My father John was a true Irish-Catholic traditionalist. That meant every Sunday EVERYBODY went to church. Real church. Not guitar mass. That meant you had as many children as God "provided for" and you accepted each one willingly and lovingly. I'm not sure my mother went along with all of that. We had seven kids in our family. Even before I decided not to have children, she fully supported the germinating idea. I think she thought she had birthed enough for the both of us.

My father also ate his meals in Irish-Catholic traditionalist style. That meant meat, potato and vegetable. All on one plate but nothing could touch. The meat was cooked by itself. Same for the potatoes (every kind of potatoes you could imagine-he was Irish) and the vegetable. For example. Roast beef done medium. Mashed potatoes with just a bit of salt and butter. Peas, boiled, right out of the freezer bag. Because lunch was much the same in the Irish-Catholic school cafeteria, I felt many times like I ate the same meal twice a day--lunch and dinner.

And, of course, in the Irish-Catholic traditionalist surroundings, Mom cooked dinner, Dad read the newspaper.

When Dad sat down to dinner, something alien happened. Remember that he wanted each item included in the dinner menu to lay separated on the plate. Then, for heaven's sake, why did he stack a bite of each of the three items onto his fork and then proceed to put them in his mouth? If it was okay for them to touch on the fork, why couldn't they co-mingle in a casserole or something? I'll never know.

Even better, on some busy Sundays, Dad would acquiesce to our eating one of those frozen pot pies. Pot pies are the epitome of co-mingled food! And Dad ate them too. What gives? I'll never get the answer to that one either.

Today's recipe is a Zola-version for Pot Pie, easy as can be. Just cut things up, put them in the crust, put it in the oven and sit down and read the newspaper just like good old Dad did. Have someone bring a salad if this is a dinner party, or have one of your (possibly many) children be in charge of the salad. It's your choice.

BONUS material: My email lit up like a Christmas tree after I wrote my "Plan B" column. It was not only gratifying, it was colorful! Stories of the need for Plan B and the confidence that comes along with knowing what to do next were amazing. If you're making anything that resembles the traditionalist meat-potato-vegetable meal above and the meat "goes wrong" (translated--gets too well done), you can add one-half hour to your cocktail time and turn your "ruined dinner" into one of these pot pies. Just keep a package of the crusts in your refrigerator at all times for emergencies. (They last almost forever.) And keep a couple of cans of gravy around or canned diced tomatoes and cheese.

Here's what I mean.

If the meat is overdone (but not charred), cut it into chunks. Take whatever potatoes and veggies you were going to serve and cut them up. Add another raw veggie if you want. Let's say you made roast beef. Roasted potatoes and broccoli are your side dishes. You've now decided the roast is too done to serve to company. Put all of those things in the pie crust with a can of some kind of beef gravy and turn it into the pot pie. It's a chic thing to do these days--serve retro-food. I once served meatloaf and mashed potatoes at a dinner party. It was a hit (but that's another column).

If you don't have gravy, you can make a Mexican pot pie with the diced tomatoes and plenty of grated cheese. You need the cheese as a thickener so the pie isn't too "runny." In any case, if you're afraid it will be runny, serve it in bowls. Big soup bowls with a salad on the side would be just fine.

Instead of apologizing for the overcooked meat, you can glow in the satisfaction that you saved your meal and set a trend in dining at your house.

Enjoy the pot pie and keep Plan B in mind so, when you feel like you want to tear your hair out and scream, instead you'll relax and move on.

Enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

Servings:

Serves 4 to 6 very hungry people.

Ingredients:

2 Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts (1 package)
2 packages of chicken pieces cut into large dice
(Louis Rich makes a 12 oz. package. You can do Italian flavor or Grill flavor; you choose. Or you can use any leftover chicken you have from the grill or roasting, etc. You'll want 2 to 3 cups of chicken pieces.)
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups pre-cooked potato chunks (You can use any leftover potatoes you have -- red-skinned, Idaho, whatever. If you don't have any pre-cooked potatoes, you can take one large one and zap it in the microwave and then cut it up. (Follow your microwave directions for a baked potato.) Peeled or unpeeled; it's your choice. I'm Irish so I have to have potatoes in my pot pie, but you can always leave them out and add another veggie of your choice, like corn or small pieces of broccoli or zucchini or even peppers. One cup of whichever one you choose.)
1 cup chopped celery
1-1/2 cups of carrot pieces. (To make life easy you can get them pre-cut, even crinkle cut, in your produce section.)
2 cups of chicken gravy. (Use the canned, pre-prepared kind.)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Use a 9-inch square pan or deep-dish pie pan. Take one crust out of the package and ease it into the pan. With a square pan it will crunch up in the corners, but that's just a great piece for those who like lots of crust. No problem. With both sizes, the crust is likely to stick up over the sides a bit. This is good.

In a large bowl, combine your ingredients for the filling. Stir and season with salt and pepper. You can even toss in a bit of cayenne if you like your food "zippy." Pour the filling into the first crust. Take the second crust and lay it over the top of the filling. Fold the first crust edges over the top crust or just pinch and tuck it into the sides so there are no large gaps for filling to ooze out of.

Poke a hole in the top of the crust with your knife. You can make a little design with a few pokes if you like. Not necessary though.

Bake in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Turn down the temp to 350 degrees and cook for 30 minutes more. After you take it out of the oven, if you let it sit for 10 minutes it will cut better and hold together a little better, but the filling will still "ooze" out some when you transfer it to the plate, so keep the plate close to the dish as you transfer it.