Menu Mondays

1. Of course, that is my recipe! http://realnani.blogspot.com/2013/11/skillet-chicken-pot-pie.html

2. This fish recipe is so good, and I've made it with halibut, mahi maui and cod. Delicious.
3. My recipe again, though I'm out of cheesecloth, so I will probably roast the chicken breast, pull off the meat and make a stock from the bones. http://realnani.blogspot.com/2013/11/balabusta-cred.html

Also, confession time: Last week, I had the menu down but not so much with the planning. I didn't buy enough cheese, and I didn't have any steak leftover for the tacos. So, I ended up winging it towards the end of the week. But winging it is pretty easy when you have beans, rice and random vegetables. Also, one night, my kids asked for frozen peas and toast. Weirdos.

Balabusta Cred.

The minute the weather cools off, I go into balabusta mode. Do you know this word, balabusta? I've heard it before, in the little snippets of Yiddish swirling around, but didn't know what it meant. I looked it up after reading about a cookbook from the restaurant of the same name.

Balabusta is a Yiddish expression describing a good homemaker

 Yup. Except maybe I would be a passable homemaker, not always a good one! I've been in the kitchen a lot lately, making soups and baking bread. I started making my own chicken soup a few years ago, relying on my memory of various chicken soups I ate growing up, between my mom, my stepmom and my grandma. But this weekend, I think I made my best one yet. The husband and 5 year old agree that it is delicious!

Chicken Soup 

Serves a crowd. 

Ingredients

• Two chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on (please!) 
• Two carrots
• Two stalks celery
• One onion
• Bay Leaf
• Sprigs of thyme
• Dill, dried or fresh
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Place the chicken in a roasting pan or baking sheet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, coat with oil and add a few sprigs of thyme to the roasting pan. Roast at 425 for 30-45 minutes, depending on size of chicken. The juice should run clear, and the skin should be golden and crispy. 
2. While chicken is roasting, heat oil in a soup pot, chop veggies and add to the pot, along with salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are soft, then add bay leaf and thyme sprigs. 
3. Let the chicken cool enough for handle, then remove skin and pull meat off the bones. Chop or pull the meat and set aside. Tie the bones up in a cheesecloth. 
4. Add cheesecloth-wrapped bones to the soup pot and cover with water. 
5. Bring soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer and partially cover. 
6. Simmer soup until color turns deep golden. Add more water as necessary, to keep bones covered. 
7. Remove bones from soup and discard. 
8. Add  chicken and dill; continue to simmer until ready to serve. 
9. Serve with fresh bread or crackers. The bread in the photograph is my new go-to recipe from King Arthur Flour, which can be found here: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-bread-recipe

Also, this: 

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot pie might be the ultimate comfort food-- filling without being too heavy, creamy, and carb-a-licious. It's also a great way to use up languishing veggies, though I made a classic version here. And the skillet? Well, I used to have a Corningware round casserole but I probably gave it away when we moved into our rental, because of the teeny-tiny kitchen with limited storage. I've made do with just a few essentials and one of them is this skillet. I wish it were bigger, but it has served me well! My idea was to make a one-pot chicken pot pie, quick and easy, because three kids really starts to feel like THREE KIDS when the witching hour arrives. I googled around for inspiration, knowing that a skillet pot pie could not possibly be an original idea. A lot of the recipes required various pots and pans, but I eschewed all that in favor of making everything in one skillet. Report from the 5 year old: "I like the chicken pot pie. Can I have more, but with no crust?" The crust, by the way, is delicious but I happened to have given birth to a kid that doesn't really like carbs. [I don't know how that happened...]

Two things:

1. The chicken: I encourage you to buy a whole fryer, and use the parts in various ways. If I'm not roasting the whole chicken, I poach the chicken in a pot. This week, I used the dark meat in chicken soup, I reserved the white meat for this pot pie, and I used the poaching liquid as the base for the chicken soup. The chicken carcass went into the freezer for future stock making. Also, if you leave the whole chicken in the pot after cooking and stick it in the fridge, you can skim the fat off the top the next day, otherwise known as schmaltz, aka your Jewish grandma's preferred cooking fat. 
2. The crust: You can buy a pie crust at the store. In this case, I had made pate brisee earlier in the week for a pumpkin pie. The recipe yielded two crusts, so I used the other for the pot pie. After putting the crust on the skillet, trim off the parts that hang over, roll it out again and bake yourself some crescent rolls! Just cut into triangles and roll the dough  up into a crescent shape. Bake it in the oven while the pot pie is cooking. 

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

serves a hungry family of 4, with leftovers for lunch

Ingredients:

• Two large chicken breasts, cooked and chopped or shredded
• Two carrots, peeled and diced
• Two stalks of celery, diced
• One large onion, sliced thinly, then chopped
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of AP flour
• a little bit of chicken stock (I didn't measure this but I probably used 1/4 c, maybe less)
• a little bit of whole milk (again, I didn't measure but it was probably 1/4 c, maybe less)
• Thyme, dried or fresh
• Half a package of Frozen peas
• One pie crust, rolled out. 
• One egg, beaten. 
• salt and pepper, to taste. 

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In your skillet, heat up your favorite cooking fat, a tablespoon or so, over medium heat. 
3. Sweat the onions, then throw in the carrots and celery. Sauté until softened. Add some salt. 
4. Push the veggies to the sides of the pan to make room in the middle. In that space, melt the butter. When it foams, whisk in the flour. You'll probably end up getting some veggies into the mix-- it's fine. Stir it all up. 
5. Add the milk and chicken stock, and stir everything together. The sauce should thicken as it cooks. 
6. Add thyme and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let it cook a few minutes to meld the flavors. If there is no liquid, add more stock. You don't want the filling to be a soup but you don't want it to be dry either. 
7. Stir in the frozen peas. Turn off the heat. 
8. Cover the top with the pie crust and cut off any dough that is hanging over. I set my dough just inside the skillet but you can cover the rim, if you want.  Baste crust with the beaten egg. 
9. Transfer hot pan to the oven and bake until crust is golden and puffy, about 30 minutes. 
10. Let the pot pie sit and cool for at least 15 minutes before eating. This is hard, I know, but it will be really hot, for one thing and another, letting it cool will allow the filling to set and become unctuous.