Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of Mom's classics.  It was one of her submissions in "Happy Cooking," the Covina Ward Cookbook of 1965.

One whole chicken (4 lbs.) or 4 lbs. of bone-in chicken breasts
1 Tbls. salt
1 stalks celery

1 bay leaf
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced in half
3 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 cups peeled and diced carrots
1 cup cooked peas
7 Tbls. butter
7 Tbls. flour
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp.  worcestershire sauce
dash nutmeg
pinch tarragon
1 cup milk
2 cups chicken broth

Place chicken in a large stock pot and fill with water just until chicken is covered.  Add salt, celery, bay leaf, and onion.  Cover and heat until almost boiling.  Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  While chicken cooks, prepare and cook potatoes, carrots, and peas.  (I usually cook the diced potatoes and carrots together in boiling water, then add frozen peas in for the last few minutes of cooking).  Remove chicken, reserving 2 cups of the broth.  Remove chicken meat from bones and cut into bite size pieces.  Place chicken and vegetables in a deep 9 x 13 pan (or use a shallow 10 x 14) Sprinkle with salt.  On medium-high heat, melt butter in a large frying pan.  Add the flour and mix with a fork.  Slowly add the milk and chicken broth, stirring constantly to remove lumps.  Cook the milk/broth sauce until thickened.  Add pepper, worcestershire sauce, nutmeg, and tarragon.
Pour over chicken & vegetables.  Top with your favorite biscuit or pie dough.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Molasses Crinkles

I figured a cold January day was a good time for a molasses recipe.  This recipe was written in Mom's handwriting, but she didn't include any instructions...not even the baking temperature!  I followed my cookie making instincts and they turned out really good.

2/3 c. shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

Cream together shortening, sugar, egg & molasses.   Stir in all of the dry ingredients.  Shape into balls and then roll them in sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 to 12 mintues, or until they "crinkle".

Tamale-Cheese Pie

Filling

1/2 C. chopped onion

1 clove garlic

1 T. butter

1/2 lb. ground beef

1 can sliced mushrooms

1  one pound can tomatoes

1 23 oz. can whole kernel corn

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 T. chili powder

1 cup sliced olives

1 1/2 t. salt
1 cup shredded cheese

Saute onions in butter.  Add beef and mushrooms.  Cook and stir until beef loses its red color. Add tomotoes, corn, tomato sauce, green pepper, chili powder and salt.  Cover and simmer 45 minutes.  Add olives and simmer 15 minutes longer.

Tomato-Cheese Crust
Mix together 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1 cup cold milk.  Combine 2 cups milk, 1 T. butter and 1 tsp. salt.  Heat to boiling.  Gradually stir in cornmeal/milk mixture, sitrring constantly.  Cook until thickened.  Cover and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.  Stir in 2 beaten eggs and 1 cup grated cheese.  Stir until cheese is melted.

Line bottom of shalow 2 quart casserole with tamale-cheese crust, reserving 1 1/2 cups crust mixture for top.  Pour meat filling over crust.  Drop remaining spoonfulls of crust mixture over meat and top with cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

This dish was a family favorite and it really brought back memories making it.  Most of all, I'm amazed that Mom made it so often because it does take quite a bit of time and attention.  This isn't something that you can just "whip up" at the last minute!  I hope we all appreciated it back then.  It's a great casserole for a snow day. Enjoy!

She Loved to Cook....and Collect

When my best pal Beth and I were in college, we used to have a friendly argument over whose mother was the best cook.  Maybe it was the mundane cafeteria food we were eating at the time, but we would try to top each other in descriptions of our mothers' great home-cooked meals.  I finally won the argument when Beth lived with my parents for a few months while earning her masters degree and got to experience Mom's cooking first hand.  No one who tasted Mom's cooking could argue with my bold statement of, "My mother is the best cook in the world."  What's more remarkable is that she never seemed to tire of spending time in the kitchen.  She raised eight children and as the years went on, she still delighted in rolling out cookie dough with her grandchildren or preparing a big meal for a family gathering.  Mom loved to collect recipes (Sunset magazine, the LA Times, and her sister-in-law Ilene were her favorite sources) and wasn't afraid to try new things if they sounded good.  One of my last memories of Mom was her sorting through a pile of recipes she had stashed away in a drawer and had long forgotten about.  She carefully read through each one, commenting on this or that, saving the ones that she still wanted to try out "someday".  Mom passed away last month, and in her honor I am starting this blog of her recipes.  The day after her funeral I managed to stuff all of her recipe boxes and one very large spiral binder into my carry-on bag on my trip back to New Jersey.  This was very precious cargo, after all,  and I was't going to chance it getting lost.  My goal now is to prepare and then blog about two or three recipes a week, adding my memories and/or anecdotes of Mom along the way.