Pie Are Squared: Chicken Pot Pie

Here's to my first savory pie: chicken pot pie!
Now that the weather's cooling off and feeling all autumnal, I thought pie would nice for dinner.
I must say, it was delicious. I paired it with cranberry sauce, and they complemented each other well. (Usually "pairing" something reminds me of wines that are supposed to complement some fancy dinner, so I am amusing myself by using that wording with something as pedestrian as canned cranberry sauce).

I actually did a double pie crust, but it was so much extra work, and you don't even notice the bottom crust, so I am recommending just putting crust on top.

Further, if you're just feeling lazy but want chicken pot pie-ness, you can make the filling and then serve it over toast. That is good, too.
Here's a shot of me making the pie:

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 7. I wasn't very thorough about the egg wash=ugly top

Difficulty: Pretty simple. You'll want to work fast once you get the crust on top because the heat of the filling starts soggifying the crust pretty quickly.

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

The filling is my dad's recipe, so I'm happy to share it with the universe:

Chicken Pot Pie:

1 pie crust, prepared
3 c chicken broth
1 chicken breast, cubed
1/4 c frozen peas
1/4 c chopped carrots
1/4 c frozen corn
1/4 c chopped onion
1 stick butter
3/4 c flour
salt and pepper to taste
1. Boil chicken, peas, carrots, and corn in broth until cooked.
2. In large pot, sauté onion in butter until translucent. Add flour; stir until combined.
3. Add broth mixture to onions and heat until thick; season with salt and pepper. Pour thickened mixture into deep dish pie plate. Cover with pie crust; fold edges under and crimp. Brush with egg wash, if desired.
4. Bake at 425º for 30 minutes or until crust is golden.

Pie crust:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening, chilled
3–4 Tbsp. cold milk

1. In a medium bowl stir together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, large fork, or the tips of your fingers, cut in or pinch or squeeze the shortening until mixture resembles crumbs the size of peas. Tossing the mixture quickly and lightly with a fork, sprinkle in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough holds together when lightly pressed. Gather dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 12-inch circle, rolling from the center to the edges and giving dough quarter-turns frequently. Place the 9-inch pie plate upside down on top of the rolled-out dough. Using a small knife, cut a circle around the plate, leaving a 1-inch border of dough around the plate.

Camp Cupcake: On and off the exercise wagon

After boldly declaring to the world (or the 9 followers of this blog) that I was going to be consistent in my efforts to eat well and exercise, I have exercised a grand total of twice.

Which I still maintain is better than zero.

Thursday morning (one week ago) I got up and did my Cardio Hula with Kili video. Unlike Charlie, I do not have any islander blood in me, and it was a bit of a workout. I felt good all day.

Then, my friend Kim came into town. We had an awesome time, as evidenced by this post. However, I did not exercise that whole time. Unless, of course, you count all the walking we did around campus, to and from our parking spot at the football game, around Olympic Park, and inside IKEA. And I probably shouldn't count that, since the rest of the trip was spent eating at places like Cafe Rio, Brick Oven, Kneaders, Panda Express, and Mini's Retro Cafe.

So, Wednesday night, I decided I needed to go for a run. I called up my friend Anne, who, coincidentally, was about to go running by herself. Shortly thereafter, we ended up at Orem High, where we ran just under four miles around the track. Again, it felt good. And I was reminded that it is infinitely easier to run when you have someone to run with--particularly if that person lets you use those four miles to complain about your life. Thanks for that, Anne.

Now, I am sitting in my office, about to go home. I know that, when I get home, I should go for a run. At the same time, there is that part of me that is trying to talk myself out of it because it has already been a long week and I want to go home, put on my pj's, and go to bed. The beauty of this blog is that if I write here that I should go home and go for a run, I am much more likely to actually do that than if I kept my thoughts to myself. We'll see if it works.

Camp Cupcake: Starting over

First of all, I just have to say how grateful I am for Ami (Pie Are Squared). Without her contributions, I probably would have abandoned this blog before now. I love this blog, so I would have hated that.

Forgive me if I wax philosophical, and dare I say it, ramble for a moment:

Over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about goals, and what you do when you have accomplished your goals.

In my lifetime, I have set many, many goals. Some of them have been big goals that have taken years like, "Get a Ph.D." Some of them are small goals like, "Go to bed before 1 a.m. tonight" And some are goals that you could argue have no lasting benefits to me or to society, like "Bake all of the cupcakes in Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook over the course of a year." For me, goals get accomplished because I can see an end in sight.

But, as I think about my life, and who I am, and who I still want to be, I am beginning to recognize how important and overlooked the principle of consistency is. Let's say, for example, that I completed a marathon. The euphoria of finishing it, and the shiny medal they give you at the end last beyond that day, but the health effects of daily training only last if you continue to train. If you are constantly looking toward the end goal, rather than the process, it is hard to maintain consistency. Further, it is hard to get any better at what you are doing if you are only focused on the end.

My job, I am quickly discovering, is highly sedentary. I have a lovely desk, and a nice desk chair, and, if I didn't get up to go to the bathroom or microwave my Hot Pockets in the break room, I could, conceivably, stay in this chair for a whole day. In fact, sometimes I try to see if I can get all the way around my office without having to get up out of my chair. My coworkers are all significantly older than I am (somewhere between 10 and 35 years older), and I can see the effects such a lifestyle can have on a person who is not regularly exercising and dieting over a period of years.

To be fair, they are all busy people. They all have spouses, children, classes, research, students to advise, and clients to see. Not to mention, they are all active in their respective church congregations, which can also be rather time-intensive. And, I am sure, there are other things in their lives that are keeping them busy that I don't know about. My point is, exercise, in my profession, is not something that just happens. In order to stay healthy and fit, it requires a great deal of action, and, unfortunately, consistency.

So, this time around, I do not have some big end goal that I can check off. I mean, my end goals are to maintain a healthy weight, good cholesterol levels, not to have a heart attack, diabetes, or bone and joint problems, and to avoid getting sick as much as possible for as much of my life as possible.

So, how am I going to accomplish this? I'm not sure. But, for now, I think it will go something like this:

• Give up sugary cereal for breakfast in favor of oatmeal (which, as far as I can tell, is replacing cupcakes, smoothies, or frozen yogurt as the new trendy food)
• Cook two healthy dinners a week. As far as I can tell, this one will probably require the use of my Crock-Pot, so I appreciate all of Sarah's recipes.
• Exercise four times a week. I predict this one will be the hardest for me. I prefer exercise to be something that just happens in my life. Like, some mornings, I just wake up and feel like running. That's pretty rare, though. I think the biggest barrier to this will be time management. If I manage my time better at night, I get to bed at a decent hour, and I can wake up early enough to exercise. If I don't, it all goes downhill.

I realize that these goals are pretty boring compared to cupcakes, and, to be honest, I haven't figured out a way to blog about them that has a chance of being interesting. Also, because I don't have a time table for this that is more finite than, "the rest of my life," I could be blogging for a long time. However, it seems to me like another way in which goals can work is if they are reported, which was why I started this blog in the first place. So, hopefully, I can make that work.

Also, I plan to keep the handle Camp Cupcake, until I can come up with a different one. Or, possibly forever. Martha might have been able to shake it, but I'm not sure I want to.

Mayor Ham's Brown Sugar Peach Pie

Some friends, with whom we frequently hang out, called me out on the fact that I've been making pies for months and they had yet to have any. So I promised to provide some next time we saw them, which was last weekend.
I hope they enjoyed it, because I thought it was mighty tasty. Even though I just bought the peaches at Wal-Mart and they weren't super ripe, the pie turned out to be delicious. When I looked at the recipe, I thought it was pretty much just like an apple pie, but with peaches. So I wasn't particularly excited. But it was a great medley of fruitiness, spice, and buttery crust.
Not to mention we had fun hanging out.
Thanks to Camp Cupcake, Mother Bird, and The Emasculated Male for encouraging me to share the deliciousicity.

Ratings:

Flavor: 10

Execution: 10

Difficulty: Easy, plus you get to make a lattice!

Overall rating: ***** 5 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Mama's Fresh Raspberry Pie

I was really excited about this pie. It ended up being good, but not amazing. Which surprised me because when I was mixing the lemon zest in with the raspberries, it smelled so wonderful I could hardly stand it. We ate this pie with vanilla bean ice cream, which was a perfect complement.
In the middle of preparing the pie, some friends invited us over to play games, so we brought along the pie to enjoy together. I had forgotten my camera, so my friend Emily graciously took a picture for me. Many of you probably know my friend Emily, perhaps more recognizable as Trisha:

Anyway, it was a fun night of fun pie. You should've been there.

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 8

Difficulty: Easy, if you're okay with a double crust.

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Strawberry Lover's Pie

This was a departure from the Sweety Pies book. My sister was coming into town and asked for a chocolate pie. She rejected every chocolate pie in my book (there are actually only three), so I ventured elsewhere.
This pie was okay. I feel like it took too many steps for a mediocre product. And just so you know, that is NOT Hershey's syrup drizzled on the top. It is melted chocolate chips, on top of a raspberry jam glaze, which is on top of fresh strawberries, which are on top of a cream cheese/sour cream mixture, which is in a chocolate painted crust.
See what I mean by too many steps?
The pie was good, but not THAT good.

Ratings:

Flavor: 6

Execution: 8. The drizzling really wasn't pretty.

Difficulty: Easy, but it takes a while.

Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars.

Sister Baby's Buttermilk Pie

This is not a picture of the pie I made. I forgot to take a picture, so this is one I found online of the same recipe. My pie was not nearly so pretty. It browned to a dark brown on top, and the filling was still runny. It tasted good and all, but I am frustrated with my failures at custard pies. Every single one has turned out runny. I don't know if there's something wrong with my preparation, my oven, or the elevation, but I really want to figure out the problem. As I've researched potential solutions online, I've come across several options that I would consider cheating: adding cornstarch or tapioca to thicken things. I'm not saying it's morally wrong or anything (haha, the morality of pies), but I feel like the recipes were written that way for a reason and they should be able to work without adding an extra thickener.
So. Since I feel like I've become pretty good at pie crusts (which was my original goal in this endeavor) I think I will move on to making successful custard pies (which is differentiated from cream pies in that custard pies are baked in the oven, while cream pies have a filling that is precooked on the stovetop before putting in the oven). I won't necessarily be making a custard pie every time, but that is my new goal.
Here's a link to the recipe, which I would recommend for sure. And let me know if your custard sets well. I need some help. Oh, and the online recipe calls for orange zest, while my recipe in the book called for lemon. I think orange would be even better than lemon.

Ratings:

Flavor: 7

Execution: 6

Difficulty: Easy, if you ignore my custard problems.

Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars.