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This is the post where I tell you how/why I made chicken pot pies. Prepare to salivate.

I will admit to having not one but TWO cookbooks in my possession recently that prominently feature chicken pot pies. While I never got around to making the recipe found in Cooking for Two: Perfect Meals for Pairs, I did finally squelch my obsession by making the recipe from New Classic Family Dinners. Does it seem like a lot of work? Yes. Is it enormously satisfying? Absolutely.

Think about this: how do you really make a pot pie? Blanch some veggies, cook some chicken, make some sauce, top with pre-made puff pastry, bake.  SIMPLE!

Now all of that really does add up to a lot of work. But dang it, if I, a food styling dunce, can take some freakin fantastic pictures of the finished product, you too can make a jaw-dropping meal. Impress your lady or man (or lady man?) and GET LAID! This meal will do it. But don’t call it a chicken pot pie. Call it something sexier. How about… the butter-topped chick bake. How’s that?

Let’s get to the real recipe…

Chicken Pot Pie

Adapted from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel

• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups thinly sliced carrots
• 1 1/3 cups thawed frozen peas
• 1 fat handful trimmed green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces, steamed
• 1 cup peeled and quartered small onions
• 3/4 pound cooked chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves
• 1/4 creme fraiche
• 1 8 oz sheet puff pastry, thawed if frozen
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

In a small saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Add the carrots, reduce the heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Remove the carrots with a straining spoon and transfer to a bowl with the peas and green beans. You won’t need this again until later so set it aside.

Take out another saucepan and add salted water. Once boiling, drop the onion bits into it. Allow to cook for 10 minutes or until tender. It’s ok if the segments break apart while cooking. When soft, remove and cool in a bowl of ice water. Add the drained onions to the peas, green beans, and carrots. Dump in the chicken and mix together. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Now you’ve got the main filling. Sauce time!

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and add the flour. This is a roux. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to brown. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chicken stock. Put the pot back on the heat and simmer, whisking constantly. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, taking care to mix so that the sauce doesn’t char on the bottom. Add salt and pepper to taste and add the sage. Allow the mixture to cool for 5 minutes, then whisk in the creme fraiche. Pour the sauce over the meat and veggies, mixing well. Presto, saucetastical filling.

Butter 4 ramekins. Distribute the filling between the ramekins and prepare the puff pastry by cutting it into 4 pieces that will amply cover the top of the ramekins. (An aside: at this point in the unadulterated recipe, Mark Peel recommends refrigerating the filling and then popping the pot pies in the freezer for 20 minutes. I didn’t do that. He doesn’t say why he does it and my pot pies came out fine without the extra waiting time.)

Whisk together the egg and water to use for puff pastry sealant. Brush it over the edges of the ramekins then place the puff pastry pieces over the top. Press, seal and crimp the puff pastry around the edge of the ramekin. Pierce the pot pies in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush the top with the egg mixture and place on a cookie tray. Bake until a lovely shade of golden brown, around 20 minutes. Eat. Enjoy! YUM.

DANG IT. Now all I want to eat right  now is some buttery crust dipped in pot pie sauce with a nice piece of chicken in the bite. Oh man, ecstasy.

With the last two ornaments on the tree, it is time to close this year’s Christmas season with one last ornament swap post. Of the 10 people on my swap list, I received all but two Christmas decorations.

This hand-stitched nest doubles as a gift tag. Thanks TV! A little bit of investigation revealed her flickr stream where you can see how she made this absolutely fantastic decoration.

And last but not least came this colorful little package holding an adorable hoot owl who is now nestled in the tree. Thanks Kleas!

That wraps it up for this year’s Freshly Blended ornament swap. It’s so strange (and yet really awesome) to have a tree full of ornaments from people I’ll never met. It’s a nice reminder that there is a lot of talent out there and plenty of creativity to go around.

Tune in for next year’s “Will I remember to sign up in time?” Will you?!?

I don’t know what it is about orange soup that is so damn unappetizing. Everyone loves a good pumpkin, orange or carrot. Why can’t you then cook, partly puree and deliciously present ANY of those thing?? Such seems to be my burden and orange soup curse. The good news is that the knock-your-beanie-off flavor of this soup totally makes up for the fact it looks like something that came out of a baby diaper.

(Let’s take a moment to admire the deep pink-red color of freshly scrubbed sweet potatoes. How lovely!)

What’s the name of the soup that inspired this rant? What is so delicious and yet photographically grotesque?

Sweet Potato- Leek and Spicy Sausage Soup

adapted from Eatwell member Josiah Bragdon’s recipe

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed in 1” pieces
• 2 leeks, thoroughly washed, tough green leaves removed, cut into 1/2” pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 6 cups+ chicken broth
• 2 large spicy Italian sausage, remove casing and cut into medallions then quarter

In a stock pot over medium heat, add the olive oil, leeks and garlic. Saute until the leeks are soft. 7 minutes? More or less.

Add the sweet potato cubes to the cooked leeks and pour in the chicken broth.

Simmer for approximately 20 minutes until the sweet potatoes are soft. If at any point your broth is running low, feel free to add a dash more.

While the sweet potatoes stew, cook the sausage. In a skillet, brown the sausage nuggets in oil. When finished, let them drain on a paper towel.

Time to gross-ify your soup! Use a Cuisinart wand hand blender to puree parts of the soup. You can make it as smooth or chunky as you want. You could also remove parts of the soup and use a blender.

Add the sausage to the soup and salt/pepper to taste. Allow your soup to simmer, with a lid, for 10-15 minutes and then serve. Enjoy!

(eeeeeeeww)

I hereby decree yesterday’s CSA recipe iou NULL and VOID! This great recipe used not uno but dos items from last week’s box. Celebration! Now to find a way to eat two whole winter squashes.

Seriously San Francisco (internet?), I DARE YOU to try and take a tasty looking picture of this stuff. Can’t be done. I’ll definitely keep trying… just as long as I get to eat the completed soup attempts.

‘Tis the season for irregular CSA deliveries!

We’ve got a box of fruit and vegetables ready for consumption here at The Hipster Home but after this, there won’t be anything to share until January 14th. Ho’boy, that’s a long time.  I originally planned to share a recipe for chicken pot pie or baked eggs with this post today but I just realized that neither one of those feature an ingredient from this box. You, fine readers, get an IOU for one recipe.

apples, butternut squash, carrots, leeks, watermelon daikon radishes, celery, lettuce, sweet potatoes, bok choy, mandarins, spinach

How did this box fare the weekend?  For starts, the Mr. included some of the watermelon daikon radishes in a curry he whipped up last night. Surprise! They were REALLY GOOD. They were soft without being overly starchy like their brethren, the potato. Besides that, we consumed half the mandarins (an incredible and easy snack) and the lettuce was prep washed and ready to go.

Where do we go from here? First up is the a Eatwell recipe I cannot wait to try: Sweet Potato- Leek soup with Spicy Sausage. And then I’m going to make my first batch of stock. (Hm, or maybe I should reverse that so I can use my stock IN the soup?) With the carrots, celery, (radishes?) and cooked chicken parts I have saved in the freezer, it’s time to double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Have you ever made stock before? Any suggestions?

With the proliferation of gift guides and holiday wish lists, I wwwant that! #10 took some restraint in pulling together. All these calls to action for internet commerce make cracking open the wallet not only acceptable but encouraged! But don’t doubt me, this wee bank account remains sealed against the supremely priced and produced wares. If you do have the means, support those artisans and independent shop owners!

Photo by: Ladies and Gentlemen

I am 100% a fan of all these uberchunk knits popping up all over the place lately. Why am I so drawn to them? Could it be the cold house, the snuggly warm appearance, the texture, the proportions?? Whatever to reason, I love what the folks at Ladies and Gentlemen did with some cotton rope. Coincidentally, I have some of that exact same stuff I am using to make some of those knot trivets over on design*sponge.

One of my FAVORITE stores in the Mission is The Curiosity Shoppe. Not only is their space a complete pleasure to peruse but Derek and Lauren have absolutely exceptional style they share on their  blog, Smarts & Crafts. Derek recently shared his favorite objects from the store and damnit, I wwwant that clock! If you can’t tell, the left eyeball points to the hour and the right points roughly to the minute. Just think of the joy this mechanical menace would bring to any room. For you lucky bay area bitches, visit The Curiosity Shoppe at 19th and Valencia.

Two things from Modish’s recent Favoite Things gift guide made me squeal out loud. Leggings and a ring. It’s pretty amusing I’m so drawn to these leggings because a) you have to be a crazy person to wear heals around SF and b) I would probably look like a fuzzed-out, tubbo cookie monster in them. But there is no denying that I would love to see these guys in my sock drawer. The second thing is a fricken fantastic rough cut emerald by Erica Weiner. It’s not just that it’s green (which doesn’t hurt) but it’s the earthy feel that makes me desirous of such a treasure. If you’d like to torture yourself with more awesome stuff, I dare you to browse the rest of Bona Drag‘s online shop. Double dog dare!

If there’s something you were bound to learn about me, it’s that I love ________. Fill-in-the-blanks are the best! We’ve got this Seattle Show Poster hanging in the living room and I certainly think that a t-shirt would make an excellent addition to my _____ collection. And oh my, that pink. What is this, a Miranda July project?

Another thing you’ll learn about my taste is that I am not generally a fan of quilts (barf). Hot damn if I didn’t find an exception to the rule on My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses! Guest poster Alison Feldmann shared her holiday wish-list which included this galaxy blanket (by etsy seller Stellar Quilts) that I would absolutely use. Remember, I’m a space nerd?

Oops, looks like we’re making SUPER CHUNKY sandwich on this post! Well here you have it, folks. Proof that my love of chunky monkey knitware is because of a COLD SNAP in San Francisco! Phydeaux makes these great neckwarmers/portable cowls that are lovely. If you’re a knitter, you can DIY with a much cheaper pattern! Tip-off for this was by Indie Fixx and their 12 days of awesome, I mean, Christmas. (While you’re over there, check out the Indie Fixx Gifts for Hipsters. Not a bad selection but srsly ixnay on those f&#king trucker hats!)

Your moment of inspiration: the graphic art of James Joyce. Scroll and enjoy his bold lines, bight colors and sheer simplicity. Swoon! (Also compliments of My Love for You. Thanks kids!)