Cast Iron Chicken Pot Pie

Tags

Pot pie, Real Simple

We love cast iron in this house. It lasts forever, and it doesn’t leave any gross coatings on your food.

I’ve been wanting to try a pot pie for awhile now, so when I stumbled upon the idea at The Rising Spoon, I knew I had to try it!

Cast Iron Chicken Pot Pie

Adapted from Real Simple, inspired by The Rising Spoon

Chop your vegetables!

Sautee the veggies in olive oil, and then add flour, wine, and milk. After the sauce thickens a bit, add cooked chicken and peas.

Cover with pie crust. I recommend using this recipe from Simply Recipes. If you have a 9 or 10 inch cast iron skillet, half the recipe. If you have a 12 inch skillet, use 3/4 of the recipe. Whip out those math skills, friends! Poke some holes in the top of the crust to serve as vents.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Delish!

The bottom line:

Use a cast iron pan. It’ll be great. Follow all of the steps in this Real Simple Recipe, just leave it in the cast iron pan, don’t transfer it to another baking dish. Cover with a pie crust–homemade or store bought will do!

Happy cooking!

Hawaiian Pizza

Tags

Closet Cooking, Ham, Hawaii, Hawaiian Pizza, Macadamia, Pineable, pizza

When the Husband and I were in Hawaii last winter, we went to a pizza place. Twice. We were in Kona just over a week, and we went to the same restaurant twice. For pizza. Seems like a bit of crime, no? It was absolutely not. This pizza was the best thing we ate all week. It was so good, we’re still talking about it a year later.

Since the chances of us returning to the great state of Hawaii in the near future are pretty slim, I decided to give this pizza a try at home. And boy did it work out well!

Hawaiian Pizza (a la Boston Basils–Kona, HI)

For the pizza, you’ll need:

• Ham, sliced lunch meat will do
• Pineapple, diced into bite sized chunks
• Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Sweet Chili Sauce (recipe below)
• Macadamia nuts
• Pizza dough, homemade or store bought

For the sweet chili sauce, you’ll need:

• 2 Jalapeno peppers
• 2 Serrano peppers
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs corn starch
• 2 Tbs water

(recipe from Closet Cooking)

Let’s make the sauce!

1. In a food processor or blender, process the peppers and the garlic.

2. On the stove, bring the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and chili/garlic concoction to a boil. Simmer for about 3 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, make a paste with the corn starch and water. Mix it into the sauce and heat until the sauce gets thick. It should only take a minute or two. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble the pizza!

1. Once your dough is stretched, spread the sweet chili sauce on it as you would a tomato based pizza sauce.

2. Top with Mozzarella cheese, sliced ham, pineapple, and macadamia nuts. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top for good measure.

3. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Once the cheese is super melted and crust is browning, it’s done.

Brush the crust with some melted butter, and enjoy. Even people who claim to not like Hawaiian pizza will admit this is one good pie!

Spring Rolls

Tags

Gluten Free, Rice paper, Soy sauce, Spring roll

The sun in shining. IT’S SPRING. After a week of less-than-springlike weather last week (ahem, snow in April?), this week is starting to show signs of warmer temps and greener grass. In honor of the changing seasons, I bring you spring rolls. We gave them a try at our Spring Party on the first day of spring, and they were wonderful! They’re perfectly versatile, and super easy to make.

Before you do anything else, you’ll need to buy rice paper. I found mine in my local grocery store in the ethnic food aisle. They look like this:

Out of the package, they look like this:

A little strange, I know.

While you’re at the store, pick up a sauce. A basic sweet and sour will do, but if you want something more spicy, be my guest.

Here we go! This is an extremely flexible recipe, so don’t feel trapped by the ingredients you see below. Try them with chicken. Or just veggies. Use different veggies. More filling! Make them to suit your tastes.

Spring Rolls

Servings: 2

You’ll need:

• Rice Paper
• 1 lb steak (whatever cut you’d like)
• 1 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tbs. Soy Sauce
• Dash of onion powder
• Dash of pepper
• 3 carrots
• Sprouts (make your own!)
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 of a cucumber

1. Slice your steak into thin strips, and marinate in a ziploc bag with the Worcestershire, soy sauce, onion powder, and pepper. Leave it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

2. While the meat is marinating, slice your veggies. You want them all to be about 4 inches long and thin.

3. After the meat is marinated, cook it in a skillet (we love cast iron!) until it reaches your desired level of “done.”

4. Assemble your spring rolls! Dip your rice paper in a large pot of hot water. You don’t need boiling water, here. It needs to be hot, but not so hot you can’t put your hand it. First dip one half, and then the other, 3-4 seconds each half. Don’t worry if the paper still feels stiff, the water will continue to soak in. Lay the paper flat on a plate.

5. Top your rolls with whatever you would like. Don’t forget a sauce. The sauce is the best part. This is a store brand sweet and sour, found right next to the rice paper.

6. To roll, first fold in the right and the left side. Then roll it up!

Enjoy!