Celebrating Movember with Chicken Pot Pie and Fingerstaches

Tonight I made my very first chicken pot pie. This is quite the achievement for me because I usually avoid anything to do with baking or pastry. Other than cupcakes, baking and I do not really get along. I once set a blueberry pound cake on fire in the oven and the experience scarred me (emotionally) for life.   That said, Chicken Pot Pie is one of the guy's favourite foods so I decided it was high time I figured out how to make it. The recipe I used is based off this one that I found on foodgawker. If you haven't discovered the gawkerverse sites, they are some of my favourite time-waster sites (right up there with Ravelry, Pinterest & Etsy - the trifecta of procrastination perfection).

My only modifications were that I skipped the wine and used a bit more chicken stock. Omitted the mushrooms and swapped frozen corn for the peas simply because I didn't have any in the freezer. I used frozen pie crust (sorry mom!) so that if disaster struck I wouldn't take it so personally. I needn't have worried though because it turned out delicious. Amazingly creamy (even without milk or cream) and chock full of veggies which makes it even better.

Not a great photo, but had to share the achievement

I have been immersed in holiday knitting over the past few weeks. This means that all other crafting endeavors, like my handmade Christmas ornaments project, have been put on hold for the time being. In addition to my family gifts, I am participating in my first swap on Ravelry. It is from the Rebecca Danger Crafts group. Essentially, you make a mini-version of one of Rebecca Danger's patterns, pair it with some Christmas goodies and send it off to your assigned swap partner, who will in turn do the same for you. I have really enjoyed the process so far and I have my mini about 2/3 of the way completed. I won't post pictures until it is all done and sent because I don't want to ruin any surprises! All I can say is it may have been a mistake to make a tiny striped scarf. I did not consider the fact that I would need to weave in 58 tiny ends of yarn.

Other things that have me excited this week include season 4 of The Big Bang Theory - the guy and I have been catching up with this show and laughing hysterically. The addition of the Amy Farah Fowler character is brilliant. Who knew Blossom was secretly a genius? Also, when we went to the Halloween Stag and Doe we won a Keurig Coffee Maker and we are loving several flavours of tea and hot chocolate, while our guests enjoy freshly brewed coffee.

Tonight, I took a break from holiday knitting to make these fingerstaches for the guy and I to celebrate Movember. I vetoed him actually growing a mustache (not a fan of facial hair), so I figured this would be an acceptable substitute.

Rock on Movember. Rock on. 

'til next time,

msi.

Mid-week Comfort Food

Well it's Wednesday. This has felt like a painfully long week at work so we had a mid-week comfort food feast tonight. My mom and step-dad were visiting so my Mom made supper for my guy, two of my best friends E&L and myself. That is comforting in itself, but to make it even more soothing the menu was Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese. How can you get better than that?

Not just any grilled cheese and tomato soup mind you. Grilled cheese with old cheddar, prosciutto and red onion from my folks' garden. Yummy!

Crispy on the outside and melty and cheesy on the inside. Mmmm.

The soup is Cream of Roasted Tomato from my absolute favourite cookbook 300 Sensational Soups. If you love soup this is a must have book. The book is affordable, the recipes are easy and most of all they are delicious! They are also very easy to make and usually make enough to feed 4-6 so you have enough for your family, or leftovers. All of the soups I have tried have also frozen really well. For this version my mom roasted cherry and heirloom tomatoes from her garden. Mix that with the classic combo of onion, garlic and herbs and yum!! We also substitute milk for the whipping cream to reduce the fat content.

Fresh Roasted Tomato Soup

After everyone left tonight, my guy settled in to watch the season finale of his favourite show (Deadliest Warrior - Vampires vs. Zombies... seriously?) and I decided to bake these incredible Banana Chocolate Chip Nutella muffins that I found on the blog Daily Unadventures in Cooking (click the link for the recipe). As I write this they are cooling on the rack and I can't wait to take a bite!

My trusty KitchenAid mixer. One of the best gifts ever!

Garfield guards the cooling muffins. 

The nutella gives these a lovely brown colour.

Who can wait until breakfast? 

Another hour of sock knitting and I'm off to bed. Two days until K's birthday and I am on the foot of the second sock. Almost there!

msi