Monday, July 25, 2011

Fun with Food

I have been experimenting with new recipes over the summer. I know when school starts again I won't have time to go through all this trial and error so I am hoping to find a few keepers that I can add to our dinner time rotation. If you have any ideas, be sure to send me the recipe :)

In keeping with our current Chocolate and Peanut Butter theme, I made devil's food cupcakes and topped them with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I needed a big batch of bite-sized food for a church social and these were a big hit. I somehow managed to have leftovers to bring home, but they didn't last long!



This next one isn't really "new" but I thought it was sweet.
We were having a really full weekend recently and Brad said he'd make dinner. We didn't have a ton of options on hand so he whipped up one of my personal favorites: Chocolate Chip Pancakes! Yum!

 


And since we had Bisquick on hand, I thought I'd see what recipes the box had to offer. Sure enough, there was a recipe for Chicken Fingers :) Since I don't fry and don't intend to learn, this was right up my alley. I will say this first attempt was pretty bland, though, so when I try again I'll spruce it up. Right now I am marinating some chicken in Italian Dressing so I'll let you know if THAT turns out better :) Oh, and on the side we had Ranch Potato Wedges :) Easy Peezy and kinda pretty, too!




Now, for my last New-Thing-To-Attempt, I tackled Chicken Pot Pie. I've never made one myself so I consulted a few people with more experience :)

I should preface this experience by saying that all-told it took me about 3 hours!

First, I made a Martha Stewart pie crust because I'm a glutton for punishment...



I also made a Bechamel Sauce Base to cook my veggies in (and to add my cooked chicken to).

I've tried to make this sauce many times before...and my results usually look more like gravy, but this time I had tremendous success!! I was so proud of the sauce that I almost forgot it wasn't destined to be Alfredo this time :)

And when Brad saw it, he immediately declared, "We need to make pasta again!! That was so good!"

So, a fun side note about the vegetables. I put "frozen stew / soup veggies" on the grocery list thinking Brad would grab the mixed bag of potato chunks with carrots, etc from the freezer section. He couldn't find those so instead he grabbed one that is designed for soups and maybe even gumbo...

I've never had a chicken pot pie with tomatoes and ocra, but it was pretty good :)

We decided next time we'd just do crust on top because having it on the bottom ended up being too much... But if we do the same crust recipe we'll have half for the pot pie and half for a dessert pie :)

As for this first attempt at a pot pie, I'd say the end results turned out beautifully!