Then we went over to our friends’ place and made supper there. We had planned to make it at home, but they were going to be putting up their Christmas tree, so we brought over the ingredients and used their kitchen instead. Mmmm, homemade chicken pot pie.

The Recipe:

(from Chatelaine, Feb. 2006)

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 red or green pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
2cups (500 mL) small broccoli florets
1/2cup (125 mL) frozen peas
vegetable oil
3tbsp (45 mL) butter
1/4cup (50 mL) all-purpose flour
1 1/2cups (375 mL) milk
1tbsp (15 mL) dried thyme leaves or rosemary or 3 tbsp (45 mL) finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
1tsp (5 mL) salt
1/2 397-g pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Cut chicken into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces. Prepare vegetables and measure out peas. Lightly coat a large frying pan with oil and set over medium-high heat. Add chicken. Stir often until lightly golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add carrot, pepper, celery and onion. Stir often until onion begins to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove chicken and vegetables to a bowl.

2. Return pan to burner and reduce heat to medium. Add butter. When melted, gradually whisk in flour until evenly mixed and bubbly, 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk. Whisk until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add broccoli, peas, 1 tsp (5 mL) dried or 1 tbsp (15 mL) fresh thyme and salt. Return chicken and onion mixture to pan. Stir to evenly coat. Mixture will be very thick. Turn into an 8-inch (2-L) square baking dish or dish that will hold 8 cups (2 L) and place on a rimmed baking sheet.

3. Cut pastry in half to form two small pieces. To cover 8-inch square dish, on a lightly floured surface roll each piece into a 10-inch (25-cm) square. It’s OK if edges are uneven. Brush one square with egg, then sprinkle remaining 2 tsp (10 mL) dried or 2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh thyme overtop. Cover with remaining square. Press together.

4. Carefully pick up pastry and lay over filling. Tuck in any overhanging edges. Press edges of pastry onto rim of dish. With a knife tip, pierce middle of pastry in 3 or 4 places to allow steam to escape. Lightly brush top with egg. Bake in centre of preheated oven until golden and filling is bubbly, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sauce will thicken as it sits.

It’s really forgiving — we used almost twice the veggies, made a bit more sauce, and put it in a rectangular casserole dish, and it was f-i-n-e.

Then, after supper and tree, we watched the tail end of Home Alone on YTV, and then we came home.

Mmmm, trifle…

Update!

Because Doug demanded it, here’s the recipe.

You’ll want to do this in a trifle bowl, a tall, wide, cylindrical bowl, usually on a stand. I found mine at Wal-Mart for about $8.

Bottom layer: Take an angel food cake and tear it into bits. Put it into the trifle bowl. Cover with about one or two cans’ worth of mandarin segments. Mix up some red Jell-O (I use strawberry) and pour slowly over all. You don’t want everything to float to the top, which is what I find happens if you pour too quickly. Put in the fridge till the Jell-O sets.

Middle layer: Mix up some Bird’s custard according to the package directions for custard dessert (not custard sauce). Let it cool to about room temp (you’ll want to put plastic wrap on it so it doesn’t form a skin). Pour onto the Jell-O layer. Refrigerate till the custard is cool.

Top layer: Whipped cream. Garnish with fruit (I used left-over mandarin segments; my grandma always uses Maraschino cherries; sliced strawberries would probably be good too).

Enjoy!

So I punched “jewish pastry” into Google’s helpful little box, and got however many thousands of returns. Canny critter that I am, I had a look at the image search results. Turns out the proper name for “Jewish pastry” is rugelach.

Armed with that knowledge, I tried hunting for rugelach in Google. And discovered that there are as many recipes for rugelach as there are Jewish grandmothers. Hmmm.

So I emailed my mom, and got our iteration of the recipe from her. It came from my great-aunt Olga, who is on the Ukrainian side of the family.

Right now the dough’s chilling in the fridge. Soon I’ll be dabbing strawberry jam onto triangles of dough and rolling them up and baking them. Hopefully it turns out.

Wish me luck!

So the Co-op had a sale on case lots of mangoes. Ten mangoes in a box for five bucks. I couldn’t resist, especially considering that I have a recipe (from a Co-op flyer, in fact) for mango salsa.

Recipe below:

Mango Salsa
2 ripe mangoes
1 red bell pepper
olive oil
3 green onions
jalapeño pepper(s)
Zest & juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil

Brush the mangoes with olive oil and grill, turning once, till grill marks appear. [This time, I did 'em up in the oven: about 3-4 minutes a side at 400°.] Cool, peel, and chop (I chop ‘em in the food processor, since I’m lazy and it does a fine job.)

Seed and chop the peppers; dice the green onions. Add to the chopped mangoes.

In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice, zest, honey, salt, and the 3 tbsp of olive oil. Pour over the mango mix; toss to coat.

Aaaaand you’re done. Enjoy!

(The proportions are very forgiving; this last time I used 8 mangoes, but I only had one lime. Tastes just fine.)