Decadent Chicken Pot Pie and Think, Act and EAT locally!

Hi everyone. I will first give you an amazing recipe and THEN tell you about my week. My hope is that you will feel inspired to read it after the prize of the recipe (like donating to a charity after they send you your own personalized address labels).

Decadent Chicken Pot Pie (stolen from Paula Deen):
Ingredients

* 4 sheets frozen puff pastry
* 1 egg, beaten
* 4 chicken breast halves, or 2 cups leftover cooked chicken
* Seasoned salt and pepper
* 2 tablespoons cooking oil
* 1/3 cup butter
* 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 quart heavy cream
* 1/4 cup chicken base (like McCormick brand which has no MSG-basically concentrated chicken flavor)
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 1/2 small yellow onion, minced
* 1 cup frozen green peas, cooked
* 1 cup chopped cooked carrots
* Pinch fresh grated nutmeg, optional

Directions

Special equipment: 4 (2-cup) individual baking dishes
Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut each sheet of frozen puff pastry into 1-inch strips, 8 inches long. On a large cookie sheet, weave strips into a lattice large enough to cover each pot pie. Brush beaten egg onto each lattice square. Bake for 5 minutes, or until dough has risen and turned light golden brown. Set aside until ready to assemble pies. Leave oven on at 350 degrees F.
Filling:

Season chicken with seasoned salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through. Remove from heat and cut into chunks. Alternatively, you may use precooked chicken.

In a large saucepan, melt butter and then slowly add flour, stirring until consistency of peanut butter, but not brown like a roux. Slowly add cream and keep stirring. Add chicken base, garlic, and onion and stir until thickened. Add peas, carrots, nutmeg, if using, and cut up chicken. Remove from heat. Fill 4 individual oven-proof bowls with chicken mixture and then top each with a pre-cooked lattice square. Bake for 5 minutes or until bubbly. Any remaining pie filling may be frozen.

This is an amazingly rich and tasty recipe that is magnificent to look at and exquisitely easy to make.

Now for my foodie/philanthropy/musical week:

Taste of Newark fundraiser benefiting my Board Member friend Wendy Lacey’s Link Community School in Newark: http://www.linkschool.org/
Fantastic food spread at friend Karen Sack’s Volunteer Lawyers For Justice http://www.volunteerlawyersnj.org/ fundraiser
Delectably delicious pot luck at Maggie and Bob’s intimate House concert featuring singer/songwriter, Amy Speace (in photo above) http://www.amyspeace.com/and accompanist, James Mastro-they were truly inspiring. (My pot pie is under the lovely lady with the pony tail on the left). Please support alt artists by hosting a house concert!!!

Yes, food does lure people in but it is also about the charity :-). Live large and give generously!

One more thing for Montclairians: Healthy School Lunch campaign: Elaine Beyless is organizing a letter-writing event which will be at approximately 8:30am on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Anyone who is interested can email her at kidsneedrealfood@verizon.net and she will reply with the details.