Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Tiny lovely things and pie

 The chicken that kept on going, today became a star in chicken pot pie, first I've ever made, thanks for the prompt, Debra.

I had just enough yogurt for the pastry crust, and channeled my mom as I cut it to fit by rotating the pie dish in mid air on my fingertips while keeping the knife still.

I made the sauce using some juice from earlier chicken roasting, plus chicken broth I made last night,  now used with milk and flour 

The veggies are carrots, diced yellow potatoes, bok choy, and onions. I did remember chicken.


Here's the mise en scene, which a little lady who doesn't know theater terms, once corrected me to mise en place, which is a food term.  I was talking about the exciting moment when the curtain rises and you see the stage set, all ready for action!

Of which there was plenty, this being fairly labor intensive, what with pastry making and resting, and potato microwaving and veggie simmering and sauce making and onion frying and chicken dicing and pie assembling and baking..

Quite exciting. Amazing when it all came out together.  Also a lot of fun and quite a few dishes and tools in action.








This slice was a meal in itself, and the pastry worked out well, one of those all purpose kinds you can use for pasties or even bread rolls.

There was a bit of pastry left and some carrots, which are both in the freezer now for a future pasty or two, with additions.

Also extra sauce, which I can use partly as a white gravy for the pie, partly as the base for an upcoming cream of chicken soup, using the rest of the bones and the broth.

After all this I may be ready to cook something that isn't chicken-adjacent.

Back at the ranch, I did get a walk, temperature in the 50s, and spotted the first wildflower of the year. What the heck is it? It's microscopic. See thumb for scale.



They're dotted all over here, stems maybe a quarter inch long.

If you know, please enlighten me. My little Golden Books fell down on the job.

At home here's a little mantelscape, Cocktail Lady in the Palm Court


So that's Chez Boud today, lovely day.

I think I'll sit down and read now.

Happy evening everyone, I hope you get a chance to sit a minute and breathe.



26 comments:

  1. My plant ID app says Spring Draba- a member of the mustard family. Could it be?
    No ID needed for that pot pie- and my goodness but it looks delicious! Good job!

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    1. Yes, aka whitlow grass! You helped me ID this last year, too, abd I couldn't remember the name. Thank you. Yes, ut comes back. I'll look it up in my golden books and see if they have it under the name you found.

      Thanks for the nice words about the pie. It was quite a production.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank YOU! I wouldn't have thought about it.

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  3. Yes, whitlow-grass, aka Draba verna aka spring Draba. It's our earliest wildflower too, but not up yet. It takes a keen eye to spot it. Good on'ya, Boud!

    Now, that's a pot pie! It's amazing how much a chicken carcass can provide.

    Chris from Boise

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    1. I do tend to look at the ground when I'm out walking. So I'm catching these tiny flowers. We have so many that you'd miss if you looked up: sorrel, henbit, violets, hairy bittercress, all kinds of interesting plant life.

      I can't believe how much I'm getting off a little chicken!

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  4. I have a lovely mental image of you twirling the pie plate on three fingers, trimming the edges. What a wonderful mise en place!

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    1. Too bad I couldn't take pictures, but one hand for pie, one for knife.

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  5. your chicken pot pie looks yummy. Everything covered in snow still here!

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    1. I'm s bit south. Normally we'd have snow, too. This is an odd sort of year.

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    1. It was labor intensive, but I think worth it.

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  7. I have some chicken frozen from our recent roast chicken. Pot pie is a great idea! Yours looks so good! Thanks for the idea!

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  8. You are so resourceful using a chicken! Pie looks good. I would not have been able to stop at one slice.

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    1. Liz, it was so filling I think you'd have had to!

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  9. I was going to guess hairy bittercress for the flower, but the blossom isn't quite right. Too many petals. I've definitely seen it before, though.

    Dave makes pot pie occasionally but he uses pre-made pastry. It's hard to beat a good pot pie!

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    1. Yes, I was thinking bittercress, but no rosettes of foliage.

      I don't like shop pastry -- don't know what's in it!

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  10. That chicken pie looks like something I could share with my humans - chicken me, the rest for humans. We have noticed that you put a lot of effort and attention into preparing good meals for yourself. Cooking for one isn't always deeply motivating - or do you see it exactly opposite - cooking for yourself means you get what you enjoy?

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    1. I often share what I cook, mainly baking, which goes around neighbors, too. But my main meals I never get bored with, because I can make what I'm in the mood to eat. And if it's not as good as hoped, nobody complains or pokes it with a fork and says what's this? If you're guessing one of the downsides of late Handsome Partner was, until his later years, his pickiness, you'd be right.. To have an appreciative, or at least neutral, audience, is great. Handsome son is great that way, but works evenings so our dinner opportunities are few. So when I'm the target audience, all's well!

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  11. It has been quite awhile since I've made a chicken pot pie, so now you have me thinking that our next rotisserie chicken buy will go towards one, Boud. Leftovers will be just as much enjoyed. Yes, to setting things out head of time as I always do the same myself lest I forget something.

    When I saw the small flower, my first thought was mouse ear chickweed as we used to have a lot on our VA lawns, nearly all the time.

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    1. I thought maybe chickweed, but it's too early here.

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  12. I also have an image of you twirling the pie tin on your fingers!. I haven't made a pot pie in years. I may be another son board for making one.

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    1. Debra, I think the Great Potpie Wave might be a little sidebar in your current epic. People who don't know what brilliance I'm referring to, go to her blog She Who Seeks and you'll see.

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  13. We had turkey pot pie for supper tonight and there's enough there for at least four more nights I think. Leftover turkey from the one we cooked at Christmas so a win/win.

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    1. It's a very filling meal. All the meat and vegetables in there.

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