Phew- I feel like I haven’t hopped on here in a while… all the snow…broken foot… life is (perfectly!) in my way. Not to fear, this recipe was too great not to share asap. Great but also so, so easy. I’m writing the recipe for two 10″ pies. It would actually be a crime not to make one for your freezer. It’s that easy. 
Easy Peasy Chicken Pot Pie For the Crust: Preferred: 4 cups all purpose flour 1 cup finely grated sharp cheddar cheese 2 teaspoon oregano 2 teaspoon chives (fresh chives would be awesome too but my chive pot is buried under a foot of snow…) 2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 sticks crisco 8-10 tablespoons of ice cold water (fill a glass with ice cubes and water and spoon your tablespoons out of that) In A Pinch: Use pillsbury refrigerated crust. I can’t handle using this in my sweet pie recipes, but doctoring it up in a savory recipe works beautifully. Just use this crust as is and follow directions later in recipe to give it a little zing. (While you are preparing the crust, heat the oven to 350*F) Mix flour, salt, cheese and herbs in a bowl. Add crisco and use the back of a large fork to “cut” the crisco into the flour. Your mixture should eventually look crumbly but hold a shape if you press on it. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, checking dough consistency by trying to form a ball of dough in your hand. If it holds a nice ball it’s ready. If it is crumbly it is not yet wet enough. If it gets too sticky, sprinkle in a bit more flour. Form 4 balls of dough and cover with your mixing bowl until ready to roll. 
Filling: 2 large chicken breasts 2 cups fresh frozen veggies (I keep a huge bag of these from Costco on hand for recipes like this- my mix has carrots, corn, green beans and peas) 1 can of low sodium cream of mushroom soup (if you want to skip the canned soup part, substitute using this method) 1 cup of good, dry, white wine (something you would like to drink) 1/2 large onion, diced small 4 stalks of celery, diced Salt, pepper, and oregano to taste 1. Spray a baking sheet with sides with cooking spray. Arrange two large chicken breasts on the tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Flip and do the same to the other side. Bake in your preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until just cooked through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Turn oven temperature up to 425. 2. In a large mixing bowl, add all veggies, seasoning, soup and wine. Mix with a spoon until completely combined. 3. Dice cooled chicken and add to filling mixture. Stir again to combine. 4. Roll two dough circles out to a 1/4 inch thick and gently place inside two 10″ pie plates. Make sure the crust is touching the glass everywhere and you have no air bubbles on the bottom. 5. Use half of filling in each pie. Roll two more dough rounds and lay over pies. Seal the edge with your fingers and/or the back of a fork or spoon. If you’ve got munchkins in the kitchen, give them the extra pie dough and a rolling pin and let them use cookie cutters to cut out crust shapes for the edges of your pie. My girls love to do this! 
6. Use a sharp knife to poke vent holes in the top of your pie. 7. Brush the top of your pie with egg wash (1 egg mixed with a tablespoon of milk). 8. If you used the store bought crust, sprinkle it with sharp cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and oregano. I promise you won’t even care that it’s store bought anymore- it’ll taste fabulous. 9. Bake at 425 for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for ten minutes, then slice and serve! I had an instagram friend ask how difficult it would be to make this recipe meatless and the answer is… SO EASY! Skip the chicken, add an extra cup of veggies, and instead of chicken, add a (raw) small diced sweet potato. If your sweet potato pieces are nice and small, they’ll add a great boost of substance and still cook through without any extra cooking ahead of time. 
I hope you love it! Should definitely warm up all of you folks piled up under mountains of snow right now! Did I mention my girls’ loved it?! Seriously. Huge winner. **** I’ve been working on a few gifts for my friend who is due with her first baby this spring. She ordered a color block blanket but I had to sneak in a few other gifts, too! How amazing is this pug from Fabric Dragons?! Their etsy shop has the cutest little softies and this pug was absolutely perfect for my pug loving friend. 
I’m kind of obsessed with this blanket, by the way. The gray is the absolute most perfect shade EVER and I think it works so well with the pink and white.
You can find the pattern for this blanket in my etsy shop by clicking HERE.
I’ve been working on this teeny tiny desk nook for a little while now. My brother custom built the simple little desktop for me and my sweet husband sanded and painted that fun thrifted chair. I love how the wall makes it look finished. I have to actually screw everything into place before I can proceed (which is a little bit difficult since the staircase drops down on the right side…) But I’ll figure it out!
Apparently this is an awesome sandwich Brandon gets downtown sometimes when he buys lunch. A mexican inspired meatball sub! Seriously I could eat these for dinner every night. We got a fabulous jarred arrabiata sauce from the store and added mexican cojita cheese and tons of cilantro. Piled the meatballs on top of toasted buns drizzled with olive oil and fresh garlic and…voila! A really, really delicious weeknight dinner.
I instagramed this cute little dolly a few days ago. I adore her. Love that she matches Gracie’s birthday quilt! But love more that she uses some of my favorite scraps I’ve been setting aside from my postage stamp quilt. I filled her legs with polly pellets so she would feel a bit more substantial to grace. I made her by free hand cutting out all of the pieces (folded my fabrics in half-right sides together- so all of the pieces would match up). Fiddled around with her until I got it right. Then painted her little face on. In my personal opinion her odd neck got a little long… but not a big deal 😉
I’m kind of obsessed with working on this (kind of) low-volume postage stamp quilt. I’m using a tutorial from Rita Hodge at Red Pepper Quilts (the inspiration behind my entire quilting obsession). I love how clear she makes the whole process and the photos that go with the tutorial are great. If you are looking for a first quilt project or just a new pattern she is definitely a great place to start!
I’m not sure how I’ve never made these little pretzel bites before… but they are freaking amazing.
This is what I came up with for Gracie’s birthday quilt. I didn’t have to buy *anything!* for this quilt except the backing piece which I found at Joann’s with a 50% off coupon. I love how big it turned out and how it showcases some of my favorite fabrics.
And the teal binding- so in love.
Another super soft chunky infinity scarf. This color is definitely a customer favorite this winter! This is the sixth one I’ve made by request. Phew! The pattern can be found HERE.
A chunky infinity scarf made out of leftovers from my yarn bin. I’m not usually a green fan but I love this one!
Please tell me she isn’t really turning two soon. I’m going to ignore age and go by clothing size 😉
Even though the snow is super frustrating, three out of five members of my household LOVE it so I really can’t complain. It’s pretty and fun and magical (mostly) and I’m perfectly ok with that.
I’ve been wanting a portrait like this for-EVER from various etsy shop artists… but at $100+ I just couldn’t justify spending the money. This one cost me a fraction of the price ($3 for the wood- that’s it!) and I love how it turned out. When I showed it to Lilly she knew who everyone was supposed to be so I’m good with that haha.
I think this sweet little scrap sleeping bag is going to be home to a dress up mermaid doll… still working on/figuring that one out. But I’d love to get that done in time for Lilly’s birthday next month!
And I know I’ve promised the details to this quilt- they will come, I swear! But you can kind of see my layout here in the snippet of sketch by the binding. I started with a square grid and just figured out how much white/how many prints I needed to cut and then pieced it all together. I used a 10″ square quilt ruler. Came out so lovely. I really want to bang out a quilt like this for each of our parents and siblings (someday ha) so we all have a sort of “family motif” blanket draped somewhere in our homes. Doesn’t that sound nice? Maybe I’m crazy.
Anyway, that’s sort of the fly by of what’s happening around here.
I’m hoping to get up a few more fun quilt tutorials this month along with a recipe or two. Need to keep my big camera on hand but it’s been acting funky and I never want to risk anything happening to it while I figure out how to upgrade! Sigh.
I’ll be back soon. And you can always find my happenings on instagram @sweetersidemom
Happy President’s Day!
-J
[…] leftovers. It’s a grew packed lunch the next day for your husband, too This (and ok, my new Chicken Pot Pie recipe) is definitely my go to meal for friends who have a baby or for use in a freezer meal swap. […]