Chicken Pot Pie

Last week when we were in England I tried Chicken Pot Pie (actually it was my second time). I really like it. It was delicious, moister and smelled sooooooooooo good. Paul told me it is real English food. The picture you see above is the one we ate in England. The recipe below is the one I found online and cooked at home yesterday. It turned out well, except I used mushrooms instead of peas and celery. Highly recommended in cold weather approaching!

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup frozen green peas 1/2 cup sliced celery 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup chopped onion 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon celery seed 1 3/4 cups chicken broth 2/3 cup milk 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2.	In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3.	In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4.	Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
5.	Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

LIBBY'S Pumpkin Roll

I made this wonderful and tasty pumpkin roll for the first time! And it turned out really well. The recipe calls for LIBBY'S Pumpkin pure. I think that baked and mashed pumpkin can be a great substitute for that ingredient.
ngredients:

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel) 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1.		PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar.
2.		COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
3.		BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
4.		BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Chocolate Truffles

I found this recipe on the Taste of Home website. One lady commented about the recipe, "You may be tempted to save this recipe for a special occasion since these smooth, creamy chocolates are divine. But with just a few ingredients, they are easy to make anytime."

Well, I have a special occasion - I'm hosting a Bridal Shower for my co-worker. So, this is my excuse to make chocolate-coated chocolate dessert! :)

Ingredients: 3 cups (18 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (сгущенка), 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

Directions: In microwave-safe bowl melt chocolate chips and milk. I mixed them together and melted in MW for 2 minutes. Perfect!

Stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla.

Chill for 2 hours or until mixture is easy to handle. I chilled it for just 1 hour and it was still a little warm, but really easy to work with.

Prepare different coatings: chopped flaked coconut, chocolate sprinkles, colored sprinkles, baking cocoa and finely chopped nuts.

I placed then into shallow bowls for easy access and coating.

Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll in the coconut, sprinkles, cocoa or nuts if desired.

Yield: about 4 dozens. Chill for a couple of hours then place into some air-tight dish to keep fresh until serve.

Tomatoes with mozzarella

Yesterday I bought really nice tomatoes and decided to make healthy appetizer for Sunday dinner. It is really simple recipe and doesn't take much time. You will need: tomatoes, of course, mozzarella cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and herbs of your choice.

Wash tomatoes and carefully cut the top part.

Slice tomatoes into 1/4" (5 mm) pieces and place them into serving dish of your choice.

Slice mozzarella cheese trying to cut similar pieces and place them on the top of tomatoes.


Now whisk 1/4 cup of olive oil with a few drizzles of balsamic vinegar and dash of salt and black pepper.

I like to add fresh herbs to all my vegetable meals, so I used dill and basil leave growing on my window.

Carefully spread oil mix on the top of tomatoes making sure that each piece is covered. Ready to serve on your table. Enjoy!

Tea with milk and spices

I hosted a Tea Party last week and there is a recipe for those who found it interesting.
This recipe makes 8 cups. You will need:
- 1 qt.water
- 1 qt. whole milk
- 1/2 tsp. ground cardamon (I didn't add it, it was too expensive to buy)
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp.ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tsp. loose tea leaves (I used 4 bags of fruit berry tea, LDS version)
- 1/2 cup honey

Combine water and milk in large saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to very low. Add spices and vanilla. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Remove from heat, add tea and steep for 5 minutes. Strain into a pitcher or pot, add honey and mix well.

That's it! Warm up with a cup of winter tea!

Cake "Fruit Maze"

I get it now. They say, "Never try a new recipe on friends... if you still want to keep them!" I hope I didn't loose my friends last Saturday, but I tried a new recipe for cake known as "Fruit Maze".

You don’t perm your hair the day of prom, wear new shoes to run a marathon, or apply self-tanner before a job interview (quote by A. Goto). But I was talking to my aunt in Russia and she tried a new cake on some one's birthday party. From her words recipe sounded really easy and I decided to try it for the party....My kitchen ended up being very messy, almost like this cartoon.


And I didn't think that the cake was a big success, but I took some leftovers to work and my co-workers found it tasty. Ha-ha-ha! That's the secret ingredient - cake needs to be tree days old to start taste good!

So, if you are brave enough, let me introduce you recipe for my new creation "Fruit Maze"!!!
You will need:
For the dough: 1cup of sour cream, 2 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 2 TBS soft butter, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3-3 1/2 cups of flour.
For liquid cream: 3 cups of sour cream + 1 cup of water, 1 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 TBS vanilla.


For filling: 1 1/2 cups of raisins, washed and dried.

1 1/2 cups of dried apricots, chopped.

1 1/2 cups of dried pitted prunes, chopped.

I also added 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts. They go well with dried fruits.


Dough: mix flour with baking soda. Add soft butter. Add sour cream. , sugar and eggs. Mix well into ball.

Divide into 3 smaller balls.

Roll each ball with rolling pin into flat circle about 5 mm width.

Spread each dried fruit filling over the dough circle. Sprinkle with walnuts, if desire.

Fold the edge of the dough covering part of the filling.

Carefully roll it into Swiss roll. Press ends sealing the edges.

Repeat with two other fillings.

Place rolls filled with dried fruits and walnut onto greased baking sheet.

Tricky part is baking. This kind of dough needs really low temperature. 350F or 180C is the highest temperature you can afford. It takes about 20-25 minutes to get rolls done.

Coll them down. Cut into small pieces about 1/2 inch wide.

In a meantime, mix 3 cups of sour cream with water and sugar, add vanilla. (Water is necessary to make your cream runny.... (Это русскую сметану не нужно разбавлять водой, она и так жидкая. А вот в американской сметане стоит ложка, поэтому добавляю воду, чтобы можно было обмакивать кусочки рулета в жидкий крем..)

Now fun part. Dump each piece into liquid cream mixture and line them into shallow dish layer by layer. Make sure you dip them generously. It will make your cake softer and moist.

After you use all liquid cream, cover it up with plastic and let stand for 4-5 hours at the room temperature. Than 24 hours in a fridge. That amount of time will let cake soak into sour cream mixture. Remember, it was good on the third day in my case?

It was a little bit of a time-consuming recipe, but new and fun to try. Happy cooking!

Русская версия рецепта:

Для теста: 1 стакана сахара, 2 яйца, 1 стакан сахара, 2 столовые ложки мягкого масла, 18 гр соды (1 ч.л.), муки сколько возьмет, где-то 3-3.5 стакана.

Начинка: 300 грамм чернослива, 300 грамм изюма, 300 грамм кураги.

Крем:
1 л сметаны 20%. Она должна быть жидкая.
1,5 стакана сахара, ванилин

Муку смешать с разрыхлителем и растереть с размягченным маслом. Добавить сметану, сахар и яйцо и замесить пластичное тесто.
Готовое тесто разделить на 4 части. Каждую раскатать в прямоугольник толщиной около 5 мм, намазать начинкой и свернуть рулетом. Рулеты выпечь при 180 градусах до готовности (минут 20). Остудить.
Остывшие рулеты нарезать кусочками толщиной 1,5-2 см.
Форму диаметром 22 см выстелить внутри пищевой пленкой. На дно налить немного крема и плотно уложить кусочки рулета плашмя. Залить кремом. Опять кусочки рулета и крем. И так, пока рулет не закончится. Сверху залить кремом.
Готовый торт оставить пропитываться на сутки, причем первые 4-5 часов при комнатной температуре.
Через сутки перевернуть торт на блюдо, снять форму вместе с пленкой. Залить шоколадной глазурью.

Для начинки курагу и чернослив распарить до мягкости и попустить через мясорубку. Хорошенько перемешать.

Для крема сметану смешать с сахаром и ванилином. Взбивать не нужно.

Приятного аппетита!