Chicken Pot Pie

After seeing a picture of LJ and Dan's turkey pot pie, it looked so delicious that I had to make my own. So I made chicken pot pie! I bought some rotisserie chicken to speed up the process. Below I have copied&pasted the ingredients and directions to make this.


It was a huge success with my family! Generally my parents (especially dad) dislike foods other than Chinese food, so it was really a compliment when they scarfed down the pot pie.

Had some leftovers!

INGREDIENTS

Crust

1

box Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling

1/3

cup butter or margarine

1/3

cup chopped onion

1/3

cup all-purpose flour

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/4

teaspoon pepper

1 3/4

cups Progresso® chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)

1/2

cup milk

2 1/2

cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey

2

cups Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crusts as directed on box for Two-Crust Pie using 9-inch glass pie pan.
2. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened.3. Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.4. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Original recipe

Annual WMACS Thanksgiving Break Dinner

This year, WMACS took over Mama Wok off of Key West Ave. It was great seeing everyone again, and we (well, Liz) ordered such great food. I only had one request: the string beans. I like them spicy and crunchy! There was also the chicken in the black pot that was super juicy and tender. I need to remember to ask Liz what it is next time I go to Mama Wok!

Thanksgiving All Around

Hoecker Thanksgiving - photo courtesy of David

This Thanksgiving was unlike previous years--in a good way! My family isn't too big with traditions (besides some of the Asian holidays) so we normally never had a huge feast for Thanksgiving. My father dislikes duck and turkey, so in all my 23 years combined (well, only 17 years in America), I probably only have had turkey for Thanksgiving about 5 times. Sad, I know.

That's why when I finally had my own kitchen (junior year of college in Courtyards), I had to be the one to host a Thanksgiving dinner for my roommates and significant others (...and Warren) AND be the one to cook the turkey. That year (2008), the turkey came out REALLY well. I was nicely pleased at my (and Brian of course) cooking skills. Unfortunately the next year, we bought the turkey too late and so it didn't thaw all the way and some parts of it were not entirely eatable. Sad face.


Which brings me to this year! This year, I had the luck to have turkey twice! Once during the ESOL Thanksgiving luncheon and once with the Hoecker family. Brian invited me to have Thanksgiving lunch with mom's side of the family at his grandmother's senior living apartment. It was buffet-style with a waitress serving us soup, salad, and coffee. The coffee was pretty good actually! Also, I loved the butternut squash soup. It was too hot at first, but I soaked some bread in it first. I also finished Brian's, hehe. I didn't take a picture of my food because I didn't want to make a bad impression with his family. They had the standard Thanksgiving food: turkey, pineapple ham, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, string beans, etc. Brian and I shared pumpkin pie. After lunch, we retired to his grandmother's room, where we chatted, looked at the Hoecker family lineage book I conveniently found sitting by the TV. We also drank sparking apple cider (my absolute favorite non-alcoholic drink) and had walnut pie. WOW. I've never had walnut pie before and this one was so good! It was sweet, nutty, and I regret all the past walnut pies I've ignored in the past.


After this Thanksgiving lunch, we had to go to the Ku's Thanksgiving. My long-time friends since 4th grade, Esther and Kathy, and their family invited some of their families and other family friends over for dinner. My mom made salmon with broccoli, and since Brian and I didn't have time to cook or make anything, we brought over some chips. This meal was very Asian with some American influences.

I tend to start eating before I remembe

There was some long flat Asian noodles, spicy cucumber, braised beef in man tou (steamed bread) with pickled veggies and peanut sprinkles (oh goodness I dream about this sometimes), and even chicken feet and liver. As a wise Mrs. Ku said, if you don't know what it is, don't eat it! I tried offering Brian some liver, but he quickly changed his mind and didn't want to try it.

Surprisingly, my stomach still had some room (somehow) to fit in the food. Right as I began Black Friday shopping (I let my sister talk me into going to Montgomery Mall at midnight) I got a little hungry. Strange stomach, I will never understand. It must've been the 15 minutes of exercise Libby, Esther, and I did while watching Brian face off Mr. Ku in ping pong.

This was such a great Thanksgiving, filled with people, food, and games I love (we played Taboo) and I hope next year is just as great!!

ESOL Thanksgiving

 Happy almost Thanksgiving! Today ESOL had their annual Thanksgiving potluck luncheon. It was great seeing (almost) everyone back at the base office enjoying each other's company and good food. The secretaries made the turkey (I think by slow cooker) and there were 2 big trays of turkey which was tender and juicy. Everyone made something (or contributed money for the turkey and ham) and there was so much food my camera couldn't capture it all.

One of 4 tables of food

Juicy tray of turkey

My plate of food

As much as I try to grab only tiny bits of each food as to sample the whole smorgasbord, my plate almost ripped apart (you can see the tiny tear on the bottom right edge of the plate). I have to give kudos to co-worker Sharon's noodles, Cynthia's sushi (she lived in Japan for a few years and can make a mean sushi roll), and someone's corn-cornbread. Cornbread with corn! How genius.

Desserts had their own table

I made pumpkin chocolate-chip bread, located at the far middle back of the table. Originally I wanted to make them in muffin form, but couldn't just make 6 or 9 huge muffins (how could one share?) and I couldn't find a mini-muffin pan, so I just made a loaf. Libby also wanted to take a picture of the loaf since she uses that term indispensably.

After this huge luncheon, I had the rare opportunity to chat with some people that I hardly get to see. And of course, no one wanted to work after that (serious food coma) so it was all good.

The Joys of Coffee

Well, I only recently discovered why we're best friends.

Believe it or not, I only started drinking coffee this summer. I've tried in the past (all during WMACS week since those are the times I put my body to little to no rest--3 hours of sleep tops) but I didn't know how to drink it. I drank it tons of packets of sugar and it just made my fingers numb. Recently I discovered that serious lack of sleep make my fingers numb, not caffeine. This time at WMACS, I first put some ice cubes in my cup before getting the coffee, pumping a few pumps of creamer, and adding some sugar (pure ice coffee style). Now that was heaven! Since that first day, I shocked myself when I didn't even add sugar one day and couldn't notice it. Ever since then, I've appreciated coffee.


So obviously when the seasons rolled around and Starbucks debuted their pumpkin spiced latte, I had to try it. But I kept putting it off...so I ended up not having it. There's always next year!
BUT, I have tried Starbucks' peppermint mocha and caramel brulee latte. Thanks to their holiday happy hour a few weeks ago, I bought a caramel brulee and gingerbread latte for myself and my family. They all shared the gingerbread. I didn't get to try it because I was sick with a cough and didn't want to get them sick; instead I just chugged down my caramel brulee latte.