Making Babies (and making dinner when possible)

Chicken Potpie
I take the short cut and buy a pre-roasted chicken (see previous entry about this). The only thing this recipe involves is a lot of chopping. Also, if you are good at making pie crusts, this dinner choice is for you. Warm up a large saute pan or stock pot to med/high. Start cubing your vegetables. I like to peel my potatoes and carrots, but it's optional. Peel and cube 2 potatoes and 2 carrots. Layer the bottom of the pan with olive oil and add the potatoes and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. While these are cooking, cut up 3 large stalks of celery, and 1 large onion. Add this to the pan. I like to use fresh thyme, but you can add dried thyme, and any other herbs you like. I also add Old Bay Seasoning. Let this all cook until things start to look tender. Again, this is optional, but I like to deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of white wine and let cook down until it's pretty much absorbed. While this is cooking, dismantle the roasted chicken, cubing up the meat into about the same bite size as the vegetables. You'll get about 4 cups of meat. Back to the pan, add about 1 cup of chicken stock, or until the liquid covers just to the top of the vegetables. Scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Now add about 1/4 cup cream or until the sauce is just pale yellow. You don't want the sauce to be white. Add the chicken and 2 cups frozen peas. I like to chop up some fresh parsley and add this as well. Mix together and transfer to an oven safe casserole dish. Now, if you wanted to be really lazy, you could substitute pretty much all the chopping with buying the frozen mix veggie pack of carrots and peas. You could also buy the frozen potatoes and the frozen onions. If you do this, start the pan with the chopped celery, and then add the potatoes, the liquid, and the rest of the frozen veggies. Anyway, now preheat the oven to 400. Make your pie pastry the way you like it, but add 1 tablespoon pepper and 1/4 cup parsley and 1 teaspoon salt to season the pastry. Place over the filling and brush some egg over the top if you want. Cook for about 30-40 minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling. I like to put the dish on a cooking sheet in case the filling bubbles over.