went the dressing and in came salt/pepper/extra chicken bouillon, etc. I discovered that using pre-made crust from the deli was a snap and cream cheese in the sauce gives it a subtle flavor extra.

The whole prep process took me less than 30 minutes. I even altered the cooking time and temperature, an unheard of thing for me to do. The recipe said 375 for 30 minutes. The pastry box said 475 til brown. I set the oven for 450 and 20 minutes. The idea was to check the pie after 20 minutes to see how it was looking. Amazing results. So - what do you think?



I'm not at my home computer so don't have the recipe with me. Anyone who would like it, just drop me an email. I will cheerful send it.

16 comments:

Geri said...

Bravo, Brave You!!!! From a fellow non-cooker and the mother of a chef lololol

Alice Regan said...

How lovely your pot-pie looks! I don't believe you when you say you can't cook! Looks delicious!

Anonymous said...

That crust looks so golden and flaky, like it would melt in your mouth. Mmm...

Carole Burant said...

Oooooh look at that perfect chicken pot pie, one of my favourite dishes!! For one who says she doesn't cook well, you sure pulled this one off superbly! lol Good for you! xox

qualcosa di bello said...

honestly, annie, for someone who says she can't cook or bake, the pie seems to say otherwise!

i can see the steam rising & smell the heavenly scent...just from your photo!

Annie Jeffries said...

Thank you all. I really have to laugh at myself sometimes because believe me looks are deceiving.

Mary Timme said...

Yum-O! Looking! That is what I think.

I have a friend who cheerfully eats anything I cook. She has always claimed that I couldn't follow a receipe if my life depended on it, because I'm always substituting stuff. We used to have this running joke. I say I'd followed the receipe exactly and with an eye-roll, she say un-huh. And you changed what little ingredient. I'd say none and she'd just look at me until I thought long and hard. Darn, everytime I'd changed something. Usually two or three somethings. She'd always laugh and say, to you, a receipe is just a suggestion of how to start. I know how you are. Well, what are friends for?!

Leslie said...

Yum-eeeee! Does that look great? I'll bet it was delicious!

Susie said...

Looks yummy and tempting! I love the premade pie crusts. I can cook, but pie crusts are something I've never really mastered :)

Stitchy said...

Hi Annie!
So funny! I'm trying to be more organized, menu planning being one of the things I've added to my list. I'd picked a few new recipes to try out this week, one of them being chicken pot pie! It must be an appealing fall dish. The recipe I chose calls for phyllo pastry on the top rather than the full pie crust.
Yours certainly looks delicious!
-Becky

vicci said...

Oh YUm...this looks really delish Annie.....I might have to make a chicken pot pie now! the weather is perfect for one today! its so much cooler...and I'm liking it!

Anonymous said...

Hi Annie

Cookie memories aren't in our family either!
The pot pie puts you in the chef arena! Looks darn good to me!

Anonymous said...

Well I can see I made a sound decision...lol Aileen asked if we wanted to bring a pot luck lunch for the class....lol I said it would be easier to just order out...now I realise it would be much SAFER too. lol
Jane

Annie Jeffries said...

Hey Jane, I thought you said you couldn't comment. Up to your old tricks, I see. LOL

Becca said...

I am impressed! I am no baker either, and got a good laugh at your description of all the things that generally go wrong.

This looks good enough to eat ;)

Anonymous said...

that does looks good! it looks like the problem that whole time was the oven; not your skills