Just Because...

Chicken Little Pot Pies

I started by finely dicing the vegetables: shredded carrots, celery, onion, and sugar snap peas. Then, I poached the chicken,using tenders. I put some onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, black peppercorns, whole cloves in the water. When the chicken was done, I took it out, let it cool, then diced it. The broth continued to simmer and reduced. I strained it and set it aside.

In a sauce pan, I melted some butter and added the celery, onion, and carrot; cooked until onion was transluscent. I added some flour and cooked that a bit. Then, added the reserved chicken broth. Added another bay leaf, let it simmer. Seasoned with sage, pepper, marjoram, thyme.

After it cooked for awhile, I added the sliced sugar snap peas and diced, cooked chicken.

I set the filling in the fridge until I was ready to make the pies.

Using pre-made pie crusts (that come rolled up, in the refrigerated section), I cut out bottom and top crusts, using the largest of my biscuit cutters, and the next size down. I used a mini-muffin tin.

I filled the pastries, gave each a brush of egg wash, put the tops on, and used a tiny fork to crimp the edges. Egg washed the tops, cut a slit for steam to escape.

They baked at about 380F for 20 minutes.

Yum!

Peas-n-Carrots Coleslaw

This was a simple coleslaw, and oh, so good! Pretty self-explanatory, just julienne cabbage, chop shredded carrots, slice sugar snap peas thinly, and finely dice onion.

For the dressing, I used up a dab of sour cream left from the holidays, added it to some store-brand "whip" (seasoned mayo), added a bit of sugar, cracked black pepper, marjoram, and basil.