Date night with me, myself and I

On today's menu we have chicken pot pie and an apple turnover that I made with the leftover pie dough.

I have this farmer's market that is about 5 exits away from my home. The market is in the middle of no where, it's like this hidden secret. Shopping at this market is kind of like being in a secret fight club. Another customer passes as your sort through a crate of nectarines and you both give each other that nod of approval.

This market has the best produce selection in the area, so the drive is worth it. Once and awhile I'll go and stock up on my fruit and veg.. maybe get a tiny bit crazy and buy some of their famous ciders. Nothing comes close to my beloved Boys in Delay Beach, The boys has to be the best market that I've been too.. maybe even better than Stew Leonard's in CT. Sadly, there aren't any singing milk cartons or talking cows at the boys.

You would never know how cool the boys is by looking at the outside of the building, it's located in the middle of the city, next door to a post office. The boys, another one of my secret spots.

I went to my market aka.. middle of no where, thumbprint access code market. I got tons of veggies and fruit. Produce is so much cheaper and much more fresh at farmer's markets.

So I only had to buy some chicken stock and heavy cream at the grocery store today for my pot pies. And I even got to use some of the fresh herbs in my garden. I used rosemary, garlic and butter to roast my chicken.

These pies came out so good, I've never had a better chicken pot pie in my life, I don't think that I can go back to any other kind after these. And the filling was super easy. I cut up my potatoes and carrots before hand and boiled them, for just a few minutes. In a big pot I caramelized my onions with butter and a tiny bit of olive oil, and a little sugar towards the end. (I would suggest using shallots if you have them, I'm sure they would add so much flavor to the filling, white onions are fine if no shallots are available) I didn't let the onions get totally brown, only spots of brown. Then I added my mushrooms, don't crowd the mushrooms! They like their space, and with the mushrooms I added more butter. Once the mushrooms were cooked I added only a little chicken stock and chicken that I roasted earlier and had cut up and cooked that down for a minute or so. I then added my beloved heavy cream and had that boil with the rest of the party for a few minutes until the cream got thicker. I then added my precooked carrots and potatoes. Last minute I added my peas and took the filling off of the heat. Don't forget to salt and pepper! While the filling was cooling I rolled out my pie crust.

A friend gave me this really cool fondant mat for my birthday just the other day, so I decided to try it out on my pie crust and I just love love love the way it works, it's one of my new favorite fondant tools :)

Tortillas

Last night I was thinking about a low calorie meal that I could prepare today, without having to go to the store and buying anything. Lack of money.

So, I thought to myself, well, I have some black beans and rice packets in the freezer. (I buy the box mix of black beans and rice, cook it and then divide up my serving sizes, put them in ziploc bags and freeze them) and I also have some low fat cheese and then I have some portioned out chicken in the freezer... too bad I don't have tortillas.
And then I thought, well.. I remember when I lived in Michigan, I had a teacher who made them in class one day and she was telling us how super easy it was and how much money you saved making your own, rather than buying them and how much better they tasted.

So I got a recipe and I made my own tortillas. They were kind of a pain to roll out, but after awhile, you get the technique down, and I got to try out my comal!