chicken pot PIE

I decided to sway a bit away from the fruit pies this week and try something a little less.. fruity. 

A Pot Pie!

I found a recipe I thought sounded worth trying on www.allrecipes.com, my favorite site, when it comes to cooking and baking! 

Here's the link to it, in case your interested: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-pot-pie-vi/detail.aspx 

And believe me you should be interested!  So easy to make.. Pretty much just like any pie!  Not anymore difficult than the other's I've made thus far.  Only thing is.. I had to double the baking time. besides that, I wouldn't change a thing!  This recipe is Wonderful!

Now for some pics:

Cooking my chicken in some very yummy seasoning!  I just love my Princess House cookware!

Me rolling out my pie crusts!

A look at the yummy filling, before I put the top crust on. : )

All done and ready to eat!!  - I forgot to put tinfoil around the edges while baking, so my crusts edges came out a little more brown than Id prefer.  : / oops!

Even my picky little eaters loved this one!!  Definately a winner!



My Rhubarb Pie

I had herd of Rhubarb before, but I had no idea what it actually was.  I had no idea when it was in season, or what it looked like, and I had no idea what it tasted like! - So I called my Mom.  She informed me its season is usually at its end by now, but that she was on her way to the local out door Farmers Market and would see if she could find any.  -Well she found some! Yay for Moms!!  So I placed it in the fridge and procrastinated a day or two.. I was a bit nervous to bake something that I had never even tasted before! 

Here's a picture of some I found on the Internet.. I completely forgot to take pictures while baking this time!

It looks just like celery, but red.  When I finally did get it out to bake.. I thought I should probably taste it.  -Oh My Goodness is that stuff  SOUR.. not just sour but TART!  My husband should have got a picture of my sucked in face and puckered lips as I tried to swallow the dang stuff!!  

At this point, I wasn't too sure about this whole Rhubarb pie stuff!  But my husband promised me it was Delicious.. "especially with strawberries", he said. So I went and pulled out the strawberries I had bought for a smoothie the day before!  No way was I gonna eat that plan! 

Then I did the usual Baking, But this time I got a pot out and cooked my strawberry Rhubarb filling over the stove till it started to thicken up a bit.  -By then my youngest son, Richard, had found the pie crust and decided to help me make the edges prettier... (yay!- not!)  By smashing it down and rubbing his fingers all over it! ugh!  So I tried my best to quickly fix it, so it at least looked like a pie crust! 

Then tossed the filling in, sprinkled a crumb mixture over it and slid it into the oven.

I was so nervous while waiting for it to bake, I could hardly get the stuff down my throat raw! My only thought; "That rhubarb better improve while it was in that oven!"   

 

Well I had a very pleasant surprise!!  It was SOOO  and I mean SOOOO GOOOD!!  I could hardly believe it!  The taste was almost like war head candies all melted together.  Oh We loved it!!  The strawberries, were definitely a good idea!  And Richard must have really helped out with that crust.. it came out so fluffy and nice!! YUM! YUM!!  And the filling.. Perfect consistency!!  Not runny and not too thick!  YAY!  I think I finally figured it out!  Thank-you everyone for your advice!  I am so excited and can't wait to bake my next pie!

mmmm!

Here's one more picture.. I just could not resist sharing! Meet our newest additions to the family!  Are they not adorable!! I am completely in love!!  The Bunny on the left is named Pretty (by William) and the one on the right is named Kitty (by Richard).  Aren't they Pretty kitties!  ; )

4th of July Pie (#3)

For the 4th Of July I decided to do something a bit patriotic and fun. I had seen a flag pie on Pinterest and was just living to try it!
So, I pitted some more cherries and bought some blueberries! I was all out of butter so I used margarine- big mistake.. it worked, but butter tastes soo much better!
I made one bowl of cherry filling and one bowl of blueberry filling. Then I spooned them onto the crust to look like the flag we all know and love..

The Blueberries are snuggled up against one corner and Cherries spread through out the rest.

Next, I cut out stars and stripes for the top crust.

Here I am Putting my Stars and Stripes on.

Then Wallah!:

A Pie Flag!

Now this time I used Tapioca to help my filling out a bit.  If you read my past blog you know I was having problems getting my fresh fruit fillings to set up.  My fillings were always coming out watery.  Well, I didn't like how the tapioca turned out.  Although it did set up much nicer with the Tapioca.. its texture was much to tapioca-ey for me.  And although I do love Tapioca pudding.. I found out I totally do not like Tapioca pie!   - I was looking for an easy way out.. yeah,.. never a good idea.  Now I know, I am definitely cooking my fillings half way on the stove top, before putting them in my crusts.

If you look close you can see the Tapioca.

  My Mother and Father were having a little Independence Day get together, so I brought over my pie. And although it didn't have butter in it and was tapioca-ey, I got tons of compliments and had two pieces myself. mmm good! - I really need to make time for exercise now that I've taken on this Pie Challenge. lol 

Gettin' my pie on!

Well what an awesome day to make a pie!   Josh (my Man) has been gone a couple days for biz.  Today he got home!  And he got to come home to a home made, very yummy pie!  He had been begging for a cherry one!  And I thought that sounded pretty good for this week!  So before he left, he went and picked up a couple bags of fresh and very yummy Cherries!  mmm-mmm good!

For a pie you need pitted cherries however... you don't want to bite into a bunch of hard pits!

 Have you ever pitted cherries??  I never had till this week.  I was thinking it was going to be just plan awful!  But turns out its not too bad of a chore.  I didn't have a cherry pitter.  So I used a paper clip!  I pulled out the stems, then stuck in the round part of the un-bent paper clip.  I could feel it hit the pit, then I would twist, pull and pop it out!  Easy!

 But my fingers did turn a pit purple from that yummy syrup that they tend to leak out all over! Kind of a messy job.  However is makes for finger-licken goodness!!  I wouldn't wear a white shirt while doing this though.  Or put it on anything that you don't want stained in a lovely shade of pinkish purplish!  -I did mine on my table, and wiped it clean as soon as I was done.. no stains!  Yay!!

I needed 5 1/2 cups of them and this does take a bit of time. But thanks to my nephew Taden, who just happened to pop in, it only took a few minutes!

The pie its self, was extremely easy to make!  Cutting out cute little shapes in the pie crust and then moving it over to the filling.. Was not!  my cut out star shapes, I'm afraid to say, don't look anything like little stars.  But, I was able to place the cut out pieces of stars on top.. kinda making it acceptable.. cute enough anyways.

Very patriotic of me, don't you think so?  : )

 If anyone has any advice for me on doing cut outs.. please comment!  I need Help!!

My honey came home and made some whipped cream!  Very Yummy!!

But I have run into another problem.  So, when ever I have made a pie with fresh fruit- it comes out all runny, watery even.  I just finished google-ing it and came up with either cooking the filling half way, and then adding it in or putting in tapioca starch.  Any insight on this would be very much appreciated!  As I really want to become a Master Pie Baker!  : )

Well, now that I have baked a couple of pies, I must say, I am just loving it! I look forward to it! And I can't wait to bake my next one!  -My family and friends can't wait too ...I have some group baking in my future!  Got a good sized list of pies to make and looks to be a very fun filled summer, all thanks to Pies!!

I'm BACK and with a Pie Challenge!

Man has it been a long time!!  I can't even remember when I last got on here!
Well here I am!  I am back!!
I wonder if anyone missed me??
hmm.
no matter.. I AM BACK!

So, when I first got married, - To the love of my life!  I made a bargain with him. If I quit my job to stay home, I would be a very adorable, sweet house wife-y!  I would do all those wonderful, old fashioned 50's picturesque things that house wives did.  And one of those things.. was that I would bake lots of pies!!
Well, since I quit my job a year ago, I have made, lets see..... um... maybe 2 pies.
Yeah-  OUCH!!  - My poor husband.. what a lazy not so 50's perfect house wife-y he has!   Well, NOT NO MORE!!  I have decided, this week- That has got to change!  I am taking on a pie Challenge!  I am going to bake one pie for every week of the summer!  -I totally can do this!!

I must add that my honey- is WAY happy about this!

Pie number one, I made today!   An Apple crisp pie!   It is baking in the oven right now and let me tell you.. it smells De-li-cious!   Can't wait to take a bite!

The recipe called for shortening, but with my newly found liver condition.. I thought it best to substitute it for real butter.. I sure hope it worked!

love my Pamper Chef Pastry Mat! 

Its a lot harder then it looks to move the dough from the mat to the pie pan!  Did not get it placed evenly.. so just cut some dough from one side and placed it on the other! 

Mmm cinnamon crumbly top!!  Can't wait to take a bite! - and yeah, I totally cheated, had some pre- homemade canned pie filling from the extended Cribbs family!  ; )

Just got out of the Oven!  And Looks like a Perfect retro Apple Pie!!

I'm so proud of myself! I made it completely from scratch (sorta)!  : p