Time and Creativity

Give the kids some time, brown paper bags, scissors, duct tape, throw in some crayons, a few odds-n-ends, and you end up with...

Princess Kate and Sir Koen

Put mom in the kitchen with a recipe minus a few ingredients and you end up with .... dinner, if you are lucky.

Actually tonight's dinner was inspired by a fellow blogger over yonder at Chickens in the Road.  If you follow that link you will see my inspiration.  If you choose not to you will be missing out.  Remember my post about the leeks that my grocery store didn't have?  Well this is the post that sent me in search of the food I had never prepared.  

Did I ever find them?  Yes.  Did I use them to make this recipe?  Not yet.  Instead, I made my own version of pot pie goodness.

Oh yes indeed, pot pie goodness and then some!

First there is the crust, one word name, MARTHA!  I made a pie crust a few years back using a Martha Stewart crust recipe I had jotted down while watching one of her shows.  Many of her recipes are a bit over my head, but this one was SO SIMPLE!  Click Here to check it out.  If you  make it let me know what you think.  I really like it and it really is so very easy to make.  Crust should never be a scary thing, it just shouldn't.  I put my assistant cook Ms. Carley J to work on the crust.  She did a fabulous job.

Okay now on to the good stuff - the filling.

In an electric skillet I browned 1lb of mild sausage,

removed it from the skillet and set aside.

Next I placed 3 diced potatoes (small to medium in size) and half of a large diced vidallia onion in the skillet and sautéed them for a few minutes.

Then I lowered the temp and added half a bag of mixed vegetables.  I put the lid on my skillet and let them simmer for about 20 minutes or so.

Once the potatoes were tender and the vegetables were warm I added those to the bowl with the browned sausage.

The roux is next.  Place 2 Tbsp of butter in the skillet with 2 Tbsp of flour.  Blend together with a whisk until fully combined then slowly add milk.  I ended up using about 1.5 cups of milk to get the consistency I was looking for.  I also added some salt, pepper, and garlic powder for taste.  

When the roux was done I poured it over the sausage mixture and gave the mixture a good stir.

I rolled the pie crust out and placed it in a deep dish pie plate.  Then lovingly heaped the sausage mixture into the dish.

Next I rolled the top crust, folded and sealed the edges, and placed it in the oven @375* for 45 min. 

I didn't take any extra steps (like brushing the top with egg whites) for that extra golden look.  I might next time, or if I decide to serve this to guests.  

I was very happy with the outcome, and thankful to my fellow blogger for the inspiration.
The family all agreed this was "good dinner".