Sometimes, I think I’m almost predictable to a fault. I know what I like. I know my routine and I like to stick to it. Call me boring, but it’s what works for me.

So it should surprise no one that the first cold weekend I was ready to make soup. Soup with squashes. A perfect side to a good loaf of french bread!

Soup, football, friends…fall is here!

Please forgive the shortness of this post–I’m 100 pages from the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and I NEED to finish!! Don’t let the length of the post deter you from this soup though–it’s delicious! Even Noel liked it! In fact he liked it so much, he wants to make it again–next time with crab!

Winter Squash Soup
Adapted from Epicurious

1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender or use an immersion blender to blend it in the pot. Return soup to same pot. Stir in cream; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)

The time has come to share one of my great secrets.

I cook whole chickens in my crock pot. I’ve been doing this for quite sometime. And for some reason, it makes me feel guilty. Because it’s so easy, and it doesn’t seem like a fine culinary technique. But it’s delicious. So we keep doing it.

I’ve never talked about my method for crockpot chicken though, because, well, it was never really a method. We just always threw stuff in the pot and let it cook. And sometimes it turned out better than other times.

But I’ve discovered a method that seems fullproof, so I need to share. Yes, this is a little bit more work than just throwing the chicken in the pot, but it was worth it and it’s going to be the method from here on out! So here goes…

Chicken in a Pot
Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution

Like I said, this is a little bit of work but it’s worth it. Our chicken was so juicy, and it literally fell off the bone. We used it for everything from salads to risotto. And it was fantastic!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chopped medium onions
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon thyme
2 bay leaves
1 whole chicken, rinsed

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions, garlic, and tomato paste and cook until onions are soft, 5-8 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in wine.

Transfer mixture to your slow cooker insert. Add thyme and bay leaves. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place breast side down in the crockpot. Cook for 4-6 hours, or until chicken is tender. My experience says cook less if you want an intact chicken to come out of the pot, cook more if you want falling off the bone pulled style chicken.

Okay, now back to my sunday night Oscar viewing! It’s a nice distraction from being sore after my first Body Pump class!

Around here, the second key element of successful snow food is something hot and filling.

I’m a big soup lover all the time, and I knew I wanted some last Wednesday while I was waiting for the snow to come down. But sadly, I was fairly limited in the soup fixins I had in the house. All that was in the pantry was some onions and sweet potatoes. Can those make soup?

After some quick internet searching, I discovered that yes, I could make soup out of sweet potatoes–score! I set off chopping and the rest is soup making history.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup
Adapted from Joy the Baker

I’m proud to report that this is a soup that even Noel (the sweet soup hater) loved because of the balance between the sweet potatoes and the spicy. This soup has a bit of kick, which we tamed with a healthy stir in of greek yogurt.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped onions (about 2 medium onions)
1 large clove garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
6 cups chicken broth, or slightly more as needed
1/4 cup half and half
greek yogurt, for topping

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until the onions begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute, stirring for 30 seconds. Add the ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric and red pepper flakes. Add the sweet potatoes and broth and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

Puree the soup, in batches in a blender or food processor or using a stick blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with greek yogurt to serve.

So there was something I left out of Friday’s post about the Chicken Chili.

There was a another…delicious item…

Green Chili Cornbread! I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I would be a fan, since I’m normally a sweet cornbread girl. But in the interest of family fairness, I made it for Noel, since he doesn’t love sweet cornbread the way I do. But I was shocked how much I loved the cornbread. It was just a little bit hot…mild enough to take the edge off of the chili, but still with a bit of bite. I don’t love it as much as my sweet cornbread (I was practically raised on Jiffy Mix!) but this is a good addition to my repertoire.

Green Chili Cornbread
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2-ounce can chopped mild green chiles, drained
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chilis. In another bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the milk, melted butter, and egg. Pour the liquid all at once into the flour mixture, stirring quickly and gently until just combined.

Spoon the mix into greased muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve while hot.

This is the time of the year when the weather gets particularly dicey around here. We’ll have blistering cold, followed by a slight warm up, followed by more blistering cold. And if we’re unlucky, we have an La Nina year like this one, where all of that cold is wasted on a total LACK of precipitation.

Yes I said an UNLUCKY lack of precipitation. I am an unapologetic snow lover, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes (which would always rather be wearing snow boots!). Long time readers may remember how excited I got during last year’s Snowpacalypse/Snowmaggedon/Snoverkill events. Snow warms my heart. It makes me feel like a kid again. And that’s always a good thing.

But when I don’t have any snow to warm my heart on the dark cold days of winter–we here in the Baltimore area have been stuck in the dreaded dry slot on more than one occasion so far this winter–I need to find something else. Like this chili. Which is delicious and spicy, and warms you to the core on soooo many levels. And with chicken and white beans, it will keep you full for hours if you find you do have to shovel–a girl can dream after all, right?!

Crockpot White Bean Chicken Chili
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

I converted this recipe to one for the crockpot because I wasn’t keen on the idea of having something on the stove for hours. And because it’s much easier to troll weather message boards looking for the next big storm when your dinner is slow cooking away. If you want stovetop directions, pop over to PW’s site.

Ingredients

1 whole Fryer Chicken, Cut Up (or 3 Cups Cooked Chicken)
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Anaheim Chili, seeds removed, or can of green chilis
1 pound Dried Great Northern Beans, Rinsed
4 cups Chicken Broth
4 cups water
1-½ Tablespoon Ground Cumin
½ teaspoons Paprika
½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper To Taste
1/4 cup Cornmeal
Grated Monterey Jack, To Taste
Greek Yogurt For Garnish

Directions:

Cover chicken with water and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove meat from bones. Set aside.

In a dutch oven or the liner of your crockpot if it’s stovetop safe, over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add chopped chilis, then rinsed beans. Pour chicken broth and water into the pan. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Transfer to crockpot and cook on high for 1.5 hours, or on low for three hours. Check the beans about an hour in to see how they are doing, you may need to adjust your cooking time to accommodate the beans.

About an hour in, when you check on the beans, add the 3 cups of cooked chicken and the remaining spices.

When beans are tender, add cornmeal. Cook for an additional ten minutes to thicken. If chili is too thick, add a splash or two of milk. Check seasoning and adjust, adding additional cayenne pepper and paprika if desired.

Serve chili in a bowl. Garnish with cheese and greek yogurt!

And dream of snow for me!

After I came down from my 5K high last week, I needed a break. So I won’t lie, I took a nap. Yeah, I know you’re not supposed to need a nap after a 5K, but I’m a girl that likes to sleep!

And then I woke up. And I was STARVING. I knew we had a date with our good friends later that night after Noel’s inaugural Mount Vernon ghost tour (have I ever told you that Noel is a tour guide with Baltimore Ghost Tours? Well he is) and we would be going out to eat. So the question was, what to eat to tie me over until a late dinner?

I suddenly had a bug in my brain to make something pumpkin–and somehow I settled on pumpkin soup. Because soup can be the ultimate holdover snack. It’s not quite enough to be a meal, but it’s just substantial enough to hold you over until the next meal.

And this is a soup that’s so chock full of fruits and veggies, it feels like a healthy snack even though it’s creamy and thick. The secret ingredients? Apples and onions, which when pureed give the soup a nice thickness without too much richness. A perfect afternoon snack. Even Ariadne was impressed.

Curried Pumpkin Apple Soup
Adapted from Family Fun Magazine

This soup screams fall, with it’s pumpkin and apple, but it’s a nice change on the pumpkin theme. Instead of the traditional fall spices, the curry powder in this recipe gives the soup a little bit of heat, which balances the bit of sweetness in the apples and the honey. This would make a delicious main or a side, and I think it’s going to make an appearance on my Thanksgiving table as an appetizer. The best thing? Because you’re using canned pumpkin, it comes together in record time.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 large apple, cored, and chopped
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups solidly packed pumpkin mash or canned pumpkin
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup milk
2 to 3 tablespoons honey (to taste)
Sour cream and chives, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Stir in the onion and apple. Sauté the ingredients over medium-high heat until the onion is clear, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and sauté the mixture for another minute. Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth and cook it for 1 minute more.

Add the pumpkin and stir, then add the other 2 cups of chicken stock. Using a stick blender, puree the soup until it’s smooth.

Add the salt (to taste) then set the soup over medium-high heat and bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

After 5 minutes, stir in the milk and 2 tablespoons of honey. Taste the soup, adding more salt or honey and pepper to get the desired balance of sweet and savory. Simmer it for 2 minutes more, remove the soup from the heat, and serve it hot. Garnish with sour cream or greek yogurt and enjoy!

Sometimes, my mind is so slippery things are just completely gone before it seems I even really register they’re there. That thing that I’ve been reminding myself I have to get at the grocery store every day for a week? I get there and poof, it’s gone! That really important thing I need to tell Noel? I start talking to him and poof, it’s gone!

And maybe it’s a sign of getting older, but now it seems my slippery mind trick applies to recipes too. Recipes that we cook, photograph, eat, and love, but somehow slip right out of my mind once the pictures are off the camera. Just like they never existed.

Until, this past Saturday when I’m rummaging around in the fridge looking for that butter that I was sure I had but somehow I could not find (never found it by the way, just went to the store to get more!) but I DO find all of the ingredients for this dish. And suddenly I’m transported back to that January night when we made this, a cold, snowy and quiet Saturday at home. I remember the tastes–sweet and fiery with a fantastic crunch, and I know I have to share. Because now that it’s spring, soon there will be farm stands with fresh produce and those fresh ingredients will really make this dish shine. If we loved it with sad mid-winter green beans, I can only imagine how fantastic it will be with the crunchy fresh ones that are right around the corner.

Feisty Spicy Green Beans and Tofu
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Part of the beauty of this dish is it’s simplicity. The way we do it, it’s a one dish wonder made mostly with pantry staples, green beans and tofu. You can adjust the spices to your taste–the ingredients below will make a fairly spicy dish, but if you want something milder go easy on the red pepper and paprika. It was hearty enough for me to eat as a dinner, but it made a fantastic side for Noel. And really, the idea of this with fantastic farmers market green beans is enough to make me feel a little swooney.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound green beans, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 6 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into cubes
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

If you’re using unsulfured raisins, which will likely look dry and tough, put them in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Allow to sit for five minutes, or until their plumped up. Drain and set aside.

Place your largest skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil, garlic, and onion. Cook for 5 minutes, until the onions and garlic start to brown. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Add the spices and stir, until they are distributed through the onions. Stir in the tofu and raisins and cook until heated through, about a minute. Add the butter and green beans and stir until the butter has melted. If you haven’t pre-cooked your green beans (we don’t, but if you don’t like as much crunch, you can blanch them before you add them), turn the heat down to low and cover the pan, allowing the beans to cook for five minutes. If the mixture looks too dry before you put the cover on, add a bit more white wine and then cover.

Serve hot. At 101 Cookbooks they garnished with sour cream and slivered almonds, but I liked this just how it came out of the pan.

My family rocks. Really. We can not see each other for months, and then when we get together it’s hours and hours of non-stop chatting and fun. And normally, food.

This past weekend, Noel and I were lucky enough to go to Slower Lower for some quality family time. Nevermind that the picture above shows the best weather we had all weekend (there’s no driving rain or 60 mph winds!) and that we all cried a little bit when we saw the sad state of the beach (if you don’t believe me, here’s the same strip of beach last July. Yeah, there was a whole lot more of it). We had two and half days of food, drink, a bit of shopping, and then more food and drink. And my sister was there. It was fantastic.

The main food event was a big family dinner on Saturday night, for which our host Art had devised a menu of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and pina colada martinis. Blue pina colada martinis. Art is pretty much the King of the Martini, and he’s always coming up with recipes for new ones. Don’t ask me how all those flavors worked together, but they did!

But since it was my birthday dinner, we did something a bit untraditional with the lasagna. Instead of ground beef and red sauce, neither of which I typically eat, we used chicken and cheese sauce made from a simple roux.

Then we chopped up a ton of veggies–peppers, spinach, mushrooms–to sizes perfect for layering!

And finally we stacked it all up in a huge and shiny oversized lasagna pan (I think Art has a special pan for everything)! I had never made lasagna before, so throughout the hour of oven time I kept anxiously peeking, curious to see how our creation would turn out. About halfway through, we had to cover the dish with foil to keep the top from over browning. The suspense of that covered pan nearly got the better of me!

But before we get to the big foil uncovering…let’s get to another unveiling! Of the correct answer to last week’s quiz and the winner of the 990 Square giveaway!

I’m a little ashamed to admit it, because I think it’s a sign that I either made the contest too hard or I’m too good at fibbing, but no one actually guessed the right answer, except for my Dad, who surprised me with it as soon I saw him last week. But since he knew, he didn’t think it would be fair to enter. Still wondering which one it was? It was number 4:

“Noel and I love to travel. We go just about any chance we get and we love seeing the different places and the different cultures all over the world. Although I love almost everywhere I’ve been, there’s one city that truly stole my heart and it’s Prague. I would pick up and move there tomorrow if I thought they would let me take claims at the embassy!”

We do love to travel, but the city I would love to live in is wrong! Noel’s favorite city in Europe is Prague, mine is definitely London. It’s a city with a personality that matches mine! A bit too serious at first glance, but lots of fun right under the surface.

Thanks to Random.org, the winner of our contest was comment number 3–Maureen! She has chosen a copy of the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook to add to her collection. I’m sure you will love it, Maureen. Thank you to everyone who played along–I’m so happy that I got to share my birthday and a bit of obscure Beth trivia with you!

White Chicken Lasagna
Adapted liberally from All Recipes

This was sooo good. The cheese sauce, although simple, had a lot of flavor, and the veggies really kicked the whole thing up a notch. The recipe below will make enough lasagna to fill a 13×9 pan–use 1.5 times the quantities below to fill a big lasagna dish. And have some good bread on standby to soak up the sauce!

Ingredients

• 1 box lasagna noodles (don’t use the oven ready ones like we did–the top ones didn’t cook)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat
• 2 packages fresh baby spinach
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles using instructions on the box. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in the mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Season with the basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Remove from heat.

Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta, the peppers, spinach, mushrooms, and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken, and layer with another round of the ingredients. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese, and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Check the lasagna ever 15 minutes and if it starts to get too brown on top, cover with foil. The lasagna is done when a knife inserted into the center goes through without resistance.

Serve with family or friends, for a night of good cheer!

Last week it hit me. It was already officially meteorological spring, and I had yet to make a chicken pot pie this winter.

You’re probably thinking, no big deal. But you see, I had been practically dying to make a pot pie all through the end of last summer and into the fall. Some (perhaps some that are big Arsenal fans), suggested that I should wait until it got cold to make this soul warming piece of American home cooking. So I waited.

And then I seemingly, forgot. Not that I didn’t make lots of chicken and dumplings, which is practically chicken pot pie. But it’s not actually chicken pot pie, so it doesn’t actually count. So last week I resolved, that after we returned from our trip to Philly, but before I went to watch the Oscars (I know, but I love it, and come on wasn’t Neil Patrick Harris great??) I would make a chicken pot pie. And I did. And it was delish…

…even though it was a light recipe I got from Real Simple magazine. Normally when you say light and pot pie in the same sentence, people laugh at you. But this really works! It ups the veggies, cuts the butter, and uses white wine and flour to thicken the sauce. So give it a try, see what you think, and then once you find it delicious, file it away in your recipe file. Because this is one to come back to!

But before we get to the recipe, I want to thank Astra from Food for Laughter for giving me the Creative Blogger Award! It really made me smile when I discovered (belatedly) that Astra had thought enough of my work to share this award with me!

Astra always does such amazing and healthy things with food. I’m always inspired by the recipes she comes up with and I hope that one day I’ll meet her again (yes, we knew each other once in real life) and she’ll cook one of her amazing meals for me!

And now, in keeping with the tradition of the award, I’m going to share five things about me that you may not know. One of them is not true. Guess which one, and you might win something!

1. When I was a kid, I was a picky eater. I didn’t like food that crunched, I didn’t like things to touch or food that was mixed (especially Spam and mac and cheese!), and I most definitely didn’t like bread crusts, even though my dad tried to convince me bread crusts and french fries were the same thing.

2. The first job I seriously wanted when I was in college was to be a park ranger at a National Park. I wanted to work at a Civil War site. Now I just like to visit the sites, and I still keep track of which National Parks I’ve visited.

3. I really love weather. Growing up, I used to watch the Weather Channel for hours. I even used to do my own hurricane storm tracking with these maps I printed off my computer. Yes Mom, that’s what I did all of those hours when I was home during the summer! It’s probably a good thing we don’t have cable, because if we did, I probably would have watched the Weather Channel for the entire month of February.

4. Noel and I love to travel. We go just about any chance we get and we love seeing the different places and the different cultures all over the world. Although I love almost everywhere I’ve been, there’s one city that truly stole my heart and it’s Prague. I would pick up and move there tomorrow if I thought they would let me take claims at the embassy!

5. Although I may be hyper-cautious, and some may even say BORING in real life, in my kitchen life, I have no fear. Whether it’s making a wedding cake or baking bread, I like to just jump in there and see how it all works out!

And now a sixth (and true!) thing about me: I’m a leprechaun lady. Yep, my birthday is Saint Patty’s Day, so every year I like to spread around a bit of Irish luck and cheer to all of my friends and loved ones. And this year I want you to be part of the cheer, so I’m doing a giveaway! That’s right, for my birthday one of you will receive two things off my personal wishlist. The lucky winner will receive:

1. A set of these fantastic magnetic measuring spoons. I know you have measuring spoons, but these ones are awesome, and will change your life. Okay, maybe not change your life, but you will use them A LOT in your kitchen!
2. Your choice of one of the following cookbooks: Baked, Sky High, Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, or King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking. I have three of these and I desperately want the other. I know all will earn their keep on your bookshelf!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below with your guess as to which fact about me is not true! So easy, and there’s a cookbook at stake, so start guessing folks! I will run the giveaway through 8pm on St. Patty’s Day!

And now I would like to pass this award on to three fantastic bloggers. It’s so hard to choose because there are so many people that get me thinking everyday, but these three have been particularly inspiring of late:

Biz from Biggest Diabetic Loser
Kate from The Blueberry Files
Wendi from Bon Appetit Hon

And now, on to the recipe!

Lightened Up Chicken Pot Pie

As I said before all of that self confession, this recipe is fantastic. Go and make it before it’s too hot to have Chicken Pot Pie in your belly. Enjoy with a side of Neil Patrick Harris. May I suggest his work in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog? It’s also fantastic.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, diced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups 1 percent milk (I only had skim milk and the broth seemed a bit too light, so I added two tablespoons of butter)
• 1 10-ounce package frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 recipe below of olive oil pie crust or 1 9-inch store-bought piecrust, thawed if frozen

Directions:

Heat oven to 400° F. Cook the chicken in a pot of simmering water until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes; cool, then shred.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook, about 6 to 8 minutes until they begin to soften but do not darken. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook while stirring for 1 minute.

Add the wine and cook until evaporated, about 5 minutes (it took about 2 minutes for me). Add the milk and simmer until the sauce thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. If you’re using a bit of butter, add it now and allow it to melt in the milk. Stir in the chicken, peas, thyme, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer to a shallow 1½- to 2-quart baking dish.

Lay the crust on top, pressing to seal if you want the crust around the edges. I always just lay mine on top. Cut several vents in the crust. Place the pot pie on a baking sheet and bake until bubbling and the crust is golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

Olive Oil Pie Crust

This recipe will make enough crust for a whole pie (top and bottom). For just a pot pie with a top crust, half the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup of extra virgin Olive Oil
• 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 1 tbsp of vinegar

Directions:

Place olive oil in the freezer until it solidifies and is of a consistency similar to thick honey. Check it every 30 minutes or so. Mine usually takes 2-3 hours.

Once the olive oil solidifies, place flour, salt and baking powder into a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until a dough ball forms. If your dough ball seems dry, add a bit more water. Place ball in an air tight container or plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour or so to chill.

Roll ball out until 1/8 inch thick and put into a pie plate. Use as you would a regular pie crust.

Oh, I look at it now and I want another one…right now!

On my first date with Noel, way back in February of 2004, he took me to an Indian restaurant before we went to see a production of Sweeney Todd. Anxious to impress this guy that I knew I really, really liked, I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that I had never had Indian food before.

But I think my bluff that I *looooved* Indian food soon became apparent, when I clearly had no clue what anything on the menu was. So I ordered something with chicken and called it a night, and Noel and I were off on our whirlwind romance. Soon we were spending every spare second together, and ordering Indian takeout every chance we got. As my love for Noel grew, so did my love for Indian food.

Then came graduate school at Maryland. I was poor and the co-op was cheap, so I started eating their hot lunch whenever I was on campus. My favorite quickly became chana masala, a big dish of curried chickpeas. When my two years at Maryland were over, I was happy to discover a local restaurant (the now defunct) Mehek where I could get my chana masala fix. After Mehek closed, I was in a void. Where could I go to satisfy my need for curried chickpeas?

Finally, after nearly a year of searching, and much tasting of inferior dishes, a solution. Make it myself!

Chana Masala
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

When I saw that Deb posted a recipe for homemade chana masala, I did a little happy dance, then sent the recipe on to Noel who insisted we try it AT ONCE! This recipe is well spiced, with some nice heat. It’s easy and relatively quick to put together, and unlike takeout Indian, there are no puddles of oil floating on top! Serve with hot basmati rice and a spoonful of yogurt for a perfect mid-winter dinner.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or powdered ginger (we used powdered)
1 fresh, hot green chili pepper, minced (we used a jalapeno)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (you can adjust this to control the heat of the dish, use less if you want something less spicy)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups tomatoes, chopped small or 1 15-ounce can of whole tomatoes with their juices, chopped small
2/3 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas (which are 2 cups dry–I cooked my dry ones in the crockpot on high for about three hours with just enough water to cover them) or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice from 1 lemon

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat until browned. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprika and garam masala. Cook onion mixture with spices for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and their juice. Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Special thanks to Tony G for being guest photographer on this post!