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As we move into the ice storm portion of this week's winter wallop, I am heating the tea kettle and rummaging through my freezer for lunch options. As I am sure you can imagine by now, my freezer is quite full with all sorts of delicious choices. I completely cleaned out my freezer sometime in December before I went home for Christmas, reserving a few items that were new at that time to the wintry wonderland known as my freezer. I had several bags of frozen berries, including some fresh cranberries that I didn't get around to using at Thanksgiving, a chicken pot pie in desperate need of a "lid", and some of the best minestrone I have ever had (more on that later). This requires a little vulnerability on my part, but I am sharing with you a picture of my freezer and a list of all it's little treasures.
in the box:
minestrone
apple parsnip soup
turkey lasagna
boeuf bourguignon plus a pint of leftover broth
chicken pot pie
a sheet of puff pastry
half loaf of sourdough bread
half loaf of whole grain bread
a few slices of a baguette
brioche loaf
Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese (if you've tried it, you know why it's in here)
two pounds ground beef
two whole chicken breasts, bone-in
two lamb shanks
bacon
two types of breakfast sausage patties
2 bags of blueberries (why? i have no idea)
bag of cranberries
bag of blackberries
butternut squash puree from a few weeks ago
fresh-frozen mix of blackberries and blueberries
apple brown betty (three left)
chocolate chip cookie dough
cheese ravioli from the winter market
asparagus and artichoke ravioli from the winter market
those blasted squash and sage ravioli I made last weekend
ice cube trays.and an ice bucket that are empty. Yes,I am that girl. I suck.
in the door:
two boxes of frozen brown rice packets from Trader Joe's
frozen limeade left over from Cindy's beer margaritas on my birthday (quite yummy)
butter wrappers (remember that Cook's Illustrated trick?)
a rind from a hunk of parmigiana reggiano
Suffice it to say, mama can ride out a storm or two with all the crap in here, but hey--I'm single and a girl doesn't always want to cook. But that doesn't mean I have to eat meals-in-a-box or fast food. Come on now! Now, "what on earth are you going to do with all of this?" you might ask. Well, I need to rotate out some of the older "inventory" to make room for any future creations. I started by pulling out the Chicken Pot Pie, puff pastry and Minestrone to defrost. I hear lunch and dinner calling.
Now that's easy enough, but what about all those berries I have in there? Time to start digging for recipes again.
Chicken Pot Pie - adapted from Barefoot Contessa
I tried this recipe back in November when we had one of our first really cold weekends. I had read a bunch of rave reviews about this recipe and had to give it a try. I happened to be walking through Crate and Barrel that weekend and saw these really cute individual pie dishes. I had to grab a few for my first whirl with this one. The recipe makes enough for 6 pot pies, so I prepared the four pie dishes and put the rest in a casserole dish to freeze. I had corn, carrots and broccoli in my freezer when I made this recipe initially, so that is what I used for the vegetables. I had baked off one of the pot pies and thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was the best pot pie I had ever had. I froze the other three individual pies and the casserole dish. Flash forward to Groundhog Day and here we are. I defrosted the pot pie filling and the puff pastry. I decided to save myself some time by not rolling out fresh pie dough. Besides, the puff pastry had to be good, right?
I rolled out the pastry dough and cut it into four squares. I then rolled two of the squares out a little more until they were big enough to fit over the pot pie filling.
I filled both of the pie dishes with the filling and then brushed the outside of the dish with an egg wash. This helps the puff pastry stick to the dish.
I also brushed the top of the puff pastry to give it a nice brown color once it baked. Make sure to cut air vents in the top to allow the steam to escape.
Place in a 375 degree oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, until top is browned and juices are bubbling up out of the steam vents. Remove from the oven and let rest for a couple minutes. The result is a heavenly smelling homemade chicken pot pie. I will definitely be making this recipe again!
Easy Apple Cranberry Cake - from Barefoot Contessa's How Easy Is That?
I found this yummy sounding recipe that didn't require me to pick up any ingredients. I had everything in the house already! The only substitution I made was creme fraiche for the sour cream. I didn't have sour cream, but creme fraiche is a nice swap. It is a little bit thicker in consistency and has a milder flavor than sour cream.
12 ounces fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems (I defrosted that bag of fresh cranberries from my freezer)
1 Granny Smith apple, cored, peeled and diced
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 + 1/8 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
1 stick butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream (or creme fraiche)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine the cranberries, apple, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can use a hand mixer too!), beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add 1 cup of the granulated sugar, the butter, vanilla, and sour cream and beat just until combined. On low speed, slowly add flour and salt.
Pour the fruit mixture evenly into a 10 inch pie plate. Pour the cake batter over the fruit, covering it completely. Combine the remaining cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it over the batter.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and the fruit is bubbling around the edges.
Serve warm or at room temperature. This cake was very tart and moist. It has such great flavor! Nice treat on a winter evening.
I baked a batch of those frozen cookie dough balls I had to take with me to the office. My house now smells like cookies and I am relaxing, watching this week's "Castle" on my DVR and enjoying a delicious glass of red wine. Back to work tomorrow!
