Looking back, I never knew how lucky I was to have experienced growing up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Waking up on quiet mornings where the only sound was that of the meadow lark calling to his mate, or the buzzing of the locusts as darkness filled the evening sky.

Many of the ways of daily rural life I took for granted. My mother baking our bread every few days, collecting fresh eggs in the nesting boxes for breakfast, or going out to the garden to select what was desired for dinner. Little did I know at the time that these day-to-day ways of living would later become the popular trends now known as natural foods, organic produce, and free range chicken and eggs.

I also recall one of my favorite meals my mother would prepare, chicken pot pie. Made with vegetables picked straight from the garden, a freshly butchered chicken, and home-made biscuits, this was truly a pan of goodness. Country living at its best. I still love to make a version of the chicken pot pie. I am sad to say I don’t have a garden to pick from, or a yard to go catch a hen in, but I do have the cast iron skillet that cradled the dish I so fondly remember.

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Chicken Pot Pie

Home cooking at its best.  Tender bites of chicken and vegetables in a country gravy topped with biscuits.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Home Cooking

Prep Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thigh
• ½ cup onion diced
• ½ cup mushrooms sliced or quartered
• ¼ cup celery sliced
• ¼ cup red pepper chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables thawed
• ½ cup white wine
• 2 cups medium béchamel sauce
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese grated
• 2 tablespoons dill or parsley rough chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tube Pillsbury Grands or similar feel free to make your own if you like

Instructions

• Begin by heating oven to 350°F.
• Cut chicken into 1″ cubes and lightly brown in a skillet over medium high heat. When golden, remove from pan and reserve.
• In the same skillet sauté together onion, celery, and pepper until onion becomes translucent. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook for one minute.
• Reduce the heat to low and add the white wine to the skillet of onions, scraping the bottom to deglaze the pan.
• In a separate sauce pan, make 2 cups of medium thick béchamel sauce. When thickened add to the onion mixture.
• Add the thawed mixed vegetables. Simmer until thick and bubbling.
• Add cheese and herbs, mixing well. Remove from heat.
• Cut biscuits into quarters and arrange on the top of the pan starting in the center and working out.
• Place skillet on a sheet pan (can bubble over) and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Skillet will be heavy and hot, use caution when removing from oven.
• Allow dish to cool for 5 to10 minutes before digging in.

Notes

This is a one skillet dish. Use a cast iron skillet or an oven proof pan suitable for baking. Feel free to add, substitute or delete and items you like to make this dish yours.

Since we live in Denver, we also sometimes refer to this dish as the DIA bake (Denver International Airport).

America’s most popular vegetable is the potato. We enjoy them boiled, baked, fried, microwaved, steamed, roasted, and mashed, with or without their peels. By themselves potatoes are quite low in calories and loaded with nutrients.

“Creamers” or “new potatoes” are terms used to describe all small waxy potatoes, but technically it refers just to immature potatoes harvested in the spring and early summer. You can tell if a potato is truly new by its skin. Immature potatoes have flimsy, parchment-like skins that you can peel off with your fingers. Creamers are prized for their high moisture content, smooth texture, and because they can be cooked whole. They are especially good steamed or roasted.  New potatoes are more perishable than other varieties, and need to be used within a few days of buying them.

Potatoes with a high starch content, like russets, bake well and yield light and fluffy mashed potatoes.  Those with a low starch content, like red-skinned potatoes, hold their shape after cooking, and are great for making potato salads and scalloped potatoes.

Some information about Potatoes:

• 1 lb of potatoes equals 4 cups diced or 1 3/4 cups mashed.
• Best for baking is the russet potato
• Best for potato salads, gratins, and scalloping are the Yellow Finn, new, red-skinned, white round, and purple potatoes.
• Best for mashing are the russet, Yukon gold, Caribe, and purple potatoes.
• Best for soups and chowders are the Yukon gold, Yellow Finn, red-skinned, white round, and purple potatoes.
• Best for pan-frying are the red-skinned, white round, new, and fingerling potatoes.
• Best for French fries are russet, purple, and Bintje potatoes.
• Best for purees are fingerling potatoes.
• Best for roasting are new, and fingerling potatoes
• Store potatoes in a cool, dark, dry, well-ventilated location.
• Do not refrigerate uncooked potatoes, doing so converts some of the potato’s starch to sugar.
• Do not expose potatoes to direct sunlight, it will turn them green and makes them bitter.
• Scrape away any sprouts or green spots, as they might contain a mildly toxic compound called solanine.

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Creamers in Dill Sauce

Tender new potatoes and fresh spring peas in a dill cream sauce.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Eastern European

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Christoph

Ingredients

• 1 pound of creamers
• 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
• 1 shallot minced
• 4 tablespoon dill roughly chopped
• 2 cups medium béchamel sauce
• Salt
• White pepper

Instructions

• Cook potatoes until fork tender by gently boiling.
• Prepare the béchamel sauce. Sauté the shallot in the butter used to make the roux before adding the flour.
• Add the peas, dill and potatoes to the sauce.
• Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Baking cod is a very easy and quick method of preparing this tender flaky fish. Using a compound butter made with dill during baking keeps the fish incredibly moist, and adds a subtle flavor that works well with the mildness of the cod.

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Baked Cod with Dill

Baking cod is a very easy and quick method of preparing this tender flaky fish. Using a compound butter made with dill during baking keeps the fish incredibly moist, and adds a subtle flavor that works well with the mildness of the cod.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 22 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

Cod

• 1 lb cod fillets leave whole
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
• 2 Tablespoons chopped dill

Dill Sauce

• 1 tablespoon butter - compound butter made with dill
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ½ cup white wine
• ½ cup milk or vegetable stock

Instructions

Cod

• In a small bowl mix together the butter and the dill. (Compound butter or beurre composé is made by mixing ingredients such as herbs, shallots or white wine with butter).
• Place the cod fillet in a glass baking dish lightly sprayed with cooking oil. (Cook the fillets in large pieces and cut them into 8 oz serving portions after baking. This will help to keep the fish moist).
• Spread one half of the compound butter over the top of the fish, reserving the other half to create a sauce.
• Bake the cod uncovered for about 12 minutes. Remove the fish from the oven and lightly season with salt and pepper.

Dill sauce

• Over medium heat, melt butter in sauce pan, be careful not to burn the butter.
• Sprinkle in flour and cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens 4 – 5 minutes. (Cooking for this amount of time will minimize flour taste).
• Add the liquids to the Roux stirring constantly. Continue cooking slowly until smooth and thickened. Stir constantly to avoid scorching.  This is also known as a Bechamel Sauce or basic white sauce.

Notes

The most common reason that baked fish is dry is overcooking. Fish is done when it turns an opaque white color. Rely more on the color and consistency of the fish than the cooking time. Your fish should flake easily with a fork, but still be “moist” between the layers. Remember all food continues to cook after it is removed them from the oven.

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Bechamel Sauce

Course Sauce

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cup

Author Christoph

Ingredients

Thin sauce:

• 1 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 Tablespoon of flour

Medium sauce:

• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 Tablespoons of flour

Thick sauce:

• 3 Tablespoons of butter
• 3 Tablespoons of flour

Add roux to:

• 1 cup whole milk

Instructions

• Begin by making a Roux of butter and flour.
• Over medium heat, melt butter in sauce pan, be careful not to burn the butter. Sprinkle in flour and cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens 4 – 5 minutes. (Cooking for this amount of time will minimize flour taste).
• Add 1 cup of milk to the Roux stirring constantly. Continue cooking slowly until smooth and thickened. (Stir constantly to avoid scorching)

 Béchamel is one of the four “mother sauces” which is used to make the following:

• Crème Sauce
• Mornay Sauce
• Soubise Sauce
• Nantua Sauce
• Cheddar Cheese Sauce
• Mustard Sauce