Chicken and Veggie Pot Pie

This recipe was inspired by the chicken pot pie I've gotten at "Stout", a fun, sports-themed bar-and-grill in Lower Manhattan. I've been there a few times and being a creature of habit...

SHOCKER!!!! :) (Is this where I admit to binge listening to my favorite CDs and playlists over and over and over again??????)

I've ordered it each time and I love it. New York restaurants do not overfeed you. Unlike our Western New York counterparts, the servings in Manhattan are that little bit smaller in lots of places. And they don't even have to be fancy places... but at Stout it's just good food, a normal serving and New York sports all around you, so that's  party bonus! :)

They serve the pie in a good sized ramekin bowl, deep dish style. It's not topped with pie crust or biscuits, but puff pastry, and I love working with puff pastry. Puff pastry is so stinkin' versatile that I can create amazing desserts and main dishes with it. So that was another bonus.

And on those busy nights, if you've got leftover cooked chicken, this is a quick meal. I popped the puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw a little while I was making the other stuff.

I didn't have cooked chicken so I coated three chicken breasts with garlic, salt and fresh-ground pepper and baked it for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Gravy:

4 cups water
3 large bouillon cubes OR 1 1/2 TBSP chicken base
1/3 cup flour 
1 cup water

Whisk flour into one cup of water. Heat the four cups of water in large saucepan and whisk in the chicken bouillon or the chicken base. Heat. Whisk in the flour/water mixture. If you have drippings in the chicken pan, sure... throw those in, too. If not? No worries!

Now some folks add cream here and that's fine... if you want a creamier gravy. I wanted a more old-fashioned taste and so I left the cream out.

Use two or three leftover potatoes, chopped to bite-sized pieces or cook three potatoes and drain them when fork-tender.

One small package (10-12oz) of mixed vegetables.

Make gravy.
Add chicken.
Add veggies.
Add potatoes.
Pour into 13 x 9 pan.
Top with one sheet of thawed puff pastry.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Serve.

Enjoy!

So we're winding things down at the pumpkin farm... here am I with Cinderella, because of course Cinderella should visit a pumpkin farm in honor of her coach! :)

And this is my "pig pot" flower holder... it's a genuine cast iron pot that was used to scald the hide of butchered hogs so that you could scrape the bristly hair off.... My use for it is much more decorative. Isn't this gorgeous? These are "Big Red" begonias, and they make such a show that people keep commenting on them! I have them in my window boxes and the big planters. Big Red and Big Pink have much bigger leaves and flowers so they fill the flower pot areas quickly... and by October, they're overflowing with color!

This is almost my height. Half pot... and more than half flowers. A great thing to look for next spring for your summer gardens, and you can see that it's not "worn" like so many of the summer blooms are by this time. It's positively happy! Glowing!!!

Speaking of glowing, this was a weird morning. I was working in the kitchen. It was just about seven o'clock and the sun wasn't due to rise for another ten minutes so everything was still dark and dusky... and a huge, black storm system was moving in from the west. I could see that out my west-facing windows and the sun should have been rising soon from my east windows....

And then the yard filled with this amazing amber light.... a golden light just flooded the yard, a totally out-of-this-world experience. I think I stood there, staring, wondering if aliens were landing and if so... what would I feed them????

I went out and took a couple of pictures, wanting to capture whatever was happening. (Yes, I could have been stolen by aliens, but I WASN'T, so that's okay, right????)

Here's the dark storm front:

And this is the yard, filled with golden light although the color doesn't come through here:

Remember... the sun wasn't up yet! It was dark and then all of a sudden this light bathed the yard, the trees....

You can see how dark things were with the storm front picture...

I found out later that day that the sunrise (which isn't visible because of trees in my yard and all of the northeast, by the way) was like this huge red ball, peeking up. That must have bounced light from the sun to the clouds and then it was reflected back to the yard as amber.....

Because once the sun rose, it was just regular old light again!

But above those trees I watched a double rainbow appear. Almost over my head because the sun's angle was so acute. (notice I got a little math talk in there, because it's all mathematical, right???)

I used the panoramic setting on my camera which I've never done and it kept scolding me.... "move camera more quickly. Move camera more smoothly. Move camera in the direction of the arrow..."

But I finally got it! And you can see that bright spot in the middle is where the sun's light was being reflected onto the earth below.

I have no idea how many people got the blessing of the golden light, but it's a sight that amazed me and I absolutely had to share it with you!

And look what came to my house this week!!!!!

A 2-in-1 duo with Gail Gaymer Martin! Her award-winning "Christmas Kite" and my "The Lawman's Holiday Wish", a beautiful story of a woman who's made mistakes and a man who needs to learn a valuable lesson about forgiveness.

I've got a copy to give away today, so if you leave a comment I'll put your name in the Christmas stocking! :) Or the Halloween candy bowl???

I'd love to know what you like more? Old-fashioned chicken pot pie or a little flower fun on the farm? Or both?

Multi-published, award-winning inspirational author Ruth Logan Herne loves God... her family... her country.... chocolate, coffee and dogs! She's thrilled to be living her dream job of writing sweet stories that make folks laugh... and cry. Visit her on facebook, stop by her website ruthloganherne.com or follow her on Twitter. She loves to hear from readers and other writers!