Chicken potpie and peach crisp

I am seriously addicted to comfort food.
There is just something to home cooked thick flavorful food that makes me think of "home"
Even if my moms idea of chicken pot pie is the kind you buy frozen and microwave.

So here is a recipe of chicken pot pie made mainly with canned food, but you can substitute fresh or frozen. It was silent in my house while we were eating this, I also got told it was the best thing I've come up with yet!

What you'll need 
filling
1 can of cut carrots (drain)
1 can of sweet peas (drain)
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of cream of celery
2 large cans of chicken breast (drain)


crust
1 and 1/2 cup of milk
1 stick of butter
1 and 1/2 cup of  self rising flour


Make it
Preheat oven to 350*F
Fold butter into flour in a mixing bowl.
Add milk mix till it has an even consistency. 
Mix all the cans into a large casserole dish 
Pour the crust dough on top.
cook for 60 min, check to make sure dough is done all the way through.

 Eat and enjoy!



And as a special bonus dessert!
Peach crisp.


What you'll need
a few peaches
2 cups of oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 stick of butter


Start cooking
Preheat oven to 350*F
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl well.
put the butter in and smush with finger till all butter is mixed really well with dry ingredients
Slice peaches and put in a casserole dish
Top with oatmeal mixture
bake for 45min

  Very good. Crispy on top and smushy on bottom and sweet all the way through!

Are comfort foods your favorite?
How do you make crisps?
Let me know what you think!

Trip to Athens

So about two week ago me made a trip to Athens, Georgia.
They were supposedly filming a new movie with Justin Timberlake and Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. More information on this movie.
We didn't get a chance to see them, but the whole town came out to people watch. It was interesting to just sit there and watch the people waiting to see if they could catch a glimpse of a star.

We sat around across the street from the globe, where they were filming that evening.

While waiting around I take random pictures of things. Like my boots?
My favorite Christmas present.

Along the road we saw this super cool stop sign.
"Never stop loving"
That is such an awesome thing to see.

Henry just chilling as we wait around. He looks sleepy here, but he was saying "Hi" and waving to people as they passed.

And that was the extent of the day, but it was fun walking around cute shops in down town Athens. We got out of the house and spent time as a family.

Mushroom Marsala with pork and Asparagus

Mushroom Marsala cream sauce
Seasoned and fried pork
Crisp steamed asparagus

I love pork, huge obsession with it. Anyway you can cook up pig I will eat it (including scrapple, and jowl. Though I haven't tried feet, snout, or tongue Id probably still eat it)
And mushrooms mmmm Raw or cooked I LOVE eating some fungus!

Anyways lets cook!

What you'll need
1lb of Pork tenders
1/2 cup oil
seasoning

2lbs asparagus
1 tbsp butter

1lb of mushrooms
1/4 cup of butter
1 cup Marsala wine
2/3 cup heavy cream



Fried pork.
I started by butterflying my pork tenders so they are thinner and easier to fry.
I seasoned them a little bit, some salt, pepper, and garlic
Heat up some oil in a fry pan, about 1/2 the height of your tallest piece of pork.
Let is get hot and gently drop your pork into the pan.
Let it sizzle for about 5 min, then flip and continue to cook.
When the meat has turned whitish gray all the way through its done.

Asparagus
I like my veggies steamed, it keeps all the yummy goodness in the veggie instead of it floating in the water.
So stick a pot of water under a metal colander or steamer.
Simmer it on low, to high and you'll cook all the flavor out of the asparagus
Depending on how soft you like your veggies is how long you cook them.
I like them crispy so I cooked them for about 15 min.

Next up, Mushrooms in a Marsala cream sauce

Saute your mushrooms in butter until they are good and soft.

Next add your Marsala wine
Let it simmer until about half is cooked out
add about 2/3 a cup of heavy cream stir and let simmer for about 2 min.

cup of wine for the mushrooms, sip of wine for the cook.

 Combine it all together over rice and you have a really tasty creamy, meal with a little bite from the wine!

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Meatloaf green bean casserole

 Home cooked favorites.
Green bean casserole  and meatloaf, put them together and you get comfort food at its finest!
Mmmmmm!
Feeds about 5

 

Things you'll need

French fried onions

1 small sweet yellow onion 

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 cup (or so) flour

some veggie oil

Seasoning of your choice

Casserole

3 peices of bread

1 lb of beef

2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 can of beans

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

2/3 cup milk

Seasonings of your choice My suggestions garlic, black pepper, and salt

Start: French fried onions
Mix Egg and milk in bowl, and flour into separate bowl
Cut onion into thin slices and mix with egg/milk
Dust with flour then let them sit for about 15 min while your oil heats up
You do this so the flour wont flake off as soon as it hits the oil - Tip to check if your oil is hot, put a little tiny bit of water on your finger tips and flick it into the oil, if it pops your good, if it sizzles too hot, if it does nothing not hot enough.
Let fry till flour is a nice golden brown.

 Casserole start
Preheat oven to 375
Put your bread on the bottom of a casserole dish. This soaks up all the fat from your meat so it doesn't make your beans taste weird.

 

 Mix meat, bread crumbs, eggs and seasonings together well.

This is really fun to do with your hands. Oooh squishy

Spread evenly over the bread.

 

 In sauce pan mix green beans (drained), cream of mushroom soup, and milk till soup is an even consistency.
Pour this green bean cream of mushroom mixture on top of the meat.

Top with your fried onions.

Cover it with tin foil and bake for 40 min

Eat and enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture until after I ate it. mmmm yummy

Let me know what you think!
Also, what are some of your favorite comfort foods?

Delicious Monkey Bread Fail

Delicious Monkey Bread Fail

Or

Caramel shortcake

 What you'll need
1 Can of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup of self rising flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 (about) cup of milk
2 eggs
1 stick of butter melted
1/2 (or so) cup of brown sugar

 Start by putting the sweetened condensed milk in a double boiler (which is a pan of boiling water under a pan filled with the milk)   This takes about an hour to caramelize so do this first. Also Preheat over to 350*

 Next mix the melted butter with the sugar
Add in one egg at a time while beating
Sift in flour 1 tbsp or so at a time
Add the milk and mix really well, dough will be really sticky

Fix a plate with brown sugar and flour up your hands
You will then pinch off balls of dough and drop it in the brown sugar. You may need to flour your hands over and over again so the dough doesn't stick to your fingers
Roll it around the sugar till it is fully covered

Plop the sugar coated balls into a non stick spray coated pan (you could also use butter or shortening)

 By now your caramel should be ready, pour it all over the top of the cake balls

Now throw it in the oven at 350* for about 35 min. Test to see if its done by sticking a toothpick in, if the toothpick comes out clean then its done!

Mmmm Hot gooey caramel goodness.
So it didn't really come out like monkey bread, but it had brown sugar swirls through out and had hard caramel goodness on top, and some soft caramel inside.
Really good.

Let me know if you tried this and how it turned out for you!

Bathtub turned Raised flower bed

 So my MIL has a random tub sitting on her porch

Its been there for quite some time laying on its side taking up room

I figured that it would make a great planter!

 We moved it to the edge of the porch that gets the most sun light.
Drilled holes into it.
(thats what he said)

We filled it with a layer of gravel rocks

Some sand

Then dirt.

LOTS OF DIRT.

Luckly for us there was enough top soil scattered about around her house that we didn't have to buy any.

 We then added some chicken wire to the back of the tub to provide a trellis for some plants to climb.

Ooo now its a tub of dirt.

So off to home depo to buy some seeds.

Honestly if I had it my way I'd get some seeds from a local organic farmer.

But this year we didn't have the time or money for it.

So home depo seeds have to do.

This is the layout of the garden.

Or a garden map if you will.

Theres cherry tomatoes and Big boy tomatoes. 

Which we are germinating inside and will transplant outside in a few weeks.

Parsley, then green beans.

Garlic below the parsley.

Carrots and collard greens in the bottom row.

Not a whole bunch of stuff, but enough fresh to add to a mostly canned food diet!

And its a small enough amount of veggies that my MIL can keep it neat.

Now the question, should I spray paint the tub and make it cute?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Cheap mans Chicken and Dumplings

Are you in the mood for good home cooked soup.
Thick and creamy, full of flavor.
With a lot of your food groups?
But you have less than 5$ to spend?

Try a hand at my recipie of Chicken and Dumplings.
Feeds 3 really hungry adults and a toddler

Ingredients
1 big can of chicken breast
1 can of sweet peas
1 can of cut carrots
1 can of cream of chicken
1 pack of creamy chicken Ramen noodles (not the noodles just the flavor packet)
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp butter
seasonings of your choice (I suggest thyme, basil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder)

START SOUP
1) Combine Chicken, peas, and carrots in a large sauce pan, DO NOT DRAIN.
2) Add your seasoning, butter, and Ramen flavor packet, stir
3) Bring to a simmer while you fix dumplings

FIX EM DUMPLINS
1) Put cup of flour to mixing bowl
2) Slowly stir in broth from soup until flour is sticky but moist dough like

FINISH SOUP
1) Add cream of chicken to soup and stir till fully disolved, bring it back to simmering
2) Cover your fingers in dry flour and pinch off balls of dough. (What ever size you like, thick ones take longer to cook)
3) DO NOT STIR at this point, rotate the pan occasionally, dumplings will rise to top when cooked.

EAT.

I ate the dumplings before I took the picture, yes they were that yummie

oops

Well I was going to revamp this blog.
So I started deleting posts.
After deleting about six I was like,
Wait
I change my mind
too late.
Though I suppose nothing is really ever lost on cyber space.
I am by no means good enough to find where it went.
Anyways.
I figured fuck it, I'll just leave my earlier posts,
I just make new more exciting posts!
YEAH!
Though I'm not a very exciting person.
*shrugs*
OH well.
But yeah,
if you were oh so intrested and wondered why I deleted six posts.
(though I doubt it)
That's why.