Pi R Round

During my freshman year of college, when I was begrudgingly adjusting to the cafeteria food (I still blame that diet for preventing me from growing to a full six feet), I sent Mom a postcard.  It told her nothing at all of what I was doing, who my friends were, or when I would be home next.  Instead, I filled the message space with tiny print listing dozens of foods.  Every alternate item was a different kind of pie.  Granted, towards the end I started stretching that definition a little with things like Cheeseburger Pie or Spaghetti Pie, but they were all things Mom had made, and I missed every single one of them.  Oh, how I love pie.  To this day, my Dad calls me every year on March 14 to wish me a happy Pi Day.  He does not always call on my birthday.  I love that man.

In addition to noting my favorite mathematical holidays, Dad also makes a mean chicken pot pie.  This is not his recipe.  It's Betty's.

Chicken Pot Pie
10 oz box frozen peas and carrots (I couldn't find that.  Mine also had corn and lima beans.  Whatever.)
1/3 C butter
1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C chopped onion
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper (or 1/2 t.  Suit yourself.  I did.)
1 3/4 C chicken broth
2/3 C milk
2 1/2 to 3 C cut-up cooked chicken
pastry for two-crust pie

First, a little confession/revelation.  I spent several weeks hanging out with Dad back in June/July of this year, and because hanging out with Dad means myriad projects, we made a few trips to the hardware store, and while Dad paid for stuff, I flipped through the Exhibitor's Handbook for our county fair.  They had a stack of them sitting on the counter.  In the category for Pies, there were two main subcategories: With and Without Lard.  This cracked me up.  Then, while making chicken pot pie for the very first time less than a month later, I discovered that I did not have enough shortening to make the two-crust pastry recipe.  Luckily, since we don't have a dog, we collect bacon grease in an old shortening container and store it in the fridge.  I subbed a little bacon grease for shortening, used the customary amount of vegetable oil, and went on my merry way.  The crust turned out pretty well, but I have no idea how much bacon grease was used.  Oops.

Filling for the pie.  Yours won't look like this until the end of step 2.

1.  Rinse frozen veggies in cold water to separate.  Drain.  Heat oven to 425F
2. Melt butter in 2 qt saucepan.  Stir in flour (roux!), onion, salt, and pepper.  Stir constantly.  Cook until bubbly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in broth and milk.  Return to heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir one minute (ish).  Add veggies and the bird bits.  Remove from heat.
3. Betty wants you to make this in a 9" square pan, but it's a PIE, for Pete's sake.  Pies are ROUND.  Roll out a little more than half your dough to fit your pie pan.  Line the pie pan with the dough.  Dump in the filling.
4. Roll out the rest of the dough.  Betty suggests cutting out pretty shapes, then topping the pie with the cut-out pieces.  My dough was a little too pliable for that.  I was happy that I got the whole thing together.  I'll work on presentation in the future.  Maybe.  As it was, my aim was a little off when I added the top crust, and I had to do a little patch job.  You can see it in the next picture.  It looks a little goofy, but it tasted fine, so I don't care.
5. Seal the edges.  Make it pretty, if that's your thing.  Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown.

You know what that is.

One more thing: somehow, I ended up with a small handful of leftover pastry.  Check back next week to see what happened to it.