When fall starts turning into winter (in the length of days, if not in temperature), I start craving a good, hot chicken pot pie. Because I ate so many frozen chicken pot pies as a kid, I didn’t really enjoy them until I had American Cafe’s version. Then I realized how hearty and delicious they could be!
This recipe is NOT from American Cafe, but the soy sauce and mustard give it an interesting kick. It’s for a double-crust pie, but I made this one open-faced, both to save calories and because my pie crusts wouldn’t roll out properly. :)
Honey Mustard Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
1 9-inch frozen pie crust (two-pack or double crust)
1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup finely diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup carrots, sliced julienne
3 1/2 Tbsp honey
1 ½ Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbsp water
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Marinate diced chicken in soy sauce.
2. In a lightly oiled saucepan, saute onion and garlic over medium-high heat until onion is soft, but not brown. Add chicken pieces and saute until chicken is cooked through.
3. Stir in chicken broth, carrots, honey, mustard, parsley, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil.
4. Add cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Add more cornstarch mixture if necessary. (Never add cornstarch alone to a dish – always combine with water first!)
5. Pour chicken mixture into pie shell. Top with the second pie crust, cutting small slits in top to let steam escape. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30 more minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
PS – If you’re looking for a last-minute sweet potatoes recipe for Thanksgiving, I have a delicious one here!
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| This ad really bothers me. |
Lately I’ve had a heightened awareness of how much our society over-values busy-ness – and of my own contribution to that wrong perspective. Many of us are very busy, and there’s nothing wrong with talking about it. The problem comes when we overstuff our schedules, or just talk about doing so, as a defense or justification for our existence. When people ask me what I’ve been up to, if I don’t have anything specific to talk about, I often hear myself reply “Oh, I’ve been busy.” It’s the truth, but I don’t like my motivations for saying it. What I’m really trying to say is, “I promise I’m an interesting person. I’m very active. I contribute to society. I don’t sit around doing nothing.” As if relaxing occasionally, or not living life at top speed, should be reason for judgment.
I know I’m not the only one who feels defensive in this way, but I tend toward it more than most people because of how I grew up. My mom enrolled me in practically every extracurricular activity she could find. I would have been happy to sit around reading every afternoon, but that behavior was considered lazy. I’m grateful for all the experiences I’ve had, and as an adult I am happier when I’m active, out and about, learning and doing things. But a lifetime of activity has made it very hard for me to be still. I fight my natural introversion and HSP-ness, then wonder why I collapse in complete exhaustion once in a while. I feel like a loser if I need a day, or even just a whole evening, to recharge and lay around my house doing nothing. I’ve learned the hard way to allow myself these times of relaxation, but I still haven’t consistently learned to feel at peace when I’m not Doing Something.
Anyway, this mindset is just the symptom of a larger problem, which is that we’re all trying to earn our existence. As a Christian, my worth is in Christ and His sacrifice for me, and nothing I do can add to or take away from that. In Christ I would be no less “worthy” if I never “accomplished” anything again. It’ll probably take years of preaching this to myself for it to start sinking in.
PS – Workplace pressure to be busy is different, but no less annoying. I witness busy-ness competitions daily at work. Maybe if people spent less time making sure everyone knows how insanely busy they are, and trying to one-up each other, they’d have more time to do something about it.
5 Comments + Posted in: reflections
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| via Pinterest, of course |
The winner of the My Memories digital scrapbooking software is… Erin! Erin, e-mail me at brendamills@gmail.com and I’ll send you the download info. :) I chose the winner via random.org. Thanks to those who participated!
For everyone else, I have a “Share the Memories” coupon code for $10 off the purchase of My Memories software, plus $10 off any purchase in the online store. Just enter the code STMMMS79166 at checkout! This code doesn’t expire, so if you decide in the future to try the software, please come back and use it.
4 Comments + Posted in: giveaway
Lauren often encourages other bloggers to join her in Wild On Wednesday, so I’m participating this week! (WOW is specifically for discussing things you’re currently wild about.)
I’ve written a lot of materialistic posts lately, so rather than harp on another product I love, or more pretty clothes, I want to talk about something intangible that gives me deep satisfaction: musical mash-ups. I’ve always loved making mix CDs for friends and/or specific occasions. Mash-ups take that innate mix sense to the next level. It’s an art, really – taking two independent entities that shouldn’t go together and bringing them into harmony. (Sort of like marriage!) The more diverse the mashed artists, the more impressed I am. When I hear a great mash-up, I feel like two little puzzle pieces have snapped together in my soul.
The annual mash-up episode of Glee aired last night, so this topic was already on my mind. Then this morning, I heard this song on the radio – the DJ took note of it recently when he watched Just Go With It. It’s The Police mashed with Snow Patrol (and if I like it, you know it was done well, because I think Snow Patrol is sooo overrated).
Every Car You Chase
Of course, the band Rock Sugar owes its existence to mash-ups:
Don’t Stop the Sandman
I know there are a bunch of other great ones out there, but I can’t think of more examples! There’s also the sub-genre of mash-up medleys. My two all-time favorites:
40 Songs, 4 Chords (there are a few versions of this floating around – warning, language at either end)
Jimmy Fallon sings hits of the 80’s over “U Can’t Touch This”
Do you love mash-ups too? Recommend your favorites!
3 Comments + Posted in: music
A couple of weeks ago, I received an offer from My Memories to try their scrapbooking software and host a giveaway! I’ve been intrigued by digital scrapbooking, but hadn’t tried it before now. I was especially interested in this program, since you can supposedly create typographic art with it – I’ve been looking for a program or app for that. I haven’t really explored that aspect of My Memories yet (I’ll share once I do), but I did try some scrapbooking!
My Memories digital scrapbooking software is very easy to use. In many ways it’s similar to Print Artist, which I used to use frequently. It comes pre-loaded with a variety of automatic scrapbook page layouts – to populate the photo spaces, just double-click in each space and choose your photo. You can leave the arrangement as is, or change the size, rotation, and placement of your photos. Many layouts have overlapping photos, which I like, and you can move them to the front or back. For titles and journaling text, you can add standard text effects or use Word Art. Then you can choose from a large selection of scrapbook “papers” in many colors and patterns, and embellishments like brads, bows, frames, and shapes. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this software, and I’m sure I could play with it for hours and not come up with the same thing twice.
There are plenty of basic options, but if you prefer theme-y, seasonal, fancier backgrounds, only a few come with the software (and they’re a little odd). MANY more fancy “papers” and kits are available a la carte on the My Memories website. The font selection was also slightly underwhelming, but with so many free fonts out there, that’s not a big concern for me.
I have not tried to print any of my pages, but I don’t think it would be difficult to do. Here are a few pages that I put together. As JPEGs, they look a little funny because they have automatic “margins” to allow for binding when printed.
3 Comments + Posted in: crafts, giveaway