Friday's Shenanigans....and Pie Fillings

You'd think I'd been busy all day, since I'm posting now and it's after 4pm! The beginning of the school terms seems to bring with it more routine and less time for lolligagging around on the computer!

Friday's always begin with a morning cuppa in the staffroom at school with other Mum's. Not to say we sit and do nothing but talk ~ we do our bit for the office staff. Our school mails out the newsletter to Grandparents, so we do that for the precious Mrs S! I've also been investigating and ordering samples and a school kit for the Year 5 girls and their upcoming personal development chat next week. I got Miss Mischief's sample pack in the mail today and have emailed a photo of the contents to her teacher so that she can make informed recommendations to the parents of the girls.

Today my little now-5yo buddy (the son of a good friend) wanted to come to my place ~ so he and his Mum came for lunch. He bopped over to me during morning cuppa and asked if he could come. I made her the Ricotta Gnocchi with Tomato Pesto I had tried recently. She was completely thrilled!

Someone asked about what to put in that pastry case? Well...you could go on forever. Blend creamed cheese with smoked salmon for little tarts. Or you could put lemon curd in for sweet ones. If you want a pie, some tinned pie apples with a light sprinkle of cinnamon would be yum. If you want a sweet pastry, just add 2-4 tablespoons of icing sugar to the recipe right at the beginning.

My personal favourite, and that of our family too...is an Old Fashioned Chicken Pie. I got the recipe back in 1997 from someone's aol homepage. It's now gone, so I imagine it would be safe to post! The kids don't say boo about the red capsicum and I didn't have mushrooms the other night so I just left them out....no problems at all.

Old Fashioned Chicken Pie

1/2 kg chicken breast fillets*
1 cup chicken stock
3 medium carrots, diced
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 red capsicum, deseeded & diced finely
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 Pie Crust

1. Put chicken breasts in a medium frypan with 1/2 cup chicken stock. Cover and ring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and tear into pieces. Reserve stock liquid.
2. Cook diced carrots in a saucepan for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain & set aside.
3. In a frypan, melt the butter and add onions, mushrooms, red capsicum, thyme, salt & pepper. Saute over medium heat until tender; add minced garlic and cooked carrots.
4. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Stir in chicken, stock and milk. Bring to the boil & cook until thickened.
5. Pour pie mixture into prepared pie crust. Top with pastry, trim and crimp edges. Cut a vent in the top of the crust and bake in a preheated oven (200C/425F) for 15 minutes and then turn down to 180C/350F and cook for another 20 minutes or so, until golden.

* You could use thigh fillets or leftover roast chicken. I tend to use leftovers and it's nowhere near 1/2 a kilo, but it doesn't matter that much.

The other night, I just mixed about 3 teaspoons of cornflour into some water and used that to thicken about 1 1/2 - 2 cups worth of liquid (from the carrots and some milk) and I added some chicken stock powder to make up for the lack of chicken stock liquid.