Goal status and a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie

One week down and only 51 to go in the new year. So, what have I accomplished so far? To be honest, not a heck of a lot! I've been feeling lazy most of the week. I guess I'm winding down from the hectic weeks just past and the weather hasn't helped.

It's been cold. When it's cold, I just want to hunker down, pull up a blanket and hibernate. Can you guess I'm not a winter gal? Our temps have run about 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. While we did have one deep snow (19") the other few have only been dustings. It should be snowing within the hour but we're only expecting a few inches from this storm. I know in the big picture of weather around the country, we're not doing bad, just shivering a bit. In my world, it's miserable and can't turn to Spring soon enough for me!

So, I've basically stayed inside most of the week. I have stuck to my goal of listing one item a day in my shop. When I add a listing, I also make at least a dozen entries in the Promotion section of the Etsy Forums and I also Twitter right away about the new item. This generally gets me off to a start with about 20-25 views within minutes. I'm not sure if it means much to my sales but it makes me feel better.

I've made no sales this week at all. Nothing online or otherwise. I have to admit, I really didn't expect any this week but it would have been nice.

We're having a little gang in for a get together on Saturday so I've had to give some thought to what I'll be serving. I finally came up with a menu and did some grocery shopping today. It was a heavy duty shopping spree (involving 4 stores) as I not only needed things for Saturday but the cupboards and fridge were getting a little bare in general. I also needed cleaning supplies. Seemed like everything ran out about the same time in the last week or two.

I've cooked at home everyday this year so far! (That's a little unusual for us.) I started working on preparing a chicken pot pie as soon as I got in from shopping but things were going slowly and time was getting a little tight. The Big Guy had an errand to run so we went ahead and went out to dinner, too. Guess we'll have pot pie tomorrow!

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It's been a while since I've shared a recipe, so I'll share the basic pot pie recipe I follow.

CHICKEN POT PIE

2 packages refrigerated rolled pie crusts (total of 4 crusts)
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. thyme
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup light cream
4 cups cubed chicken
2 (1 lb.) bags of frozen mixed peas, corn & carrots
1 can small whole onions

*In a glass lasagne pan, take two crusts and cover the bottom and sides of the pan, cut extra crust from the overlap of pan and fill in all open spots.
*Melt butter in large pan over low heat, blend in flour, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook until mixture is smooth and bubbly, remove from heat.
*Stir in broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, boil and stir 1 minute.
*Stir in chicken and vegetables. Pour into pastry-lined pan, spread evenly over pan.
*Take last two pie crusts and place over pan. Cut pie crusts with about ½ inch overhang. Use extra pieces of crust to fill in the open spots, pinch the edges to seal the pie.
*Melt 2 Tbsp. butter and brush edges and center of pie. Cut 2 two-inch slits in center of pie to let out steam.
*Place pie on shallow cookie sheet, and bake at 425° for 1 and ¼ hours. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
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Okay, I start with this and expand a little. This is actually my nephew's recipe which I alter a bit. I don't use the cream but make my "gravy" more like a roux for gumbo. We prefer to add chunks of potato (which I pre-cook in the microwave) to our pot pie. I also spice the roux up a little with some spices.

This will be a good stick-to-your-ribs meal after the snowy morning that's forecast for tomorrow!