"Take Chances, Make Mistakes," are the words often used by Ms. Frizzle of the Magic Schoolbus. This mantra can be applied to cooking and menu planning as well. So many times I hear my friends say that they eat the same things over and over, but dear friends, the world is your oyster when it comes to new recipes. I love the internet for finding new recipes as well as new (and old) cookbooks, but don't be afraid to experiment on your own!
This week was unusual because I cooked only a few things. I was out of town to attend my 30th high school reunion. The menu will be short but I did have some fun experimenting in the kitchen.
Monday
Kids have a crazy schedule so we ate out at a local deli.
Tuesday
I have been wanting to make chicken pot pie, but I had so many recipes - where do I begin? I went back to a recipe called Easy and Quick Chicken Pie given to me at a bridal recipe shower over 24 years ago.
Easy and Quick Chicken Pie
- 1 chicken, cooked and boned
- 1 3/4 to 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 can cream of celery soup
- 1 stick softened butter
- 1 cup self rising flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Okay, that is the basic recipe, but I decided to channel my inner Ms. Frizzle. First, I already had a whole chicken. The obvious way to cook it would be to boil the chicken and make broth as well. Recently the food editor of our paper had a recipe for Chicken pot pie and mentioned using a rotisserie chicken from the deli section of the grocery store. I decided to roast my chicken with lots of herbs for added flavor and then use canned broth. I am not sure it added that much flavor but I could roast it that morning to use in the afternoon. I also appreciated the canned broth because they do a better job skimming the fat than I do.
Then I sauteed some mushrooms, celery, onions and carrots to add with the chicken. I also threw in some frozen green peas. I wanted to add some white wine but didn't have any available so I used mainly chicken broth but added a little mushroom broth as well.
I used a 10 inch round baking dish which did make for a pretty presentation. My son exclaimed, "Wow Mom, this is great!" at the dinner table. To be honest, it was okay. The point is a recipe is a starting point - a guideline. You can trust yourself to experiment a little.
I made a salad and my home made French bread to round out the meal.
Wednesday
We were getting ready to leave town so I had what I call Smorgasbord. Just a fancy way to say, "Leftovers."
Thursday - Sunday
We were out of town at my reunion. We visited many restaurants.
Monday
I normally would include this next Sunday, but I wanted to leave you with more than one day of meals.
Shrimp Scampi Linguine This is from the March edition of Prevention Magazine
Salad
French Bread (I had put some in the freezer before we left town.)
Once again, I didn't have any white wine so I substituted red. It gave a nice flavor, but changed the color of the dish to pink. (Yes, I mixed seafood and red wine!)
Odds and Ends
Earlier in the week I made some banana bread to continue on my quest not to buy breakfast breads. I have some dough for whole wheat English muffins in the bread machine as I type. I made some more homemade yogurt today and am going to experiment with that this week. We like it fairly thin because it goes over cereal and fruit so well, but my 5 year year old likes it thicker so I will strain some and then I am going to work with flavors. I bought some strawberry spread to try. I will also try powdered sugar and vanilla. I am thinking about mixing some with jello and see what I get. We shall see.
Enjoy your week. Look to your inner Ms. Frizzle and have fun in the kitchen!
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