Vegetable Pot Pies

Here's the recipe for the pot pie filling. Makes 8.5 cups.
1/2 pound lentils dry
2 medium potato
one vidalia onion
one fennel bulb
one leek
one red pepper
one pound mushrooms
two ribs celery

gravy recipe
pie crust recipe

Cook 1/2 pound of lentils (I boil them for ~30 minutes and drain).
Dice and cook two medium potatoes (I boil them ~12 minutes). 
Chop (I use a food processor) and SAUTE in butter or olive oil: one vidalia onion, one fennel bulb, one leek, one red bell pepper, pound of mushrooms, two ribs of celery.
The sauce is has a roux base: 2TB of butter (or olive oil) melted over heat, then 2TB of flour whisked in. I cook the paste less than a minute. Before or when it starts browning, I start gradually whisking in my mix of 4 cups of hot vegetable broth (better than boullion is great for this) with 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast.
—the nutritional yeast is NOT bread yeast or yucky brewer’s yeast, and it is the secret ingredient!—
Once all the broth/yeast is incorporated into the sauce, into whatever pot or pan will hold it all, I combine the cooked potatoes, cooked lentils, sautéed vegetables and sauce. I like to simmer it together ten minutes or more. If you want to add cream, this is when you do it. Then put the filling into whatever casserole dish, pie pans or ramekins (when I use cast Iron I like to heat it up first.) Top with pie crust. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes to brown the crust.

Baked taquitos or flautas

home baked taquitos

moosewood eggplant enchilada

Apple-cheddar Pie

I wanted to make a cheddar apple pie that wasn't just an apple pie with a cheese-enhanced crust.

I found this apple cheddar pie recipe from One Perfect Bite, and it baked up fantastic!

Thanksgiving Post Game

Fish--prep the fish topping ahead of time.
Set table earlier
Make people wake up by ten
Impose schedule on roll maker
Don't make food other people signed up for.
People stressing out about kitchen crowding.
There's tons of handwashing to do in the final push  That's a job for someone.
Sign up kitchen shift in advance?
Wine needs chilled.
Think about appetizer schedule.  He was making them while we were cooking, but that didn't really work.
take shower earlier
went for a walk in the morning (to Hannahford and back with L to get veggie sausage.  Walk was good.
go to the other

Do in advance:
cornbread stuffing--one recipe of Fanny Cornbread more than enough
yams--3 yams more than enought



Turkey
Steelhead trout
potatoes

gingerbread

Gingerbread

October, second half

The kids have been wanting more meat.  And I've been feeling stressed about the time to cook.

So for one week this was my strategy:

So I bought a 2.15 lb tray of chicken thighs, cooked them in the oven along the lines of Budget Bytes' Easy Oven Fajitas, 

I bought a double pack of Vindaloo/Coconut curry sauce from Costco.

I cut up and roasted a whole eggplant in the oven.  

I cooked rice and quinoa.

Whenever it was dinnertime, everyone assembled their own chicken-eggplant-starch-sauce combo.   I left out the chicken and sauce.

For Halloween, we had tuna melts.  It was lovely and low-key.

Planning for October

Thursday:
Leftover Thai Curry with leftover rice and quinoa
Box Pad Thai that came with sauce packet (so terrible.  But the kids liked it?!!)

Friday Night:
mushrooms on egg noodles with Dragon Crescentwagon's gravy.
roasted brussel sprouts

Saturday Night:
bean soup with tortilla chips

Sunday Night
pizza made of frozen bread dough.  Pepperoni or sun dried tomato, with canned pineapple hit the spot.
(note: but thawing dough in oven not so successful for me.)

Monday Night
spicy chicken with bell pepper
lo mein

Tuesday
vegetable pot pies in individual cast iron skillets

Wednesday
spaghetti squash with goat cheese sauce, diced tomato and sauteed greens. was terrible.  just BLAH.

Thursday.
Pork Chops, roasted brussel sprouts, pumpkin pancakes.  I needed a win after last night.

http://www.cookingandbeer.com/2013/03/vegetarian-pot-pies/
mini pot pies.

Mejada (from the Jerusalem cookbook--it's everywhere)

burritos


fettucine alfredo with multicolored vegetables

make an apple pie or apple something.

Since I don't feel like cooking, anything I can make ahead, and that people can just grab, would be good.

I'm cooking up some chickpeas to add to things.  Too cold for hummus.