Vegetable Bacon Pot Pie

Today I made a delicious Vegetable Bacon Pot Pie.  I was inspired by a recipe I saw Ina Garten make on the Food Network (Lobster Pot Pie) and the vegetables I had on hand from recent Farm deliveries.

I found Ina Garten’s recipe for vegetable pot pie here and adapted it.

Here is my adaptation.

In a large sauce pan over medium heat sauté

1 large sweet onion

5 T butter

until soft and just starting to caramelize.  Reduce heat to med-low and add

1 c flour

and cook for a couple minutes.

Slowly add

5 cups of vegetable broth

letting the flour and onions absorb each cup of broth and bubble before adding another cup.  Turn the heat up if necessary to get the sauce to bubble a little.

Season to taste with

¼ t nutmeg

kosher salt

pepper

Taste and keep adding s & p until it tastes right.  It should be intensely flavored.  Add a dash of cream or whole milk.

I let the sauce sit at this point while I did the rest and it was fine.  You could certainly do all the other stuff in advance – even a day before.

Lay a ½ lb of sliced bacon over a cookie drying rack that is sitting in a jelly roll pan. This is the only way I cook bacon anymore  - it’s so easy!  Put the pan of bacon in a cold oven, turn the oven on to 450 and check the bacon after 10 minutes.  Let your nose and eyes tell you when it’s done.  I like mine extra crispy, especially when it’s going into something wet like this dish.

Meanwhile, wash, peel, and dice into bite-size pieces

3 carrots

3 small heads of broccoli

3 large red potatoes

1 large beet

When the bacon comes out of the oven wrap the pieces in a towel to absorb the grease.  Put the cookie drying rack in the sink.  Don’t pour out the bacon grease!  Dump the veggies you just chopped into the jelly roll pan of bacon grease, season with s & p, toss to coat.

Roast in the oven at 450 for 10-15 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

While those cook add the following to your sauce.

1 lb of washed and torn spinach, no stems

the cooked bacon, crumbled

½ large zucchini, peeled and diced

Stir until the spinach wilts down.  Season with more s & p, if needed. 

When the roasting veggies are tender, take them out of the oven and let them cool a few minutes.  Scoop them into the sauce and stir to combine.

I let my sauce sit again while I made the pie crust.  You could make yours ahead of time or buy some at the store.

Here’s Ina’s recipe for the crust.  Scroll down and you’ll see it in there. I did it mostly her way except,

1.     I didn’t have shortening and substituted with butter. 

2.     I don’t have a food processor so I cut the butter really small, used my kitchen aid, and made sure the water was truly ice-cold.  Seemed to work fine.

3.     I don’t have a pastry brush so I used my fingers to wet the dough w/egg wash so it would stick to the pans.  I didn’t put egg wash over the top or the salt and pepper.  Seemed fine without, though not as pretty.

While the dough chilled I scooped the sauce into individual serving dishes (must be ovenproof).  I had enough sauce for 7 small dishes. When the dough was ready I rolled it out (with lots of flour) and cut it into rough circles to cover each of my dishes.  There was plenty of dough.  Mine look more rustic and less professional than Ina’s.  As she suggests, secure the dough to the sides of the dishes with an egg wash and cut 2- 3 slits in the top of the crust.

Bake at 375 for an hour.  Let cool for at least 20 minutes.

Yum!

I’m sure I will make variations of this in the future when I have lots of miscellaneous veggies around.  Try it with whatever you have on hand.  The only veggie I consider critical is the onion.

Information, Perspiration, and Inspiration

I think successful parenting takes a lot of information, perspiration, and inspiration. 

My twins, now 21 months old (yikes!), were born 4 months early at 25 weeks gestation and each weighed about 1lb. 5 oz. at birth.  They are some of the smallest born babies to have ever survived such a rocky beginning.  As such, they were invited by the hospital where they were born to participate in a National Health study on very-low-birth-weight babies.  The tricky part is, they were born in Utah and we live in Washington.  The hospital said the study involved an evaluation a few months before or after the twins were 18 months old, adjusted age.  I told them if we were somehow magically in Utah during that window, we would participate.

Well it just so happens we were.  So last week we took a break from our family vacation and went to Salt Lake City to have the twins tested as part of the study.  We owe the Universe for how miraculously our babies have recovered from their early health challenges and we know they have benefited from all the research and work that has been done in the past.  We hope our participation may help other babies in the future. 

A bonus for us was hearing what the Drs had to say about how the twins are doing now and what the future looks like for them.  The twins were a month old when we found out about them and were chosen to adopt them by their birth-mother.  So, we missed the really scary first days and weeks.  They spent the first month on ventilators and struggled to gain a few grams of weight.  When we met them, they were still each under 2 lbs, on oxygen, and very fragile.  Here’s a separate blog with pics and all the details of their NICU stay:  www.jarrettfamilyadventure.blogspot.com.

Liam had a few additional problems: a little hole in his heart (PDA) that hadn’t closed yet, urinary reflux, and he had suffered severe brain bleeds on both sides of his head.  We were told he was at serious risk for developing cerebral palsy due to the brain bleeds.  Both kids would have delayed development and be at risk for cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. 

We studied about all the ways to address these issues, prayed a lot, were blessed with very talented specialists and hoped the twins would escape early death and maybe even severe developmental deficiencies. We had no idea just how miraculous their recovery would be. 

Liam’s PDA is almost gone now, so small it’s not really of concern, his urinary reflux is gone, and his brain appears to have recovered almost completely from the bleeds.  The study evaluated their cognitive, fine motor, and large motor ability.  Chloe is 100% caught up to her real age of 21 months in every area!  Liam has caught up to his real age in cognitive and fine motor.  He is behind his adjusted age 3 months in large motor.  The Dr. said this large gap between Liam’s understanding of what he should do with his body and what he can make it do, like when playing with a toy, causes immense frustration.  We have certainly observed this.  Liam will get frustrated and fight with a toy for an hour sometimes.  The Dr. who evaluated the twins said he was amazed at how well both are doing, but especially Liam.  He said he fully expects Liam’s large motor development to catch up and doesn’t expect him to have any problems in the future. 

AMAZING! 

He also commented that if we had not provided the right kind of stimulation and environment for the twins, their brains could easily have turned to mush – scary.  This comment really had me reviewing the past and thinking about the stimulation and environment we’ve given them.  There’s one thing I keep coming back to.  This spring I listened to a TJED Forum lecture by Keri Tibbetts called A Journey through Core Phase.  I blogged about my response to this lecture here. 

Based on what I learned from her, I decided to get rid of the majority of the twins toys, especially battery toys.  I had mixed feelings at the time.  I wrote:  “I guess I'm struggling right now with the fact that my little boy LOVES toys with music, sounds, and lights.  I do see though that by playing with these he uses no creativity and does no work, just gets entertained.  I don't want to stifle his natural ability and desire to think and play creatively.” 

I have a new perspective on this now.  I think Liam loves toys with buttons, lights, and sounds so much because they are easy.  It is so hard for him to play with “plain and lifeless toys.”  It’s a lot easier to push a button and let the toy do all the work.  I’m sure I’d feel the same if I were in his shoes.  But, having those “easy” toys around eliminates Liam’s motivation to wrestle with the toys that make him do the work.  Working at it and giving his body a chance to learn and develop is what he needs most.  I am SOOOOO grateful I was inspired by that lecture to get rid of the battery toys.  I think they would have damaged or at least slowed Liam’s brain and development if I’d continued to let him play with them. 

From my own faith-based perspective, I see God’s hand in this as well.  We are so blessed.  To all you mothers out there who are trying to do what’s best for your kids: I know you are seeking good information and sweating like crazy as you raise and care for them.  Don’t forget to listen to the inspiration you receive.  Do what you think is right even if you don’t totally understand it.   There is someone out there who knows more than you and cares deeply about your children.

Online Learning

This is a great blog post on TJED online learning options.  I am an online student at GWU and love it.  If you are looking for some education options for yourself or your youth, check this out.

TJED online Blog