Speed of Light

As most of you know, Sunday night we had some fabulous lightning and thunder! I LOVE storms! I decided to take a photo of the fabulousness. I grabbed my camera and tri-pod and headed out the door. My umbrella turned inside out after the first step, which caused me to get a fit of the giggles. I must have been quite a sight, standing in my jammies, in the dark, getting soaked, while taking pictures of a dark grey sky.

I had a glorious time snip-snapping away. After about 30 shots, my batteries went dead. I went inside to see my wonderous photos and this is the only thing I got on the very last shot.....

Chicken Pot Pie

Last week Paul and I went to Faustina, a restaurant downtown.  We had this yummy appetizer that was a delicious chicken gravy in a round puff pastry, with whipped potatoes next to it ~ their version of a chicken pot pie.  I liked it so much that I made a simpler recipe here at home this week and thought I'd share it with you.  To make it fancy, I piped the potatoes out of a decorators tube, but you don't have to.  Adding a creative touch makes me like cooking more and give the family something to smile about, but it all tastes the same.
Anyway, enjoy!
(This takes 1 hour from start to plating.)

Deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie
1 package of puff pastry shells
    (not the little cups)
2 chicken breasts, cut into sm. pieces
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup frozen peas
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. white wine
2 tsp. salt (divided)
pepper to taste
5 Tbsp. butter (divided)
5 potatoes
2 Tbsp. cream cheese (optional)
2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil
sprig of rosemary (optional)
1 bay leaf (optional)
*In this recipe, you will use the same liquid many times to enhance flavor, so don't discard the water until the end.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees or temp. recommend on pastry pkg.
1.  Dice chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms into small pieces.  Place carrots, onions, 1 garlic and bay leaf into med. sauce pan.  Boil in 3 cups water about 5 minutes.
2.  While veggies are boiling, saute diced mushroom with 2 Tbsp.  butter in a skillet for 3 minutes.  Add balsamic vinegar and white wine and saute another 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and scrape all ingredients into a small bowl to be used later.
3.  Remove veggies from heat and strain liquid into a bowl.  Reserve liquid!!  Place veggies into a bowl to be used later.  Discard bay leaf.
4.  Place puff pastry shell disks in the oven as directed.
5.  Reheat liquid from veggies, adding enough water to boil the diced potatoes.  When water is boiling, add potatoes and 3 chicken bouillon cubes and sprig of fresh rosemary.  Boil until tender, about 12 minutes.  Remove sprig of rosemary about half-way through, unless you want pieces of rosemary in your potatoes, which is fine.
6.  Heat oil in the same skillet and add diced chicken.  Saute about 3 minutes over high heat.  Reduce heat to med. high and add the second diced garlic and 1 tsp. of salt.  Saute another 2 to 3 minutes.  Add pepper and peas and stir. 
7.  Reduce heat to medium.  To the skillet pan, now add 2/3 can of soup (you can use all; I don't because I like less sauce) and milk.  Stir.  Add reserved veggies and mushrooms.  Stir well about 2 minutes.  Reduce heat to low and cover. 
8.  When potatoes are done, add 1/2 cup of the liquid to the chicken mixture and stir and cover.  Now strain the potatoes, discarding the liquid. 
9.  Place potatoes in a mixing bowl (I actually just return them to the saucepan).  Add 3 Tbsp. butter, 1tsp. salt, and cream cheese to potatoes and mix with a mixer or potato masher until well blended.
10.  Remove pastry from oven.
11.  To plate:  Scoop or pipe potatoes onto corner of plate.  Place puff pastry next to it.  Spoon chicken gravy last.  Wha-la!  La-de-dah Chicken Pot Pie!!