Gobbling in the Big City...

The little goblins were gobbling last Wednesday night. Halloween in the big city is just plain different.

You may have heard me talk about it before. It seems like "Trick or Treater Heaven" to me. Instead of going house to house in our neighborhood the kids go from one business to the next. Boutiques, restaurants, and pubs all have candy for the kids and they don't wear out their little legs before their bag is bursting with candy. Since we live five stories up in a secured building there's no way the little goblins and witches could get to us to trick or treat so we go to them. We pull up something to drink at the pub downstairs and supervise the activities.

I'm in charge of tapping on the window when a group starts to go past; thinking the Irish pub would not have candy. Have candy! We have tons of it! The candy budget was over $150 dollars this year. That shows you how many kids there are! (And the pub can buy at wholesale prices!) We get a front row seat to see the parade of costumes. My husband keeps an eye on the candy bin to make sure it stays full. We left at 7 PM when the candy was running out. The number of kids, accompanied by costume-wearing parents, was seemingly still growing!

We wandered a block and half down the street to an Italian Trattoria for dinner. The hostess of the restaurant was rushing off to Walgreens to buy...you guessed it...more candy. They had made the mistake of buying just two bags of candy. They are a new restaurant. They will know better next year. Halloween is a big deal in this neighborhood. It's really quite fun.

Back in Madison at our other house, my niece Amanda and her beau Dom were in charge of Halloween. I guided Amanda's candy buying by letting her know that in years past the Halloween crowd was about 6 bags full. On my advice, Amanda went back to the store and bought more candy; expecting the onslaught we'd had in years past. Auntie Zola was dead wrong in predicting how many kids would show up for Halloween. The kids have grown, gone off to college and have not been replaced by lots of little ones. Amanda and Dom have a lot of candy leftover.

I wish they could have shipped it to Chicago instantly. We certainly had kids that were looking for it.

I read the other day that the average child consumes 4600 calories of Halloween candy the day after Halloween. Whew! That's a lot of sugar.

Last night was movie night at our Chicago home. We decided to stay in for the evening and cook a warm, cozy meal. I decided to invent a new Chicken Pot Pie. Here it is, for your movie night.

Italian Chicken Pot Pie
Serves 4. Can be doubled

10 ounces of pre-cooked chicken breast meat cut into chunks. (I bought the pre-cooked meat to save time. There are different flavors. I settled on the Italian version and my mind went to work on my new pot pie inspiration. You can buy the Italian spiced version, or lemon and herbs. They'll both work. You can also use your own chicken or even leftover turkey at the holidays.)
2 Tbl of butter
2 Tbl of flour
2 cups of low salt canned chicken broth
1-1/2 cups of cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of Italian seasonings blend
one cup of frozen peas with pearl onions
4 oz of sliced button mushrooms.
1 large carrot diced
1 celery stalk sliced (or you can do what I did and buy the precut carrots and celery prepped for dipping and just cut up 4 carrot sticks and 4 celery sticks. This gives you the extra ones to munch on while you prepare dinner. It was actually less expensive to buy the carrots and celery this way and I didn't have leftovers).
6 green onions, cleaned trimmed and diced
1 large Idaho potato peeled and cut into half inch dice
1 pre-prepared pie crust

Get out a 9 X 9" square oven-proof pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sauce pan add your butter and begin to melt it on medium high heat. Add the flour and stir until bubbly. You are making the base for your pot pie sauce. When the mixture is bubbling stir in your chicken stock, slowly. You want the flour to mix in seamlessly; no lumps. Just start slowly and you'll be fine. When all stock is added put in your cream. Stir while you add the cream. Then add salt and pepper to taste as well as Italian seasoning. A quick grind of sea salt and a dusting of pepper should do it. Leave on medium heat until the sauce begins to bubble. Keep an eye on it and stir once in awhile. As the sauce is cooking you should be able to assemble your veggies in the 9 X 9" pan. The sauce won't take more than 10-12 minutes. Watch for it to start to thicken and make sure it does not boil over.

Put the cut up chicken in the bottom of your heat proof pan. As you prep each veggie you can add it on top of the chicken. No need to thaw or sauté anything. Just put the items on top of each other in the pan. Keep the crust aside for a minute.

When your sauce is boiling and has thickened enough to look like loose gravy you are ready to make your final assembly. Just pour the sauce over the veggies and stir the whole mess thoroughly. This will mix up all of the veggies.

Take the round pie crust and unroll it over your veggie combination. The round edges will hang over the sides. Just fold them back toward the pan and sort of tuck them in along the edges. No need to be picky. Then take a fork and make three pokes in the top of the crust to vent it.

Put the dish in your oven and bake 50 minutes; or until your pie crust is as brown as you like it. During this time you can be watching a movie or reading a novel; playing games with the kids or curled up in front of a warm fire.

If, after 50 minutes, the crust is not as brown as you like it, feel free to raise the oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake 5 to 10 minutes longer.

One secret to a great pot pie is to let it sit out of the oven 10 to 20 minutes before you serve it. That way you don't sear your mouth from the blazing heat of the dish. When it's not so hot it actually has more depth to the taste. Not having a bottom crust cuts down on the carbs and you'll hardly notice it missing.

Cut into the pie and serve in bowls or on a plate with a simple salad and you have a wonderful, cozy meal.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.